Coffee Break Italian Season 1, Lesson 2 Lesson notes Introduction Benvenuti a Coffee Break Italian - welcome to the lesson notes for the second episode of Coffee Break Italian! In these lesson notes we ll be listing all the words and phrases covered in each lesson. The lesson notes also include material linked to the Review episode. y Review 1 This lesson begins with a review of the words covered in Lesson 1. ciao hello, hi ciao bye, goodbye (informal) come stai? how are you? sto bene I m (feeling) well Coffee Break Italian, Season 1, Lesson 2 - Notes page 1 of 11
sto male I m (feeling) bad K Lesson notes Greetings for different times of the day In this lesson we re learning the words and phrases used to greet people at different times of the day. buongiorno good morning, good day The word for a day is un giorno. Like in many languages, Italian nouns have gender: each noun is either masculine or feminine. We have something similar in English: the word actress is used for a female person who works in film or on the stage, and an actor is the male equivalent. Likewise we know that a hen is a female chicken and a rooster is the male equivalent. In Italian, all nouns have gender so, for example, the word for book is masculine - un libro - and the word for house is feminine: una casa. We ll see lots more examples of masculine and feminine words as we progress through the course. buonasera good evening Coffee Break Italian, Season 1, Lesson 2 - Notes page 2 of 11
The word sera is feminine, so the masculine form buon which is used for giorno becomes buona. The word for night is also feminine: una notte. So, to say good night, we use buona again: buonanotte good night There is a word for afternoon in Italian. It s pomeriggio, and you may hear buon pomeriggio, meaning good afternoon. However, it s less common: you re more likely to hear buongiorno or buonasera, depending on the time of day. Please note that you may also see buongiorno, buonasera and buonanotte written as separate words: buongiorno / buon giorno good morning, good day buonasera / buona sera good evening buonanotte / buona notte good night Introducing yourself and saying your name To say my name is you use the following phrase: mi chiamo my name is Coffee Break Italian, Season 1, Lesson 2 - Notes page 3 of 11
Literally this means I call myself. Similarly, we can ask, how do you call yourself?, or in better English, what is your name? come ti chiami? what is your name? Pay particular attention to the endings of the words chiamo and chiami. You ll notice that verbs change their endings depending on who they refer to. Let s put these phrases into a conversation. Mark: Katie: Mark: Come ti chiami? Mi chiamo Katie. Come ti chiami? Mi chiamo Mark. Informal and formal forms of you In Italian you need to change how you address people depending on how well you know them. Just as in many other languages, there are different forms for the word you. This also applies to verbs, so we need to learn an informal and formal version of each question. The informal version would be used in situations where you re talking to a child, or you know the person. The formal version is used for situations where you don t know the person you re addressing. Using the formal form So far we ve learned the informal form of what is your name? : Coffee Break Italian, Season 1, Lesson 2 - Notes page 4 of 11
come ti chiami? what is your name? (informal) To say what is your name? in the formal form, you need to change this phrase to: come si chiama? what is your name? (formal) Likewise, we have already learned how to ask how are you? come stai? how are you? (informal) There is a formal form of this question too: come sta? how are you? (formal) An alternative to mi chiamo Katie points out that it s possible to say I am or I m as an alternative to My name is or I m called in English. This also works in Italian: sono I am We ve actually already come across this word in the phrase sono stanco/a which was part of the bonus vocabulary in Lesson 1. Coffee Break Italian, Season 1, Lesson 2 - Notes page 5 of 11
It s time to put the words and phrases from this lesson to the test in two conversations. The first conversation is an informal situation where two people, Giorgio and Laura, meet each other at a party. The second conversation is more formal where Alessandra Pieroni and Giacomo Moretti meet each other at a business networking event. b Conversation 1 Giorgio: Laura: Giorgio: Laura: Giorgio: Laura: Ciao. Ciao. Come stai? Sto bene. E tu? Anch io sto bene. Come ti chiami? Mi chiamo Giorgio. Piacere. Io mi chiamo Laura. This conversation introduces some new words: anch io me too, also I piacere pleasure, it s a pleasure, nice to meet you io mi chiamo I m called Note that mi chiamo means I m called or my name is. In the final phrase of this conversation, Laura says io mi chiamo and here the word io is used to stress the I : you re called Giorgio, but I am called Laura. Coffee Break Italian, Season 1, Lesson 2 - Notes page 6 of 11
b Conversation 2 A Pieroni: G Moretti: A Pieroni: G Moretti: A Pieroni: G Moretti: A Pieroni: G Moretti: Buongiorno. Buongiorno. Come sta? Sto molto bene. E Lei, come sta? Sto benissimo. Come si chiama? Sono Alessandra Pieroni. E Lei? Come si chiama? Mi chiamo Giacomo Moretti. Piacere. Piacere mio. This conversation introduces the following new words: e Lei and you? (formal) This is the formal form of e tu? piacere mio my pleasure, the pleasure is mine Coffee Break Italian, Season 1, Lesson 2 - Notes page 7 of 11
y Review 2 This lesson begins with a review of the words covered in Lesson 1. buongiorno good morning, good day buonasera good evening buonanotte good night buon pomeriggio good afternoon (less used) come ti chiami? what is your name? (informal) come si chiama? what is your name? (formal) mi chiamo I m called / My name is piacere pleased to meet you Saying goodbye We already know that we can say ciao or ciao ciao for goodbye or bye. The normal way to say goodbye is: arrivederci goodbye Coffee Break Italian, Season 1, Lesson 2 - Notes page 8 of 11
R Lesson 2 Review The script of the opening section of the Review episode is as follows: Mark: Francesca: Mark: Buongiorno a tutti e benvenuti a Coffee Break Italian. Mi chiamo Mark. Sono Francesca. E siamo molto contenti di essere qua con voi. a tutti to you all, to everyone benvenuti welcome siamo molto contenti di essere qua we are very happy to be here con voi with you The bonus episode includes some additional vocabulary and a translation challenge. buongiorno good morning, good day buonasera good evening buonanotte good night Coffee Break Italian, Season 1, Lesson 2 - Notes page 9 of 11
It s also possible to wish someone have a good evening or have a good day. The expressions change slightly: buona serata have a good evening buona giornata have a good day buon fine settimana have a good weekend buone vacanze have a good holiday a dopo see you later a domani see you tomorrow a presto see you soon Coffee Break Italian, Season 1, Lesson 2 - Notes page 10 of 11
V Translation test 1. Good morning. How are you today? 2. I m very well. How are you? (formal) 3. My name is Giovanni. What is your name? (informal) 4. I m Mario Franchetti. What is your name? (formal) 5. Good bye, Laura. Have a good evening. Answers 1. Buongiorno. Come stai oggi? 2. Sto molto bene / benissimo. Come sta? 3. Mi chiamo Giovanni. Come ti chiami? 4. Sono Mario Franchetti. Come si chiama? 5. Arrivederci, Laura. Buona serata. Gtu Join in! Head over to http://coffeebreakitalian.com to find out how you can join in and practise your Italian with the Coffee Break Italian learning community. Coffee Break Italian http://coffeebreakitalian.com Copyright Radio Lingua Ltd 2015 Coffee Break Italian, Season 1, Lesson 2 - Notes page 11 of 11