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Transcript
UNITA’ 1: LA PRIMA LEZIONE L’Italiano, lingua dell’Arte e della Musica, è entrato nella nostra vita quotidiana in vari modi. Vedrete che, anche senza conoscere la lingua, ci sono molte parole italiane che già conoscete. Cominciamo, però con l’alfabeta. THE ITALIAN ALPHABET AND THE BASICS OF PRONUNCIATION You should note that: a is pronounced as in ‘ah’ e is pronounced as in ‘egg’ i is pronounced like the English letter ‘e’ o is pronounced as in ‘orange’ c is pronounced as in ‘church’ g is pronounced like the English letter ‘j’ In Italian the letters j k w x y do not exist. If you see them in words it means that word is of foreign origin. The Italian letter h is not aspirated. It is used to turn the letter before it into a hard sound. For example: ch makes a sound like the English ‘k’. gh makes a sound like the English ‘g’ in ‘good’. ss substitutes the letter ‘x’ Listen to the tape. Then write down all the Italian words you know. Put them into categories and then try saying them with a proper Italian accent. Use your dictionary to find the Italian translations of the words you want to use. Possible categories are:Sport Arte e Musica Città Trasporto Cibo Bevande Moda Then look at the following English and Italian words and write down any rules you think apply:possible creation confusion ability local violence positive necessary furious possibile creazione confusione abilita’ locale violenza positivo necessario furioso Now that you have identified the rules, see if you can work out the Italian for the following English words: Impossible, invisible, station, television, quantity, identity, musical, natural, difference, intelligence, negative, motive, anniversary, contrary, nervous, famous. Of course, the rules you have discovered do not always apply, but they frequently do and they can often allow you to ‘guess’ an Italian word even without a dictionary. Gender and the use of the article The article the in English must nearly always be used in Italian. The only exception is when referring to close family members. All Italian nouns are either masculine or feminine and any adverbs or adjectives which refer to them should take the appropriate gender ending. Il ragazzo e’ bello la ragazza e’ bella The boy is beautiful (handsome!) The girl is beautiful (or pretty) I ragazzi sono belli Le ragazze sono belle The boys are handsome The girls are pretty The rule, therefore, is: Masculine singular words: the article is ‘il’ and the words end in ‘o’ Feminine singular words: the article is ‘la’ and the words end in ‘a’ Masculine plural words: Feminine plural words: the article is ‘i’ and the words end in ‘i’ the article is ‘le’ and words end in ‘e’ Italian has a strict grammatical structure. In this first lesson we have used one verb: essere – to be. This is an essential, but an irregular, verb, so you will just have to learn it. Because it is irregular, however, it does not provide us with any rule which we can apply to other verbs. Essere conjugates as follows in the present tense:Io sono Tu sei Egli, ella è Noi siamo Voi siete Essi, esse sono I am Thou art He/She is We are You are They are Note: in the plural, use masculine endings unless all the persons referred to are female. Cultural Notes Italians expect to be addressed by their correct professional titles. If they are university graduates they bear the title dottore for a man and dottoressa for a woman ( all university graduates not just medical doctors). In some cases, the correct form of address is very specific. For example: Ingegnier Rossi (Engineer Rossi), Avvocato Bianchi (Lawyer Bianchi). Be very careful about using the internationally known ciao. In Italy this is only used amongst the young, to the young by older people, or with people you know well. You would definitely not use it to someone senior at work (even if they use it to you) or to someone much older! What you would say, as a greeting, is:Buongiorno – Good Morning Buona sera – Good Evening There is no ‘Good Afternoon’. This stems from the Italian habit of taking a siesta after lunch and has persisted even though many Italian companies now work ‘northern’ hours. Buone notte – Goodnight is used only when it’s really time for bed. Resources: Amici, Carole Shepherd and David Aust, Oxford, 2004 Contatti, Mariolina Freeth and Giuliana Checketts, Hodder & Stoughton, first published 1993