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Lesson Introduction
At this point in the age of technology who hasn't had this experience: your cellphone rings at an inappropriate moment! The horror! The shame! Well Italians love cellphones as much as anyone else, so it should come as no surprise that this situation is a common one. In this podcast learn all about how to talk about a cellphone, and how to express embarrassment (the Italian way)!
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roscovanbasten says
June 10, 2008
What is another way to say "Che brutta figura?"
- Che vergogna???
johnb says
June 10, 2008
Catherine e Marco, che bella figura! This lesson is excellent. :)
catherinem says
June 10, 2008
Intersting question!
There are many ways to say "che brutta figura," some more ...um... polite than others. Let's say the most common and least offensive are:
che figuraccia
che vergogna (what shame)
or, simply, che figura.
adii says
June 10, 2008
Why italian guys voice is so sexy! Oh my Gosh!
lilianamata says
June 11, 2008
Ciao ragazzi!
Some questions!
Che bella figura is not clear, is it to say. I am so smart!
Also in telefonino the "ino" is the diminutive form right so I can also use it as amorino? What other examples can u give me.
marcod says
June 11, 2008
liliana,
fare una bella figura (lit. to make a beautiful figure) could be translated as "to make a good impression".
Basically it is when you do something and everyone in the room goes "OOoohhh, he knows what's up".
-ino is a suffix use to make things smaller or cuter, so yes, you can say "amorino" (I would suggest to use a cheesy and high pitched voice for that;) )
other examples:
- tazza (cup) --> tazzina (small cup)
- tavolo (table) --> tavolino (small table)
- gatto (cat) --> gattino (cute little cat)
michele says
June 11, 2008
Well done!! I like it!
E brava Catherine, e bravo Marco!
Tanti tanti auguri per ItalianPod!
P.S.: Really unforgivable to forget your mobile in your pocket at theater while performing Don Giovanni... Poor Mozart, poor Da Ponte!!
BTW this the full text of the aria of Leporello you can hear in the dialogue:
Madamina, il catalogo è questo
Delle belle che amò il padron mio;
un catalogo egli è che ho fatt'io;
Osservate, leggete con me.
In Italia seicento e quaranta;
In Alemagna duecento e trentuna;
Cento in Francia, in Turchia novantuna;
Ma in Ispagna son già mille e tre.
V'han fra queste contadine,
Cameriere, cittadine,
V'han contesse, baronesse,
Marchesine, principesse.
E v'han donne d'ogni grado,
D'ogni forma, d'ogni età.
Nella bionda egli ha l'usanza
Di lodar la gentilezza,
Nella bruna la costanza,
Nella bianca la dolcezza.
Vuol d'inverno la grassotta,
Vuol d'estate la magrotta;
È la grande maestosa,
La piccina e ognor vezzosa.
Delle vecchie fa conquista
Pel piacer di porle in lista;
Sua passion predominante
È la giovin principiante.
Non si picca - se sia ricca,
Se sia brutta, se sia bella;
Purché porti la gonnella,
Voi sapete quel che fa.
I'm aware this is not newbie stuff, anyhow you can find the English translation and some more information here
billkaulitzlover says
June 11, 2008
" Che brutta figura..., La prossima volta ci vieni da solo!" hahahahaha these dialogues are so funny. :)
marcod says
June 11, 2008
@michele: I'm happy you like our music choice and yes, mobile ringtones destroying Mozart's Don Juan is unforgivable;)!!!
thanks for posting the lyrics of the aria, I also think it's an interesting cultural topic, even for newbies.
Catherine just created a post in the conversations section called Italian Opera where we can talk more about it!!
michele says
June 12, 2008
Liliana, just a couple more words about amorino
yes, you can say amorino, actually I'm afraid it's a perfect "false friend" in Italian, because in its proper meaning is a technical word, referring to a mythological subject in renaissance and baroque painting.
Well, he's a little child... a child with a beautiful pair of wings like this or this ...
karinzaunerbehn says
June 12, 2008
Hi,
I would like to know if these are two women talking together and if yes, why do they say ..... vieni da solo instead of da sola?
Thank you very much.
Karin
lunetta says
June 12, 2008
It does sound like two women speaking in the dialogue but they talk about 'him' in the lesson so I guess it's a mistake.
tommasoshanghai says
June 12, 2008
Maybe it sounds like there are two women speaking in the dialogue but the guy's voice in the dialogue it's my voice and I can assure you that my name is Tommaso, so...No mistakes.
Tommaso
catherinem says
June 12, 2008
Karin,
You're correct - if the conversation had taken place between two women, it would have been vieni da sola. In fact if I want to discuss things that I do alone I say da sola. For example:
Stasera ceno da sola. (Tonight I'm eating dinner alone)
Non voglio andare da sola. (I don't want to go alone).
In the dialogue there is a man and a woman, so the woman says to her companion, "la prossima volta ci vieni da solo."
Lunetta, you'll have to excuse Tommaso, our voice talent and academic developer, his masculine ego has been a bit bruised...
lunetta says
June 12, 2008
Che brutta figura! My apologies to Tommaso. ;-)
mishmish says
June 15, 2008
vocab question- in the vocab section there is a word for last: scorso. In other recent lesson there is another word for last: ultimo.
What is the difference in usage? Are they time markers for when something happened in the past either recently or a while ago?
Thanks,
Michelle
michele says
June 15, 2008
Hi Michelle,
let me give some partial, personal, unofficial suggestion:
scorso comes from the verb scorrere that in Italian means to flow, and it's also used in time expression, quite if the time was a fluid, a river....
so you'll find expression like this:
lo scorrere del tempo (flow of time)
then we tipically use in these :
il mese scorso (last month)
l'anno scorso (last year)
or even
la lezione scorsa (last lesson)
so they're referring to the month, the year, or the lesson whose course has just finished, accomplished.
So I'd say, the attention is on the fact that you're speking of something having a time duration.
In the case of ultimo you're simply saying that something is the last in a sequence of space or time, no matter if they have a duration or not, so you could say:
l'ultima carta (the last playing card)
questo è l'ultimo bicchiere di vino
(this is the last glass of wine)
but also
l'ultima lezione (last lesson)
P.S. Now it must be about 4am or so in China, so, waiting tomorrow, I hope this could help you. In effect in a few hour time in Shanghai will be a new day, then I guess you could ask for some better and more professional reply from the official staff of IP.
auntie68 says
June 15, 2008
Dear michele, just wanted to say (this is my first-ever Italian post, all corrections -- from anybody! -- are welcome):
Ho sempre fiducia negli lezioni "partial, personal, unofficial" che danno i "veterani" come tu (lei? aargh!). Grazie bene per il tuo appoggio simpaticissimo. P/s: Ho scelto la parola "veterani" perché tu mi fa venire al mente l'immagine di una persona che tolga (toglie?) la spoletta della granata con i suoi dente. On the front lines of the Italian grammar wars, it's nice to have covering fire from people like you! Thanks!
And of course, thank you also to Tommaso (I knew you were a guy!), Catherine, and Marco.
catherinem says
June 15, 2008
Michele,
Thanks so much for your detailed discussion of the differences between ultimo and scorso. I think your explanation will be very helpful for our users.
Auntie - nice to see you on ItalianPod!
Question for everyone:
Perhaps you guys would like to describe a brutta figura moment? Maybe bella figura would be better?
michele says
June 17, 2008
You may believe me or not... just a few hours ago, in a little bookshop of my nearest little town, I've seen in the English books section, among a few hundreds of brighty, coloured, shimmering covers, only one little mat one... well, I don't mean to do here any unappropriate publicity, so I will not say the title, nor the writer, but I can't help to share this with you in this lesson...
soumaya says
June 22, 2008
Another very helpful lesson and nice dialgue :)!
You guys are doing a great job!
thx a lot for every one!
mngirl says
July 1, 2008
This was a good lesson. The Italian was very clear and easy to follow and understand. Perfect!
akab says
November 13, 2008
Ciao tutti
Italiano is so easy for me as a turk. Because grammer is like turkish. Actually english was so difficult I'am so eager to learn italiano. Because sounds get me excited
ire_ne says
November 13, 2008
We're glad of it akab.
And actually that's interesting, I didn't know that italian and turkish grammar are similar!
So we hope that u'll keep on studying italian with us ;-)