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Lesson Introduction
New York is famous for its international fleets of cabbies. In today's lesson follow an Italian tourist as he meets a compatriot in a typically Italian situation! In this podcast you'll learn all about describing nationality and surprise.
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billkaulitzlover says
July 10, 2008
Ci sono molti italiani a New York.
user2048 says
July 11, 2008
In the expansion tired is " ho sonno", does "sono stanco" have the same meaning?
auntie68 says
July 11, 2008
Quant'è utile questa parola "quanto"!
How very useful the word "quanto" is!
Did I get that right? Thank you for teaching me this constructions. I feel like I have a new toy!
Sorry to ask a scary question in a newbie lesson, but does "quanto" in this expression have to be inflected"?
Eg. Quanti sono di aiuto gli insegnanti del'ItalianPod.
Thank you so much, ItalianPod. So far, every lesson, regardless of the level, has been packed with useful vocabulary and construction. It's a perfect method of revision for me.
auntie68 says
July 11, 2008
Hi user2048, according to my dictionary:
"sonno" = "sleepy"
and
"stanco" = "tired".
So the meaning is slightly different.
kylep says
July 14, 2008
The person started the conversation in Italian presumably without knowing the cab driver's nationality.
È dire che in New York è meglio iniziare una conversazione con un tassista nell'italiano? :)
Does this mean that you should start conversations with New York cab drivers in italian.
michele says
July 14, 2008
hi Auntie,
I’ve seen your question just now and, like most of yours, it’s an interesting one, I guess it deserves some reply …
Quanti sono di aiuto gli insegnanti del'ItalianPod if it means something like
How helpful ItalianPod’s teachers are
it should be said so
quanto sono d'aiuto gli insegnanti di ItalianPod
and the simple reason is because quanto is referred here to di aiuto and means how. You can see it quite easily if you try to turn the sentence into an interrogative form
di quanto aiuto sono gli insegnanti di ItalianPod?
is it right?
finally, let me try to make another simple sentence using some of your “blocks”, now with the plural quanti, but having a different meaning
Mi chiedo, quanti sono gli insegnanti di ItalianPod?
I’m wondering, how many ItalianPod’s teachers are?
hope this could be helpful to you, and for another couple of… Italianauti too (mi piace davvero molto la tua definizione, la migliore che ho letto finora... you've got my endorsement, definitely!)
ciao, Michele.
P.S. as ever, please, take my English translation as a simple attempt to give the rough meaning, nothing more of course…
auntie68 says
July 14, 2008
@michele: Thank you once again for your clear and complete explanation. Yes, you understood perfectly what I was trying to say ("How helpful the ItalianPod teachers are!"). You are surely the Dean of the Italianautical Academy (ItalianPod)!
Again, thank you.
sheana says
August 2, 2008
If two Italians met outside of Italy, would they actually begin the conversation using the "tu" form?
What if the same situation occurred in Italy? Would they use "tu" or "Lei"?
Thanks!