Lezione 3, Part 1
Buongiorno clase! Il Volo had a great time this past week. It’s always great to come back to New York! We loved our helicopter ride, but were a little scared when they told us Ignazio was flying! As Piero promised, I will introduce the –ire ending verbs.
One type follows the pattern of sentire (to hear) and the other follows the pattern of finire (to finish). The present tense endings are the same for both. However, the difference is that the verbs that follow the pattern of finire add –isc in all forms except for noi & voi (we/you plural).
The endings for present tense regular –ire verbs are as follows:
-o -iamo
-i -ite
-e -ono
Today’s (oggi) verbs!
(I am going to put them all in caps, but they aren’t necessarily captilized…) Also, many verbs can have more than one meaning. You need to pay close attention to the context of the sentences…
SENTIRE – to hear, to listen, to feel
io sento – I feel noi sentiamo – we feel
tu senti – you feel voi sentite – all of you feel
lui/lei sente – he/she feels loro sentono – they feel
APRIRE – to open
apro/apri/apre/apriamo/aprite/aprono
DORMIRE – to sleep (Ignazio likes to dorme!)
dormo/dormi/dorme/dormiamo/dormite/dormono
PARTIRE – to depart, to leave
parto/parti/parte/partiamo/partite/partono
SEGUIRE – to follow (you will often see this on Instagram and Twitter “sigue mi” – follow me!)
seguo/segui/sigue/seguiamo/seguite/seguono
VESTIRE – to dress
vesto/vesti/veste/vestiamo/vestite/vestono
Now for the –ire verbs using –isc. Remember it is used in ALL except noi/voi. It’s a little tricky, as the regular endings for –ire verbs are: o, i, e, iamo, ite, ono. For the –isc verbs they are:
-isco -iamo
-isci -ite
-isce -iscono
NB (note bene – note well!): Remember in your pronunciation of these verbs with the added “sce” endings – The letters “sc” before e or i (also a) – sound like English “sh” sound – as in Nasce (from Grande Amore)
FINIRE – to finish
finisco/finisci/finisce/finiamo/finite/finiscono
CAPIRE – to understand (I think we’ve all heard the “capisce!? – you understand!?” in many movies, etc.)
capisco/capisci/capisce/capiamo/capite/capiscono
PREFIRIRE – to prefir
Prefirisco/prefirisci/prefirisce/prefiriamo/prefirite/prefiriscono
There are a few other –isc verbs, but we will not touch on them right now.
As bella as our songs are, we cannot walk around speaking in canzone all day! So here are some molto importante parole!
molto – very
bene – well, good
buon/buona – good
importante – important
parole – words (Grande Amore)
canzone – song (Canzone per Te)
Greetings/Goodbyes:
ciao – hello/goodbye (Ciao, Ciao Bambina)
arrivederci – goodbye (Vacanze Romane)
buongiorno – good morning/good afternoon
buonanotte – goodnight
salve – hello/goodbye
buon pomeriggio – good afternoon
mi chiamo Gianluca – my name is Gianluca
a domani – until tomorrow
a preso – see you soon
grazie – thank you
prego – you’re welcome
ragazza/ragazzi – girl/boy ragazzi – boys/guys (“uncle Bruno” says this a lot to our guys…)
bello/bella – beautiful (ending will change depending on whether noun is masculine or feminine)
casa – house
lingua – language
mamma – mother
padre – father
nonna/nonno – grandma/grandpa
fiore – flower (Canzone per Te)
classe – class
lezione – lesson
difficile – difficult
mare – sea
notte – night
amica/amico – female/male friend (not to be confused with “girlfriend/boyfriend”) (Romantica)
amici – “all” friends
sì – yes è – is
no – no me/mi – me
parlare – to speak
studiare – to study
Some phrases using “buon” –
che buono – this is nice
buon compleanno – happy birthday (although they “sing” tanti aguri…which is more like best wishes)
buon divertimento – have a nice time
buona fortuna – good luck
buon viaggio – have a good trip
Now a few important sentences!
L’Italiano è una lingua bella ma difficile. Italian is a beautiful language but difficult.
Studio l’Italiano. I study Italian.
Parlo l’Italiano. I speak Italian.
NB: The Italian language has a “backwards” accent on their words. The reason some words have accents over certain letters is that it means that the word means something different without the accent. We will go over that next time in Part 2.
Other Notes: you will notice that many of the verbs are very similar to English verbs, so they should be easy to remember. I have also skipped a little grammar here and there. Ignazio will lead you in more grammar on Lezione 4. As well as a little review! We will go over some irregular verbs in Part 2.
Ciao, clase!
Gianluca
I didn’t quite get all of that! What I need is a personal lesson…say inTexas, and feel free to bring you two friends! Just kidding…I know that would be I’m possible! But, I am learning a little!!
Thanks for the lesson. My tongue gets wrapped around the words. I,m hopeless. Unlike in the song that says ” I am not a hopeless case”. I am. Joanie G
Do not despair Joan! Languages do not come easy for everyone and doing things just in an email, is not the easiest either! I will try to find more things online for you to click on during the lessons! You are not a hopeless case and it is a Beautiful Day! Except it was snowing here a little while ago and yesterday we had a rainbow!
Good lesson. For some reason I got more out of this lesson. Able to understand more words as they were more familiar I guess after trying to understand so many of their posts on FB, some words in this lesson have been used repeatedly in interviews, etc.. But, I still think I would benefit from having all 3 or any one of the three as my personal interpreter. 🙂 (Just dreaming) 🙂
Thanks for the lesson Gianluca. Lezione e difficile. No parlo Italiano. Grazie. Buon pomeriggio.
Jana, will there be a test? Cause I’m gonna have to sit beside someone. Not Dot or Joanie.
Bene, bene! Parli Italiano presto! Buonanotte! Ignazio is next…
Yes, there will be a test of some kind, but that will be after lezione 3 and the review.
Someone help.. This word is on a pizza ad. I looked it up but couldn’t find anything. The ire ending is there for a verb, I think. The word is, dimitrie??? Help Jana Joanie G
Joanie – not sure what other words were in the pizza ad, but all I am coming up with is the name Dimitri and that it is Russian or Greek? I’m not sure where you are referring to the -ire ending? As you have it spelled -trie? So, not sure…. is there someone you can ask that has this ad? Is it a store or a commercial? In Grande Amore, in the refrain, they say “dimme” that actually translates into “tell me.” However, that is considered a command and sort of from the verb “direr” but that is an irregular verb and I have not gotten to those yet.
Thanks for taking the time to put this lesson together. I need a magic carpet to transport me to Italy without a dictionary and made to cope. That is how I learned English and German. I am trying to remember exactly how I did it in the beginning but I believe that being 79 is putting a block against present success. I am keeping all the wordsyou give in my “Il Volo” Italian Lesson Book and trying to make sentences on my own. Thank again for pushing us to learn.
That’s great! I wanted to give you some more vocabulary and verbs before I tried to have you making sentences, but that is good you are trying on your own. I am trying to remember myself what it was like learning Spanish over 30 years ago myself! I’m actually amazed at how much I still can remember. So many of the Italian verbs are almost identical to the Spanish, with just an e added to the end. I have to be careful when I type out the conjugations, that I don’t put the Spanish!