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