Ciao, clase!
Mi dispiace (I am sorry) it has been a few extra days, but the jet lag got to me more than usual! Madrid was bella, but it is always nice to be back in Italy. I also 
penso (think) you may have needed a few extra days from the last lezione, as there was a lot to cover…
Today I will introduce some irregular verbs, as well as the accent! And I don’t mean my Italian to English accent, either! Ha, ha!
Let’s start with the accent! Here are some words that have some very different meanings if you don’t add the accent:
a – at, to à – has
da – from dà– gives
di – of dì– day
do – a musical note (where have we heard this before? Lol!) dò– I give
e – and è– is
la – the (fem.) là– there
li – them lì– there
se – if sì– oneself
si – reflexive pronoun sÌ– yes
Now, a little review on the verb endings for –are, -ere, and –ire verbs:
Verbs ending in –are: -o, -i, –a, -iamo, -ate, –ano
Verbs ending in –ere: -o, -i, -e, -iamo, -ete, –ono
Verbs ending in –ire: -o, -i, -e, -iamo, -ite, –ono
Notice how close the endings are for all of the verbs, just in the he/she & they ending of the –are verbs and the you plural form are they different! To make a verb considered irregular, it means to have an ending different than what is considered the normal or expected ending, or if the main part of the “word of the verb” changes, (which is what is before the –are/ire/ere endings). Remember when Piero was going over the verb STARE and we noticed that the “they” form had (2) two “ns” in it? Just that one form ending change, makes a verb considered irregular. If you recall, STARE means “to be.” It also means “to stay.”
Fortuna for us, Italian only has 4 irregular –are verbs, one being stare. Most of the endings are the same for the irregular verbs as they are for the regular verbs, but notice how some add accents to them as well. Like in the words above do’ and da’ from the verb DARE – to give. Also note that all of the “loro” endings add the (2) ns in that form.
andare – to go
io vado noi andiamo (yes, like the Michigan restaurant, who knew?)
tu vai voi andate
lio/lei va loro vanno
fare – to do, or to make
io facco noi facciamo
tu fai voi fate
lue/lei fa loro fanno
dare – to give
io do’ noi diamo
tu dai voi date
lui/lei da’ loro danno
stare – to be, or to stay (you will note that it is the same conjugation, but want to reiterate it again)
io sto noi stiamo
tu stai voi state
lui/lei sta loro stanno
I have created this word search with 20 of the verbs you have learned so far. I know, doesn’t seem like that many!? I will list them below. For your first extra credit – define all of the verbs. For your second extra credit, I have also hidden a word or two from the titles of the songs from the Sanremo CD. See if you can find the 7 extra words. For your third extra credit, the remaining letters that are not used in the word search, spell out a phrase. See if you can guess it. Happy Hunting!
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Your clue: “a great prophecy…”
| V | E | E | R | I | R | E | F | E | R | P | E | O |
| E | N | O | Z | N | A | C | C | I | A | O | R | P |
| S | A | P | A | R | L | A | R | E | S | W | E | E |
| T | M | E | M | E | E | A | N | S | T | O | D | N |
| I | O | G | O | I | V | R | Z | T | A | R | U | S |
| R | R | U | R | S | I | I | A | U | R | O | I | A |
| E | C | R | E | D | E | R | E | D | E | M | H | R |
| R | A | P | N | B | A | M | B | I | N | A | C | E |
| A | M | F | R | N | O | E | R | A | D | N | A | R |
| R | B | E | A | I | V | N | U | R | O | T | R | I |
| I | I | R | A | R | I | I | I | E | R | I | O | T |
| P | A | I | I | R | E | G | V | C | M | C | C | N |
| S | R | P | O | R | T | I | R | E | I | A | N | E |
| E | E | A | G | R | A | N | D | E | R | L | A | S |
| R | I | C | O | R | D | A | R | E | E | E | A | O |
| amore | credere | pensare | sentire | |||||||||
| andare | dare | portire | stare | |||||||||
| cambiare | dormire | preferire | studiare | |||||||||
| capire | fare | respirare | vestire | |||||||||
| chiudere | parlare | ricordare | vivere | |||||||||
HOMEWORK: For your homework, you are to watch “Houseboat” with Cary Grant and Sophia Loren. You can find it on Netflix if you have it. If you don’t, you can get a free month’s trial. See how many Italian words you can pick up from Sophia!
Buonanotte,
Gianluca!
Wonderful lesson…a lot in it! Hope I pass my test!! 🙂
I’m sure you will do fine! I’m making it “open computer!” Lol!
Open computer, open dizionario and open text book!
Si’ ! Sorry, can’t make the “backwards” accent… I remember this one org beh class I had in college and we had an individual test and then a group test score, trying to prove that “more heads” would produce a better test score. I ALMOST proved them wrong with my test score, only scoring a few points less than our group total! Lol! But yes, as they say, the sum of its parts is greater than the whole. Or however that goes! 🙂 But I believe it’s been proven time and again, that most people learn better in groups, and comparing notes, and collaborating!
I always heard that English was a difficult language, but now It has meet it,s challenge. I keep trying. Thanks Jana Joanie G
I’m so glad I still have a few of you with me!! thanks!
maryjane, will you sit by me? This is difficult. Jana, ask the Italians not to use those accent marks. Thanks
Oddly, most of the Latin based languages have accents, however Italian is a bit backwards! Lol! Yes, I encourage group homework! Group tests, too! 🙂
I would LOVE to sit by you, Marie…but I have a feeling our teacher would split us up quite quickly!! 🙂 She would think we were cheating, but we really wouldn’t be, now would we! 🙂
you can work together on the word/verb search! 🙂
I’m afraid this lesson and the others are giving me a lot of trouble. I think I need to have a three on 1 lesson from you know who. Please send Gianluca, Piero, and Ignazio by express. Then maybe I’ll be able to solve your puzzle. That is if I even think of it when they arrive.
I guess you will just have to tell them when they come back that you need some extra tutoring… 🙂 My puzzle shouldn’t be too hard?
What I don’t understand Jana is how are we supposed to pronounce the accents or am I missing something or maybe I didn’t understand the previous lessons which wouldn’t surprise me. Thanks for your help.
The daughter of my new daughter-in-law just married an Italian from the north of Italy & I wanted to surprise him with a few words of Italian at the next family get together hoping it wouldn’t make for too much laughter.
You are correct, I didn’t really go over pronunciation of the accents, although hard to describe in words… my description would be to start speaking and the slam on the brakes! Lol! They describe it in the book to keep your vowel sounds short and clear. So if you wanted to say “yes” in Italian, don’t be slow and langorous and say “si…..” like you are getting some Zzzzzs…. You want to say Si’ !!. and just slam on those vowel sound brakes! Of course, often like some English words, you kind of go by the context of the sentence. Like some of our words – to, too, two, etc.
Hope this helps!!!
sorry, should be “then” slam on the brakes! 🙂
Ok, I am waiting for the first person to come up with the correct phrase with the leftover letters from the puzzle!!
Wow Jana are you ever sneaky. That was well thought out & hard until I had to look every which way to find the letters I was looking for. I did not mark all the letters I used so I am going to guess what the philosophy answer is
Forest Gump said Life is like a box of chocolates you never know what you are going to get.
Oh also I only found 2 songs but found the 20 words I figure I got 2 crerdits
Yes, it was a bit of a challenge for me! To be honest, it wasn’t as planned as you might think though! 🙂 I will post the answers in the next lesson, but sorry, no, it’s not the Forest Gump quote!