LANGUAGE – TIS 2 – March July 4, 2010

Excerpt from “LEARN ITALIAN WITH A NATIVE” – First Lesson – page 9 –

 

TODAY… A GEM OF A PHRASE!!!

PRIMA LEZIONE

INFORMAZIONI, INCONTRI E PRESENTAZIONI,

COME SI DICE, COSA SIGNIFICA,

COME SI SCRIVE, ESPRESSIONI E PAROLE PIÙ USATE

 

INFORMAZIONI

 

Let’s pretend that I am an American tourist in Italy and you are an Italian native.

If I come up to you and ask: “SCUSI, C’È UNA FARMACIA?”… what do you think I might be asking? …Yes, you are right: I am inquiring about a pharmacy. The full translation of the above sentence is: “Excuse me, is there a pharmacy?”

SCUSI  =  excuse me      C’È UNA  =  is there a       FARMACIA  =  pharmacy

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notice how similar in sound and spelling FARMACIA and pharmacy are.

In fact this course emphasizes the similarity between the two languages. About 65% of English words are similar to their Italian counterparts owing to common Latin roots.

Let’s go on asking some questions and I want you to answer yes or no.

“SCUSI, C’È UNA PIZZERIA?”  =  “Excuse me, is there a pizza

                                                                 parlor?”

 

“SÌ, C’È UNA PIZZERIA.”          =   “Yes, there is a pizza parlor.”

SÌ  =  yes             PIZZERIA  =  pizza parlor

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let’s notice something interesting here. Observe that, when I ask the question, I use C’È UNA to

signify is there a.  In the answer C’È UNA reappears, but this time it means there is a.

All this simply means that, in Italian, when we ask a question we do not change the order of the words

(like in English) but we simply raise the intonation of the voice, a little, at the end of a sentence.

So, when you translate from Italian into English, keep that in mind. In any case let me tell you right at the beginning of this course: a good translator does not translate literally word for word; a good translator translates groups of words or groups of ideas.

Let’s continue with our questions and answers.

“SCUSI, C’È UN DOTTORE?”  = “Excuse me, is there a doctor?”

“NO, NON C’È UN DOTTORE.”  = No, there is not a doctor.”

Now that we have the hang of it let’s add two words to our questions: QUI VICINO  =  nearby.

“SCUSI, C’È UN BUON RISTORANTE QUI VICINO?”  =  “Excuse me, is there a good

                                                                                                          restaurant nearby?                                                                                               

 

“SÌ, C’È UN BUON RISTORANTE QUI VICINO.”  =  “Yes, there is a good restaurant nearby.”

 

 

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