03 In autobus (1 Viewer)

[Martin]

In autobus

1. Bonucci: Che[sup](1)[/sup] lungo viaggio! Dove siamo adesso?
2. Buffon: Vicino a Genova.
3. Bonucci: Mister, perché non prendiamo l'autostrada[sup](2)[/sup]? È più veloce!
4. Delneri: Perché non ho il portafogli[sup](3)[/sup]. Non posso pagarla.
5. Aquilani: Ma come possiamo pagare la benzina?
6. Delneri: Zitto tu!
7. Buffon: Alberto, c'è un cavallo accanto alla strada.
8. Aquilani: Che bello!!

On the bus

1. Bonucci: What a long trip! Where are we now?
   [What long trip! Where are now?]
2. Buffon: Close to Genova.
3. Bonucci: Coach, why don't we take the motorway? It's faster!
   [Coach, why not take the-motorway? Is more fast!]
4. Delneri: Because I don't have my wallet. I can't pay for it.
   [Because not have the wallet. Not can pay-it.]
5. Aquilani: But how can we pay for gasoline?
   [But how can pay the gasoline?]
6. Delneri: Shut up!
   [Quiet you!]
7. Buffon: Alberto, there's a horse by the street.
   [Alberto, there-is a horse next to-the street.]
8. Aquilani: It's so pretty!
   [What beautiful!]

Notes

1. The letter "k" is not used, instead this same sound is written as "ch".
2. l'autostrada = la autostrada. "la" before a noun that starts with a vowel (a/e/i/o/u) becomes joined to the noun.
3. portafogli = porta fogli, literally means "carries papers". Many words are made up of two words, for example "buttafuori" ~ "throws-outside", which means "bouncer".

Theory: Verb infinitve + pronoun

We have seen several examples where pronoun is fused to the verb at the end of a sentence:

• Sono contento di rivederti! (rivedere + ti)
• Così è impossibile non vederla. (vedere + la)
• Non posso pagarla. (pagare + la)

 

Buy on AliExpress.com

[Quetzalcoatl]

I knew what horse was from the Anki programme

 

[Martin]

I knew what horse was from the Anki programme

Nice job

 

[AngelaL]

I knew what horse was from the Anki programme

I recognized cavallo - the word for horse is similar to same word in other 'Latin' based languages.

I was expecting someone to say at the end: -

"That's not a horse: - that's Van Nistelroy!"

 

[Quetzalcoatl]

Or Moratti.

 

[swag]

Is portafogli as acceptable as portafoglio as the singular for wallet? That was a new one for me.

 

[Kate]

I knew what horse was from the Anki programme

You have no idea how, as a language teacher, this excites me

 

[Quetzalcoatl]

It's really a cool programme.

 

[Martin]

Is portafogli as acceptable as portafoglio as the singular for wallet? That was a new one for me.

Yes, it's because it's a compound word of which the second component ends in i. There are some cases like this although not that many that you would see it often.

It's that grammar has a certain logic to it, but it has its limits. "portafoglio" would be a relatively sane grammatical "post processing" because to carry one paper still makes sense. But if you take "buttafuori" and turn it into "buttafuorio" singular because "those are the rules" then you've made a poor contribution.

This is where knowing a bit about where words come from and how they are formed helps. As a small side bar, have you noticed how many of the basic Italian words are compounds?

perché = per che
apposta = a posta
piuttosto = più tosto
abbastanza = a + bastare (bastanza is not a word but you can see where it came from)
siccome = sì come
sicché = sì che
pertanto = per tanto
(many more)

Italian is actually very regular here in how it doubles the consonant this way.

 

[swag]

Good explanation. Thanks, Martin. Also interesting how much you use accanto -- I got more in the habit of using in vicino (invicino? ) in the past.

 

[Martin]

Good explanation. Thanks, Martin. Also interesting how much you use accanto -- I got more in the habit of using in vicino (invicino? ) in the past.

"in vicino" I've never heard before, are you sure it's correct? The google test looks rather sketchy too.

 

[blondu]

i just love the way martin expresses the ! mark in the sentence

 

[swag]

"in vicino" I've never heard before, are you sure it's correct? The google test looks rather sketchy too.

Brain fart. I don't know how I interpreted "vicino a" as "in vicino".

 

[GordoDeCentral]

in vicino the old school in vitro

 

[swag]

in vicino the old school in vitro

Throw in in ritardo and you've got me.

Say, so I imagine that you have to separate plurals of portafogli with the definite article ... e.g., il portafogli and i portafogli, yeah?

 

[GordoDeCentral]

always saw it as portafoglio myself

 

[swag]

You know this makes Deschamps portacqua.

Actually, I looked it up in my big-assed Oxford Italian dictionary, and he would be a portatore d'acqua.

 

[GordoDeCentral]

wouldnt marchisio be that too?

 

[swag]

He would be il nuovo portatore d'acqua.

 

[KatieDiFran]

Martin! i imagine you are the one speaking in these clips?
I love your accent!!!!!