We've had a request for a lesson about vocabulary in the workplace. It's a great request, and the topic is an important one.
Let's first look at the workplaces themselves. The most basic thing we'll want to say is, "I'm going to work, bye."
There are a couple of different variations on the expression.
Some say Vado al lavoro. This implies you are going to your workplace, where you work.
Be', mamma, io vado al lavoro, ci vediamo stasera.
Well, Mom, I'm going to work. I'll see you tonight.
Caption 11, Il Commissario Manara - S2EP8 - Fuori servizio - Part 13
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Some say vado a lavoro. It means the same thing, but there is no article. It's just a matter of personal preference or regional usage.
Some say: vado a lavorare. It is a general word but tends to be used when the job isn't in an office, but rather in a factory, or some place where the work is manual in nature.
I bambini vanno a scuola e le persone vanno a lavorare.
Children go to school and people go to work.
Captions 39-40, Corso di italiano con Daniela - Orari di apertura e sistema scolastico
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Then we come back from work. The verb is tornare (to return)
E quando mia madre e mio padre sono tornati dal lavoro,
And when my mother and father came home from work,
ci hanno trovato con dei cucchiai
they found us with some spoons
che fingevano i microfoni e noi cantavamo.
which we pretended were microphones, and we would sing.
Captions 19-21, Anna e Marika - ricordi di infanzia
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Similar to English, Italians talk about going to the office. For this, we use the preposition in, not a. They both can mean "to." When coming and going, we don't use the article before ufficio (office).
Allora, ti dico che devi tornare subito in ufficio.
So, I'm telling you that you have to come back to the office right away.
Caption 78, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP9 - Morte in paradiso - Part 8
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Another word that can mean "office" is lo studio. Although uno studio can be a studio for photography, filming, recording, or creating art, and the like, it's also used to mean "office." This often implies a small place and is used for professions such as dentists, doctors, architects, attorneys, graphic designers, etc.
Abita a Matera e ha uno studio grafico in via Bixio.
He lives in Matera and has a graphics studio on Via Bixio.
Caption 35, Imma Tataranni Sostituto procuratore - S1 EP3 I giardini della memoria
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Un momento prima sei al lavoro,
One moment earlier, you're at work,
o nel traffico o a casa tua
or in traffic, or at home,
e un momento dopo
and one moment later,
sei sul letto di uno studio urologico.
you are on the exam table at the urologist's office.
Captions 8-10, La linea verticale - EP1 - Part 2
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La fabbrica is a factory or plant.
Ma Lei lo sa che è stato licenziato dalla fabbrica dove lavorava
But did you know that he was fired from the factory where he worked
perché ha sferrato un pugno al suo capo reparto.
because he punched his department head?
Captions 57-58, Imma Tataranni Sostituto procuratore - S1 EP2 Come piante fra sassi
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Lots of factories are grouped in a part of a city zoned for industry. It's called la zona industriale.
Now let's talk about what to call the people who work in places. The most general term is un lavoratore (a worker). We can see the verb lavorare (to work) and the noun il lavoro (the job). But let's look at some words that are a bit more specific.
When we're talking about a factory-type situation, where workers do manual work, then one word we use is operaio (worker).
In a factory situation, workers generally have one shift or another. This is il turno. We can have il turno di giorno or il turno di notte. Some factories have three shifts or turni. 6:00 AM - 2:00 PM, 2:00 PM - 10:00 PM, and 10:00 PM - 6:00 AM.
Questo è l'altro operaio
This is the other worker
che faceva il turno di notte sabato sera?
who was working the night shift on Saturday night?
Caption 32, Il Commissario Manara - S2EP8 - Fuori servizio - Part 5
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In an office situation, on the other hand, an employee working at a desk or a counter is usually indicated with the generic term, l'impiegato or l'impiegata depending on whether they are male or female. This nomenclature comes from the verb impiegare (to use, to employ).
Sposare voi, un umile
Marry you, [me] a humble,
impiegato morto di fame e sempre squattrinato.
starving employee and always penniless.
Caption 28, Totò e Lia Zoppelli - Romeo e Giulietta
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Il dipendente
Un impiegato is almost surely also un dipendente: someone who works for someone else. Dipendente is even more generic than impiegato. It's more about being paid by someone else.
Lei è Adriano Olivetti?
Are you Adriano Olivetti?
Non mi conosce.
You don't know me.
Sono la figlia di un Suo dipendente, Mario Pagani.
I'm the daughter of one of your employees, Mario Pagani.
Captions 16-17, Adriano Olivetti - La forza di un sogno Ep.2 - Part 26
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L'azienda - la ditta
So if you want to mention how many people work in a company, you use the noun dipendente. The company someone works for may be called un'azienda, (which gives the impression of a large company) or una ditta.
L'azienda è in espansione,
The company is expanding.
ha ormai sedicimila dipendenti.
By now it has sixteen thousand employees.
Caption 38, Adriano Olivetti - La forza di un sogno Ep.2 - Part 3
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E poi vedi di scoprire qualcosa su quest'altra ditta,
And then try to discover something about this other company,
quella che fornisce il latte.
the one that supplies the milk.
Caption 54, Il Commissario Manara - S2EP6 - Sotto tiro - Part 4
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So we have two different nouns — dipendente and impiegato — that are generally translated as "employee," so this can be confusing. Impiegato/a usually describes someone who works at a computer or at a desk or counter. Dipendente is more about the relationship between who pays and who gets paid.
Note that impiegato and dipendente are also adjectives.
In Part 2, we will talk about other roles in a workplace.
There’s an interesting word that is used a lot in the workplace, but not only. Originally, it’s a verb: impiegare (to use, to employ, to spend time), to invest.
But as often happens, the past participle of a verb becomes an adjective and/or noun, in this case: impiegato.
We might use the past participle when we refer to time or energy spent or used for something.
In the following example, Francesca has made a big snowball. Admittedly, it has nothing to do with the workplace, but it has to do with spending time doing something.
Ah, che fatica, amici!
Oh, what a job, friends!
Ho veramente impiegato molto tempo e molta energia
I truly spent a lot of time, and lots of energy
per creare questa enorme palla di neve,
to create this enormous snowball,
che somiglia quasi a una slavina.
which almost resembles an avalanche.
Captions 31-34, Francesca - neve
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Just as we can use the verb “to employ” to mean “to use” or “to hire” in English, Italian uses impiegare in much the same way.
Ho impiegato questo coltello come cacciavite.
I employed this knife as a screwdriver.
When referring to an office situation, we often use impiegato (the past participle of the verb impiegare) as a noun. Un impiegato is an employee or clerk in some kind of office, whereas “employee” in English is a bit more general.
Susanna lavora come impiegata nell’azienda di suo padre.
Susanna works as a clerk/office worker in her father’s company.
Suo fratello invece è operaio.
Her brother is a worker, on the other hand.
The following example is from a Totò comedy film.
Ma un giorno mi farete vostra sposa?
But one day will you make me your bride?
Mia sposa? No, non posso.
My bride? No, I can't.
Come oso?
How dare I
Sposare voi, un umile impiegato morto di fame e sempre squattrinato.
marry you, [me] a humble, starving employee/office worker and always penniless.
Captions 25-28, Totò e Lia Zoppelli - Romeo e Giulietta
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We can also use the noun un impiego (a job, a post, employment). Il Centro per l’impiego is a center for finding employment when you are unemployed. To collect unemployment, you have to go there to prove you are looking for a job.
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When we use the term operaio, it usually implies manual labor, in a factory or on a site, but not in an office, not at a desk.
Questi pettini vengono utilizzati dagli operai
These combs are used by workers
per scuotere le foglie e le olive stesse.
to shake down the leaves and the olives themselves.
Captions 9-10, Olio Extra Vergine Pugliese - Come avviene la raccolta delle olive
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Another word commonly used to mean “employee” is dipendente. It looks like “dependent,” and in fact, it implies that someone works for someone else and is dependent on them for his or her monthly or weekly paycheck. A business may have ten employees: dieci dipendenti. They may have different roles. Some may be operai, some may be impiegati, but they all work for il capo (the boss) and are called dipendenti.
Nel mese di dicembre, chi è lavoratore dipendente,
In the month of December, those that are hired employees,
riceve la cosiddetta tredicesima,
receive the so-called thirteenth,
quindi uno stipendio ulteriore a quegli [sic] presi precedentemente.
that is, a paycheck in addition to the one already received.
Captions 15-16, Anna e Marika - in TG Yabla Italia e Meteo
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In the above example, dipendente is used as an adjective, but it is very often used as a noun: un dipendente, più dipendenti.
Some people have the security of a regular paycheck and a Christmas bonus: la tredicesima, an “extra, thirteenth” paycheck at Christmastime. They are lavoratori dipendenti or dipendenti. Others are lavoratori autonomi (self-employed workers). They have to drum up work, make out invoices, and get paid by their clients.
We’ll talk about the paycheck itself in a future lesson. There is more to a paycheck than just the money you take home.
It’s always handy to know what you are sitting on, so here are some of the basics.
A seat for a single person may be una sedia (a chair). It has four legs, a seat, and a back.
"Per favore, sollevami sulla sedia e fammi sedere accanto a te."
"Please, lift me onto the chair and let me sit next to you."
Caption 1, Ti racconto una fiaba - Il Principe Ranocchio
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The noun la sedia comes from the verb sedere (to sit). The following example is from a movie scene that’s a take-off on the Romeo and Juliet balcony scene, so the Italian is archaic, and some of the words are truncated or modified. The reflexive form of sedere — sedersi — the form generally used to mean “to sit,” is omitted here, and the normal verb sedere is used.
Siedi piuttosto e non avere fretta.
Sit down instead and don't be in a hurry.
Caption 9, Totò e Lia Zoppelli - Romeo e Giulietta
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And here we have another seat for one person: lo sgabello (the stool). Lo sgabello can be low or high, made of wood or another material. It can be used to sit on or to stand on, to reach a high cupboard for example.
Ma dove seder degg'io, se qui sgabel non v'è?
But where do I sit down, when there is no stool here?
Caption 10, Totò e Lia Zoppelli - Romeo e Giulietta
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These days, pianists usually use uno sgabello regolabile (a piano stool that can be raised or lowered), but traditionally, and in homes, the piano has una panca per pianoforte (a piano bench) made of wood to match the piano. As opposed to a sgabello, una panca per pianoforte can fit two people nicely.
Whether we know the definition of a word or not, logic would tell us that panchina is a small panca, because there is a diminutive suffix: ino/ina. In this case, however, we can throw logic out the window because size doesn’t play a role. In fact, panca and panchina basically mean the same thing — a (wooden) seat, often backless, for two or more people — but they’re used in different situations.
In church, we talk about le panche, the pews. Traditionally, these pews would have been backless, but in modern times, church pews usually have backs to them. In some regions, people use the word banco for a church pew.
La panca is usually found indoors, and is generally made of wood. It seats several people around a table. This kind of panca doesn’t usually have a back to it, and is thought of as being rustic.
Una panca can be found in a gym, for doing crunches and weights.
La panca can used to seat people at a performance, usually in a makeshift theater. This may be indoors or outdoors.
"Ah, questa parola non l'hai scandita bene, picchì [perché]
"Ah, you didn't articulate this word well, because
l'ultimo spettatore del, dell'ultima panca
the last spectator on the, on the last bench
ava a sentiri bonu chiddu ca' dici [deve sentire bene quello che dici]".
has to hear what you're saying clearly."
Captions 49-51, Dottor Pitrè - e le sue storie
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If we go out of doors, we start talking about la panchina.
A "park bench," whether it has a back to it or not, is una panchina. The diminutive suffix -ina has become part of the word, so as mentioned above, size doesn’t matter.
In sports, an inactive player sitting in the dugout or on the sidelines is in panchina.
Un panchetto or una panchetta, on the other hand, is a low stool, often, more elegant than a sgabello, and usually used to rest one’s feet upon. Using the masculine or feminine form depends on the region.
In Part Two, we’ll talk about more comfortable places to sit.
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