This lesson is based on the premise that you basically know how to form the plural of nouns. To help you get caught up, very generally, if a noun ends in "o," it's usually masculine and the plural usually will end in "i." If it ends in "e," the plural will also likely end in "i", and if a singular noun ends in "a," (usually feminine), the plural will most likely end in "e." To learn more, check out Daniela's lessons about plurals here and here.
There are, of course, exceptions to the rule. In two different videos this week, we find unconventional plurals, one of which is well worth knowing, and one that you likely won't run into every day.
In one video, Arianna goes to Lucca. She learns that Lucca still has its ancient walls: le mura. The singular is il muro (the wall).
Le mura hanno tutto un percorso sopra che puoi fare,
The walls have a path on top that you can go on,
Caption 63, In giro per l'Italia - Lucca - Part 1
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To help you remember the name for "wall," in Italian, think of a mural, which is a piece of art, like a painting or enlarged photograph, right on a wall. Or think of "intramural" — within the walls of a school or institution.
Anna and Marika are busy in the kitchen dealing with fish, and more specifically, anchovies. They are pretty small fish, so taking out the guts is a tedious job they gladly leave to the fish vendor.
You might be familiar with the adjective interiore (inside, internal, interior) but there is a noun, le interiora, which means "the guts," "the entrails," or "the internal organs," and is always in the plural: interiora.
Le alici dovranno essere, ehm... senza testa e eviscerate. Quindi bisogna togliere le interiora.
The anchovies should be, ehm... without their heads and gutted. Therefore, one needs to remove the entrails.
Captions 13-15, L'Italia a tavola - Involtini di alici - Part 1
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And let's not forget some other unconventional plurals that work pretty much the same way:
un uovo, due uova (one egg, two eggs)
Prendiamo una forchetta e iniziamo a sbattere le uova...
We take a fork and begin beating the eggs...
Caption 13, Adriano - Pasta alla carbonara - Part 2
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un braccio, due braccia (one arm, two arms)
Ma com'è? E com'è? C'ha due gambe, due braccia, due occhi, come deve essere?
But what's she like? And what's she like? She has two legs, two arms, two eyes. What should she be like?
Captions 13-14, Il Commissario Manara - S2EP3 - Delitto tra le lenzuola - Part 4
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un miglio, due miglia (one mile, two miles)
La Mille Miglia è la corsa più bella del mondo!
The "Mille Miglia" [one thousand miles] is the greatest race in the world!
Caption 33, La Mille Miglia - del passato per vivere quella di oggi - Part 3
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un migliaio di, poche migliaia di (about a thousand, a few thousand)
Il debito era di poche migliaia di euro.
The debt was of a few thousand euros.
Caption 40, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP8 - Morte di un buttero - Part 14
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un paio, due paia (a pair, two pairs)
Ma quattro paia di scarpe vanno bene lo stesso.
But four pairs of shoes are fine, too.
Caption 52, Psicovip - I Visitatori - Ep 14
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This list is not complete, but we'll look at other such nouns in a future lesson.
In a recent lesson we talked about the imperfetto, a simple past tense that has various ways of being translated into English. In this lesson we’ll discuss more ways we can translate the imperfetto.
In this gripping film about people trying to live out their lives in the rundown suburb of Scampia, near Naples, a husband and wife are discussing the difficult situation of being threatened by the Camorra almost daily.
Che dovevo fare? Dovevo accettare?
What should I have done? Should I have accepted?
Caption 19, L'oro di Scampia - film
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It’s good to know that this is not actually correct Italian. Nevertheless, it’s quite common in colloquial speech to skip complicated structures and use the simple past instead. If, as a foreigner, you know how to use the conditional and the subjunctive, it’s never wrong to say things correctly, just in case. At the same time, it’s essential to understand what someone is talking about. The conditional and past subjunctive need more words and take longer to say, and are complex as well, so more and more, in conversation, people take a shortcut and use the imperfetto.
Before reading further, can you put the above questions into correct Italian?
Here’s the answer:
Che avrei dovuto fare? Avrei dovuto accettare?
What’s needed grammatically is the conditional, but the imperfetto has become an acceptable alternative in casual conversation. This marital discussion was not the time to worry about grammar!
Here are two other examples where the imperfetto is used in place of the conditional, which would have been grammatically correct, and in any case necessary in English.
Però me la potevi passare, no?
But you could have passed her to me, no?
Caption 84, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP8 - Morte di un buttero - Part 12
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Sai che potevo fare un viaggio per il Brasile?
You know, I could have gone on a trip to Brazil?
Caption 33, Francesca e Marika - Il verbo potere
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Here are the grammatically correct versions:
Però, me l’avresti potuta passare, no?
Sai che avrei potuto fare un viaggio per il Brasile?
And here’s still another way to translate the imperfetto! The following example is a classic use of the imperfetto in place of a past subjunctive tense, in this case the trapassato congiuntivo. Again, it’s grammatically incorrect, but lots of people use it. The key word is se (if), which can signal a hypothetical situation and consequently the use of the congiuntivo (subjunctive).
Se sapevo che l'era l'ultima volta che lo vedevo...
If I had known that it was the last time I would see him...
Caption 50, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP8 - Morte di un buttero - Part 14
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What makes sentences like this complicated is the presence of se (if) and che (that, what), which both often take the subjunctive and/or the conditional. And there are a good two instances of che!
Here’s the more grammatically correct, but rather complex version:
Se avessi saputo che sarebbe stata l’ultima volta che l’avrei visto...
Mamma mia, it's super complex. Fortunately the imperfetto has become more and more acceptable. For more about the subjunctive and conditional see this lesson.
In a recent episode of Commissario Manara, two short words stick out. The first is to’. It appears to be an abbreviation, and is found in the Collins dictionary, but is missing in many other dictionaries. In fact it’s a very informal, colloquial one-word expression.
Although hard to find in a dictionary, to’ is a good word to know, as we hear it often enough in informal situations. It sounds like an abbreviation for te lo do (I'm giving it to you), but is considered to be an abbreviation for tieni (“hold [it],” or “take [it]”) or prendi (take [this]). It’s used in the act of handing something to somebody. It’s often used together with the original word tieni. Though there is no actual infinitive to identify the verb, to' is expressed as a command, as in "take this," and is only used informally.
It’s like saying “Here!”, “Here you go!” or “Here, take it.”
To’, tieni.
Here, take [it].
Luca’s friend Sergio uses it twice at the beginning of this week’s segment of Commissario Manara. He’s giving Luca some papers to sign.
To', è tutto qui, eh?
Here you go, it's all here. Huh?
Caption 1, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP8 - Morte di un buttero
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Non manca niente. To', servizio a domicilio.
Nothing's missing. Here you go, door to door service.
Captions 3-4, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP8 - Morte di un buttero
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The other short word that we often hear in conversation is boh.
Boh is a way of vocally shrugging your shoulders to say, “I don’t know!” or “I have no idea.” It can also be a quick but significant way of saying you don’t know what’s going on, or that something doesn’t make sense or add up.
Ma non capisco, dovrebbe essere aperto,
But I don't understand. It should be open,
ma non c'è nessuno! Boh!
but nobody's there! It makes no sense!
Captions 18-19, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP7 - Sogni di Vetro
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Pay close attention to how people say to’ and boh, as the o is quite short in duration and finishes quite suddenly. But once you get the hang of this kind of o, you’ll enjoy shrugging your shoulders and saying “Boh!”
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