Phrase 001. "I don't speak Italian" - non parlo italiano
Phrase 002. "Do you speak English?" - parla inglese?
Suppose we want to actually try speaking with our Italian hosts in their native tongues though. Undoubtedly, early conversations are going to be very confusing. We want to be able to tell them that. Taking the next phrases from the video in yesterday's post, we have:
Phrase 003. "I don't understand" - non capisco
We might try to be polite about it, and preface this with:
Phrase 004. "Excuse me" - mi scuzi
If we do not want to give up at this juncture, we might ask them:
Phrase 005. "Please repeat" - può ripetere?
Since they put a question mark after this I investigated a bit more using Google Translate. They represent this as "Can you repeat that?" I think we'll go with that.
Phrase 005. "
Well alright, we have 5 phrases that we can use to have a conversation in Italian! Huzzah!
 |
| Source (I wonder if they have Arrested Development in South America? ) |
Let's put these phrases together and have our first Italian conversation.
So we see someone and approach them. They say:
| Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita | |
| mi ritrovai per una selva oscura | |
| ché la diritta via era smarrita. |
Unless we have studied the Divine Comedy in Italian we have no idea what they are saying. So, our response would be:
mi scuzi, non capisco. può ripetere?
(Excuse me, I don't understand. Can you repeat that?)
After replying again in perfect dactylic hexameter we might give up and plead:
non parlo italiano. parla inglese?
(I do not speak Italian. Do you speak English?)
Once we realize we are interrupting a performance of some type, we walk away embraced, but more knowledgeable having had our first conversation... of sorts. The journey continues...
P.S. Not sure if this numbered phrase thing will come in handy, might make a page that is updated and linked to that has them all. Again, not sure if that's useful.
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