24. What Time Is It?

January 30th, 2006

Che ore sono?

Can you guess this riddle? You need it to go to a movie, you need it to visit a friend, you need it to read, to sleep, or to study. You need to be on it if you want to catch a train… What is it? Time, of course. Does anybody need more of it?

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 30th, 2006 at 12:18 am and is filed under Beginner. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to "24. What Time Is It?"

RobynS Says:
June 2nd, 2007 at 1:25 pm

I have recently subscribed to your most enjoyable lessons. I’ve been in Italy for two years now and, I’m embarrassed to say, am still a beginner with Italian.

I was confused today when I studied the supplementary vocabulary to find the word ’sone’ written twice instead of what I think should be ’sono’. Is this an error?
ciao

LearnItalianPod.com Says:
June 2nd, 2007 at 10:59 pm

Ciao Robyn - yes it was actually a database glitch in printing out the correct character - it’s working OK now - it is - of course - “io sono”. Thanks a lot for pointing that out!

Alex Says:
December 29th, 2007 at 9:44 am

“Alle undici e un quarto io sono a letto” suggests that the speaker is in bed at 11.15 am. I’m I not correct that the 24 hour clock is used in Italian?

LearnItalianPod.com Says:
December 29th, 2007 at 10:34 am

Alex, in Italy as in most of Europe, time is based on the 24 hour day and not on the 12 hour clock.

But in the “everyday” use of language you’ll never hear the sentence “alle ventitre’ e quindici io sono a letto” - unless it’s very formal. In the sentence “Alle undici e un quarto io sono a letto” it is understood by both speaker and listener that it’s PM.

Another example is: “ceniamo alle sette” (we have dinner at 7:00 PM). Italians would not say, unless is very formal, “ceniamo alle 19″.

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