LearnItalianPod

11. What’s With The Last Name? (5 Minutes A Day)

 March 15th, 2010

• PDF Transcript - Dialogue - Expansion - Glossary - Quiz

Learn Italian with LearnItalianPod.com - Episode #11 of LearnItalianPod “5 Minutes A Day” lesson series is entitled “What’s With The Last Name?”. What’s really interesting about Italian last names is that the vast majority of them were created from a few very specific sources: from a parent’s name, from a job or trade, from a nickname describing a unique quality, or from a location’s name. For this reason, they usually yield some important clues about family heritage.

So, let’s learn some very interesting cultural facts about Italians and let’s find out what those Italian last names really mean! — On the practice section of this lesson, you will also find a thorough grammar explanation of the important “present and past participle of verbs” with lots of extra example sentences.

[How Would You Say It: Weather and Seasons - LearnItalianPod VIP Members Extra Bonus!] Login to the Learning Center to find, as a special extra bonus, a super useful audio file with PDF transcript entitled “How Would You Say It: Weather and Seasons“, a terrific way to test and improve your knowledge of Italian by translating sentences on the fly. Practice this, and weather won’t be an issue in Italy!

5 Minutes A Day - Episode #11

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• Difficulty Level 5 Minutes A Day
• Topics: culture, people
• 6 Comments

21. Goodbye, Luciano (Culture Shot)

 September 23rd, 2007

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Learn how to speak Italian fast and easily! In this episode, Jane and Massimo would like to pay tribute to the late great Luciano Pavarotti. Luciano has represented worldwide the tradition and the art of Italian singing, and has been considered by many “l’ambasciatore della cultura e della musica italiana” (the ambassador of Italian culture and music) all over the world. Goodbye Luciano, e grazie!

Culture Shot - Episode Nr. 21

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• Difficulty Level Culture Shot
• Topics: music, people
• 6 Comments

33. A Visit From A Friend

 April 2nd, 2006

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What’s better than a visit from a friend you haven’t seen in a long time? The only thing is, your friend is from Italy, and only speaks Italian. In today’s lesson, we are going to learn how to conjugate and use a very common verb: “potere” (can).

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• Difficulty Level Beginner
• Topics: meetings, people
• 5 Comments

32. What A Beautiful Morning

 March 27th, 2006

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Giovanna (aka Jane) is definitely a daytime person. She likes early morning best, and the earlier, the better. Massimo, ehm… the opposite. In today’s lesson, we are going to learn and conjugate verbs ending in “ire”, like “dormire” (to sleep) and some useful expression we can use to describe people’s habits. Are you a nighttime or daytime person?

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• Difficulty Level Beginner
• Topics: people
• 9 Comments

5. A Dynamic Girl (Intermediate)

 February 16th, 2006

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“I get by with a little help from my friends”… beautiful song, and very true meaning. Today we are talking about friendships. We do so by describing our friend Valentina, a very dynamic and energetic girl. Let’s learn how to describe people and actions, and how to use the adverbs “mai” (never), “spesso” (often), and “qualche volta” (sometimes).

Intermediate Level - Lesson Nr. 5

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• Difficulty Level Intermediate
• Topics: descriptions, people
• 3 Comments

22. Let’s Meet Mr. Perfect

 January 23rd, 2006

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Do you believe in Mr. Perfect? Jane does. She’s going to tell us everything about her friend Mr. Ricci, a tall, fit, handsome, and nice young fellow. While listening to the story, we are going to learn some useful sentences that we can use in describing someone’s personality.

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• Difficulty Level Beginner
• Topics: descriptions, people
• 7 Comments