Lesson4 page 1 Interactive Italian Language Course for the Web Copyright 1997, 1998, 1999 Fabio Girelli-Carasi

IL LAVORO (work)
Leonardo	Michelangelo	Leonardo:	"Tu che cosa fai?"
		Michelangelo:	" Io faccio il pittore, lo scultore e l'architetto. E tu che cosa fai? (painter, sculptor, architect)
		Leonardo:	"Anch'io faccio il pittore, lo scultore e l'architetto. Ma io faccio anche l'inventore." (inventor)

Listen to the soundfiles and rewrite the dialogue in the boxes below

Michelangelo:

Leonardo:

Colombo	Dante	Colombo:	"Tu che lavoro fai?"
		Dante:	" Io faccio il poeta e lo scrittore. E tu che cosa fai? (poet, writer)
		Colombo:	"Io faccio il marinaio, il navigatore e l'esploratore." (sailor, navigator, explorer)

Listen to the soundfiles and rewrite the dialogue in the boxes below

Colombo:

Dante:

VERBO FARE (to do, to make)

Io faccio
Tu fai
Lui fa

Idiomatic expressions

In the appropriate context, to indicate someone's profession, you can use the verb FARE followed by the DEFINITE ARTICLE (see below) and the profession:

Che cosa fa Michelangelo?
(What does he do?)

Michelangelo fa l'architetto.

In different contextes, "che cosa fa" simpy means "what is he/she doing?"

Come si dice
"what are you doing?"

ESERCIZIO:

Without looking at the examples above, try listening to the sound files and type what you hear in the boxes provided. Use the Realplayer files for faster downloading.

BELLO		BRUTTO
importante (important)		insignificante (meaningless)
creativo (creativo)		ripetitivo (repetitious)
di responsabilita' (full of responsibilities)		frustrante (frustrating)
interessante (interesting)		noioso (boring)
una sfida continua (a continuous challenge)		faticoso (tiresome)
di soddisfazione (satisfying)		deprimente (depressing)
ben pagato (well remunerated)		mal pagato (poorly remunerated)

difficile (difficult)		facile (easy)

DEFINITE ARTICLES
(The)

You probably guessed that you would find different forms of the definite article for the masculine and feminine (in English the only one is "the".) You are right, of course, but in addition to that, you probably already also realized that there is more than one form for the masculine.

MASCULINE

lo scrittore
l' architetto
il marinaio

(by the way, "poeta" is masculine even though it ends with "a")

LO is used in front of masculine nouns or adjectives that begin with the letter "S" followed by another consonant (such as sc-, sp-, st-, sr-, etc.). It also goes before nouns that begin with "Z".

L' (which is the abbreviated form of "lo") is used in front of masculine nouns and adjectives beginning with a vowel.

IL, the most common, is used in all the other cases, namely, nouns and adjectives that begin with a consonant.

FEMININE

LA is used with feminine nouns and adjectives that begin with a consonant.

la cameriera

L' (which is the abbreviated form of "la") is used in front of feminine nouns and adjectives beginning with a vowel.

l' impiegata

CHE COSA FA LEI? LEI STUDIA

When asked what he/she does, a student will answer simply:

Io studio, which literally means: I study.

To indicate what kind of school, you would say:

io faccio il liceo (high school),
io faccio l'universita' (college)

To indicate the major in college (specialization):

io faccio italiano
io faccio matematica
io faccio filosofia

NOTA LINGUISTICA

Some professions have one form for the masculine and a different one for the feminine.

CAMERIERE (waiter) and CAMERIERA (waitress)
DOTTORE and DOTTORESSA
PROFESSORE and PROFESSORESSA
ATTORE (actor) and ATTRICE (actress)

In several other cases only one form is used.

But Italian is undergoing fast changes: the tendency is to do away with the feminine form and to use only the masculine. Thus, DOTTORE, for instance, is frequently used both for male and female doctors.

The same thing is happening with AVVOCATO and AVVOCATESSA (lawyer) , PRESIDENTE and PRESIDENTESSA. The feminine tends to disappear and only AVVOCATO and PRESIDENTE are used.

If I were you, I wouldn't go crazy trying to remember which words change in the feminine and which ones don't. It isn't worth it. Even if you say "avvocata" or "cameriero" everybody will understand.

CHE COSA FA ? Che lavoro fa? Listen to the soundfile and write your answer in the box
il medico (o la dottoressa)	il medico (o il dottore)	l'impiegata	l'impiegato

l'operaio	la cameriera	il cameriere	l'insegnante

Il lavoro del cameriere e'
Il lavoro della dottoressa e'
Il lavoro dell'impiegato e'
Il lavoro dello scrittore e'
Il lavoro del pittore e'
Il lavoro dell'insegnante e'

Lei fa l'insegnante	Lui fa l'insegnante
Lei insegna matematica	Lui insegna fisica