Ciao! Mi presento

Print Friendly, PDF & EmailPrintFriendly

Hi! Let me introduce myself

Italians are sociable people who like talking. The first thing you need to know is how to introduce yourself. First of all, smile because you want to appear friendly and easy going. Then tell your name and where you are from: Italians love America.

Listen to the following presentations.

Ciao. Io mi chiamo Marco.
Sono un ragazzo italiano.
Ho venti anni.
Sono di Milano. Io abito e lavoro a Roma.

Ciao. Mi chiamo Maria.
Ho venticinque anni.
Sono una ragazza americana.
Sono di Miami, ma abito e lavoro a New York.

Ciao.
Io mi chiamo Isabelle.
Sono una studentessa inglese.
Ho ventidue anni.
Io sono di Londra, ma studio a Parigi.

 

Ciao. Io mi chiamo John.
Sono uno studente francese.
Ho diciotto anni.
Sono di Parigi.
Abito e studio a Parigi.

As you can see, in Italian, the subject pronoun (io = I, in this case) can be easily omitted. So Io mi chiamo … can be replaced by Mi chiamo …, Io sono … by  Sono …, and so on. Unlike in English io is never capitalized unless it begins a sentence.

Listen to how to pronounce the following Italian words  and phrases (in bold):

  • Io mi chiamo… This is a fixed expression and it means ‘My name is….‘ You must memorize it as it is. Do not try to translate it literally from English
  • Io sono …  is obviously the equivalent of the English ‘I am…‘ and like in English can also be used to say who you are: Io sono Marco ‘I am Marco‘; Io sono Isabelle ‘I am Isabelle‘
  • Ho + ‘number‘ + anni it used in Italian to express the age
  • Sono + di + ‘name of a city or town‘ indicates the city or town of origin and it means ‘I am from + name of a city or town‘
  • Abito ‘I live,‘ studio ‘I study,‘ lavoro ‘I work‘
  • E is the equivalent of the English ‘and‘. It can also be written as ed when the following word starts with a vowel or with the letter ‘h’: Io lavoro e/ed abito a Roma; Mi chiamo Anna e/ed ho 15 anni
Nationalities There aren’t any special rules to create adjectives of nationality. Usually, they come from the same word as the country: Italia > italiano, America > americano, Inghilterra > inglese etc. One exception is for Germania > tedesco. To practice on vocabulary and pronunciation, use Quizlet.

Numbers (0-49)
To practice on vocabulary and pronunciation, use Quizlet.
Numbers (50-99 and above)
To practice on vocabulary and pronunciation, use Quizlet.[Relax and enjoy Numbers 0-20 and Numbers 20-100 with Passione Italiana]
GRAMMAR
Singular adjectives of nationality
  • They end in –o when they refer to singular masculine names (Marco > italiano)
  • They end in -a when they refer to singular feminine nouns (Maria > italiana)
  • Some of them end in -e and they refer to both masculine and feminine nouns (Daniel > francese; Nicole > francese)
  • Unlike English, Italian adjectives of nationality are not capitalized, unless beginning a sentence

Numbers 0-100 and above

  • all numbers are written as one word and are never hyphenated as they are in English: quarantaquattro ‘forty-four‘, cinquantaquattro ‘fifty-four‘, etc.
  • all the numbers are invariable and plural with the exception of uno. Uno follows the same pattern as the indefinite article (see Unità 2)
  • venti, trenta, quaranta, and so on drop the last vowel in front of  uno and otto: ventuno ‘twenty-one‘, trentotto ‘thirty-eight‘, etc.
  • when tre is the last digit of a bigger number, it takes an accent (-tré): ventitré ‘twentythree‘, trentatré ‘thirty-three‘, etc.
  • cento is invariable: cento ‘a hundred‘, duecento ‘two hundred‘, etc.
  • mille ‘a thousand‘ becames -mila: duemila ‘two thousand‘, diecimila ‘ten thousand‘, etc.
  • Italian, unlike English, does not use the indefinite article un (a) with cento and mille

Note: When writing numbers, in Italian the function of periods and commas is reversed. Therefore you write 1.000 (mille) for “one thousand” and 1,5  (uno virgola cinque) for “one point five”.
Tasks 
  • Repeat the four presentations line by line. Use Speech to text to check your pronunciation.
  • Following one of the presentations above as model, write your own self-introduction. Use the Dictionary if you need to find the adjective for your nationality. Then check if there are mistakes in your text with Spell and grammar checker. When done, repeat it several times and memorize it. Finally, use Speech to text to check your pronunciation.
 
Practice

Previous > Pronunciation 4: The stress
Next > E tu?