E tu?

Girl: Ciao, io mi chiamo Emily. Tu come ti chiami?
Boy: Ciao, io mi chiamo Roberto.
Girl: Quanti anni hai, Roberto?
Boy: Ho ventitré anni.
Girl: Di dove sei?
Boy: Io sono di Roma. E tu?
Girl: Sono di New York.
Boy: Sei americana?
Girl: Sì. Sono una studentessa americana.
Boy: Studi italiano qui in Italia?
Girl: Sì. Studio italiano e storia dell’arte qui a Roma. E tu che cosa studi?
Boy: Studio inglese e informatica. Ah! Lavoro anche.
Girl: Lavori?
Boy: Sì, lavoro, ma solo part-time per fortuna.
Girl: Dove lavori?
Boy: Qui, in centro, in Piazza San Calisto.
Girl: Che coincidenza! Io abito in Piazza San Calisto. Allora ci vediamo presto?
Boy: Certamente! A presto Emily.
Girl: A presto Roberto.
Boy: Ciao Emily.

Chiamarsi, essere, and avere

• Io mi chiamo… , Tu ti chiami are fixed expressions and they mean My name is…., Your name is…. You must memorize them. Do not try to translate literally from English.
• Unlike English, io (I) is not capitalized, unless beginning a sentence
• Essere (io sono, tu sei) translates in most cases into the English ‘to be’: Io sono Marco ‘I am Marco’, Tu sei a New York ‘You are in New York‘
• Essere  di + ‘name of a city/town’ indicates a ‘city/town of origin‘ (the city/town someone is from): Tu di dove sei? ‘Where are you from?’, Io sono di Parigi ‘I’m from Paris‘
• Avere (io ho, tu hai) translates in most cases into the English ‘to have‘ and indicates possession¹You will see these uses later. (Ho una bicicletta rossa ‘I have a red bicycle‘), relationship (Hai un fratello? ‘Do you have a  brother?’)
• Unlike English, age is indicated in Italian with the verb avere ‘to have‘ instead of essere ‘to be‘ by the phrase: avere+ ‘number‘ + anni: Ho venti anni ‘I am twenty years old‘, Tu hai diciotto anni ‘You are eighteen years old‘
• Unlike English, tu, like io, can be easily omitted.

Asking and answering a question 
Whereas an English interrogative sentence normally changes the word order of an affirmative sentence (You are Marco. > Are you Marco?, You work. > Do you work? ) or is introduced by the auxiliary ‘do‘, ‘does‘, ‘did‘, ‘can’,’will’, etc., the structure of the sentence does not generally change in Italian but simply acquires a question mark: Tu sei Marco. > Tu sei Marco?; Tu lavori. > Tu lavori?. The subject pronoun can be omitted (Sei Marco?; Lavori?) or placed after the verb only to add emphasis (Sei Marco tu?; Lavori tu?), never to form the question. A question is simply made with a question mark and changing the voice intonation.
In Italian one answers a question exactly as one would in English, with a simple sì ‘yes‘ or no ‘no‘, isolated or accompanied by additional information: Sei Giacomo? – Sì, sono Giacomo (Are you Giacomo? – Yes, I am Giacomo).
If the answer is negative, the word no must be followed by non which then precedes the verb: Sei Giacomo? – No, non sono Giacomo (Are you Giacomo? – No, I am not Giacomo). When a question doesn’t require a simple ‘yes‘ or ‘no‘ answer, but a specification of chi (who), che cosa (what), dove (where) and so on, the answer provides the information with a simple declarative sentence: Chi sei? – Sono Giovanna (Who are you? – I am Giovanna), Dove abiti? – Abito a Firenze (Where do you live? – I live in Florence).

Interrogatives

• chi (who, whom) is invariable and refers exclusively to people: Chi sei? (Who are you?)
• che cosa or cosa (interchangeable) are used to indicate things: Che cosa/Cosa studi? (What do you study?)
• dove (where) Dove  abiti? (Where do you live?). Do not confuse Di dove sei? (Where are you from) with Dove sei? (Where are you?). Di dove means ‘from where‘ while dove means ‘where’: Marco, di dove sei? – Sono di Roma (Marco, where are you from? – I am from Rome)
• perché (why and because) can be used to introduce a question, an answer, or to make a statement, so it is equivalent to ‘why‘ and ‘because‘: Perché abiti a Roma? – Perché sono di Roma e lavoro a Roma (Why do you live in Rome? – Because I am from Rome and I work in Rome)

Prepositions: di, a, in with cities, towns, streets, squares 

• di, combined with essere, indicates the city, town of origin: Io sono di New York ‘I am from New York’, Io sono di Mineola ‘I am from Mineola’
• a indicates the city, town where one is, lives, studies, etc.: Io abito e studio a Firenze ‘I live and studies in Florence’
• in indicates the street, the place, the Country where one is, lives, studies, etc.: Io Lavoro in Piazza Cavour ‘I work in Cavour Street’, Studi italiano qui in Italia? Do you study Italian here in Italy?’

• Repeat the dialogue questions several times. Then use Speech to text to check your pronunciation.
• Work with a partner. Improvise a simple conversation. You can then use Speech to text to check your pronunciation.
• Write a short and simple dialogue between two new friends. Use the Dictionary if you need to find words you don’t know. Then check if there are mistakes in your text with Spell and grammar checker.