Lui e lei – Elementary Italian

He and she

Listen to the following presentations.

Lui si chiama Antonio Mariotti
È italiano e ha quaranta anni
Antonio è un professore
Abita e lavora a Roma
Insegna matematica

Lei si chiama Emily Johnson
È americana e ha trentacinque anni
Emily è una professoressa
Abita e lavora a New York
Insegna inglese

Lui / Lui si chiama… This is a fixed expression and it means Her / His name is…. You must memorize it as it is. Do not try to translate literally from English
Come si chiama lui / lei? This is the equivalent of What’s his/ her name. If in English you can also ask ‘Who is he /she?‘ and obtain the name as the answer, the same you can do in Italian.
The word e, as you know, means ‘and‘, but when it is written with an accent (è) it is the equivalent of the English is
Lui / Lei è … is obviously the equivalent of the English She / He is… and like in English can also be used to say who he/she is: Lui è Antonio Mariotti (He is Antonio Mariotti), Lei è Emily Johnson (She is Emily Johnson)
In Italian, the subject pronoun Lui/Lei, can be easily omitted
È+ di + ‘name of a city or town’ indicates the city or town of origin (He/She is from…)
Ha literally means he/she has and it used in Italian to express the age: Ha + ‘number’ + anni.
Abita (He/She lives) and lavora (He/She works), insegna (He/She teaches).
Cosa fa? What does he/she do? It is a generic question you ask what he or she does/is doing.

Nouns Most nouns referring to classes or categories of people have two forms, one masculine, and one feminine. Other have only one form for both, and just the article in front of them (un, una, etc.) clarifies if the noun refers to a male or female.
For practice on vocabulary and pronunciation, use Quizlet.

Note: The words signore and signora are also used for greeting people (see Unità 3). In this case, they are the equivalent of Mr./Sir and Mrs./Madam. They must always be written with a capital S and can be abbreviated Sig./ Sig.ra.

GRAMMAR
Chiamarsi, essere, avere, and regular verbs in -are: lui and lei forms

You already know the forms for io and tu (see Unità 1).

**lui** and **lei** forms
	chiamarsi (to be called)	essere (to be)	avere (to have)
lui/lei	si chiama	è	ha

You already know how to form the verb in -are for io and tu (see Unità 1). To obtain the forms for lui (he) and lei (she) simply drop -are, and add -a.

	lavorare (to work)
lui/lei	lavora

The indefinite articles
The Italian indefinite articles corresponding to the English ‘a’ or ‘an’ are used only with singular nouns. These articles take two forms in both the masculine and feminine because they not only agree with the gender of the noun they precede but also vary depending on the initial letter(s) of that noun:

Masculine	Feminine
uno	una
un	un’

uno is used with masculine nouns beginning with: z (uno zio ‘an uncle’), the group s + consonant (uno studente ‘a student’), the group ps (uno psicologo ‘a psychologist’). It is also used in front of nouns of foreing origin starting with letters that in Italian sound as s + consonant (This is tha case, for example, of the French chauffeur and chef)
un is used with all other masculine nouns: un amico (‘a friend’ m.)
una is used with feminine nouns beginning with consonants: una ragazza (‘a girl’)
un’ is used with feminine nouns beginning with vowels: un’amica (‘a friend’ f.)

NOTE: sometimes the article is the only way to know the gender of a noun: un insegnante indicates a male teacher, while un’insegnante a female one.

Tasks

Repeat the two presentations several times. Use speech to text to check if the computer recognizes your pronunciation.
Following one of the presentations above as a model, introduce two of your professors, then one of your classmates.
Which one is your favorite actor? Which one is your favorite actress? Introduce him, introduce her.

Practice

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