Italiano for Beginners - lesson 2
Here we are again, lost in Italy.
So far we have asked to a fellow Italian passenger:
“Dove sono?”
Now if you are lucky, the person will reply in Italian (and by that I mean that he won't use any dialect. In that case, Game over, try another person.
That is not all. You see, we Italians are a sarcastic breed, therefore you'll probably meet the wise guy who answers
"qui"
You'll probably want to punch the guy once I tell you that he said "here". Very useful right?
Now, let's assume we meet a decent person.
"siamo a Roma"
Now, the gentlemen there is a clever man. He told you that both you and the gentleman are in Rome at the time.
"Siamo" specifies the concept of being (just like we saw with "Sono", however you use it for groups of people which include you)
"A", also found in its variant "al" in front of some words, is a preposition that specifies the movement towards something or, as in this case, a location.
I'll show you how this works.. The gentleman takes you to a trip around rome and he tells you the stops.
"Siamo a Roma"
"Siamo al Colosseo"
"Siamo al Pantheon"
But also, he takes you to a bar
"Siamo al bar"
-You then drink too much-
"Siamo ubriachi" (=drunk)
The first examples told you that you were in a place, the last one told you a state of being, so you won't need the preposition of movement in that case.
That is all for this lesson, don’t miss the next one, when the alcohol will make our heroes share their life to each other.
Antonio
