CBI Mag 1.01 | La Bocca della Verità

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Coffee Break Italian Magazine, Season 1, Episode 1.

Tutti bentornati. Siamo tornati. Come stai Francesca? Ciao!

Ah Marco sta benissimo, grazie tu?

Benissimo, è molto lieto di essere qua, ancora una volta.

anche io ovviamente

Nello studio per fare un progetto nuovo.

Я очень рада для этого нового проекта.

Let's explain to our listeners a little bit about what is involved. in this new project. There are three segments. First of all, we're going to be looking at a a text, and this text will have something to do with Italian culture. Francesca, can you give us some examples of the type of things that we might be looking at?

Well, it could be a variety of different topics ranging from food, tourism, sports, cinema, famous Italians. That was good.

This will include a text in Italian and then we'll talk about the language in that text. We'll go through the text in more detail. Then the second part of our show involves our listeners.

See

Because this is where you can ask a question and we will answer your question. That could be a grammar question, it could be something to do with the studying of Italian or some advice that you're looking for and we're delighted to have some uh r uh questions already to to answer. And of course we're looking forward to hearing more questions from our listeners. And then the third part, tell us a little about the third part of the show.

The third part is like uh the cherry on the cake.

I like that.

La ciliegina sulla torta. And we are going to give our listeners uh uh something very short but interesting and easy to remember. like idiomatic expressions or proverbs, sayings. So something very short but a nice addition.

Something nice to finish off the show. Allora se promenta.

Sono prontissima e piena di energia.

Perfetto, allora... Dunque, come va tutto? Tutto bene?

Sì, tutto bene, grazie. Dimmi, Mark.

un poco indiscreta

Oh mamma mia, adesso sono preoccupata.

Allora, prima sono passato d'efficio.

See?

E sulla tua scrivania ho visto dei cioccolatini. Penso che dobbiamo spiegare ai nostri ascoltatori che Francesca ha deciso di non mangiare dolci per tutto il mese.

No, io giuro, Marco, che non ho mangiato niente di dolce.

quei cioccolatini

No, allora sai Marco cosa facciamo? Andiamo a Roma e vediamo cosa dice la bocca della verità.

So as we've explained, this first section is focusing on a text and this text we're going to hear read out by Francesca. Francesca, can you read us our text, which of course is about La Bocca de la Verita?

Okay. Quando progettiamo un viaggio a Roma, nella lista dei luoghi da visitare, di solito non manca mai la famosa bocca della verità. Uno dei simboli storici della città eterna, reso famoso dal film Vacanze romane con Audrey Ebburn e Gregory Peck. Ma che cos'è la bocca della verità? Se chiudete gli occhi, probabilmente potete visualizzare tutti l'enorme volto di un uomo barbuto che si trova fuori dalla chiesa di Santa Maria Cosmedina a Roma.

I remember my very first visit to the Bocca de la Verita. I was eight years old and we had uh travelled to Italy and driven driven to Italy.

From Scott?

From Scotland, yeah. Wow. With the caravan behind us and uh all the way to Italy. And we were staying with my my relatives in in Tuscany.

Okay. Um

But then we also took a few days to go down to Rome. So we went down to Rome, stayed in Ostia, in a campsite in Ostia. Wow!

Mm-hmm.

And then we went into Rome and I remember clearly going to visit the the Boca de la Verita and I was so scared to put my hand into it'cause I really did think it was going to bite me.

oh che carino il piccolo Marco

I'm sure there's probably a photo will need to ask Signora Gloria if there's a photo somewhere.

Sì, signora Gloria, inizio a cercare.

Okay, so what we're gonna do with this text now is go back through it and we'll talk about the language contained in it. Obviously that was lots of Italian to listen to for our for our listeners and uh it was almost three minutes worth of of quite tricky Italian. So let's go back through it and talk about the language.

Va bene, ok, cominciamo. Ok. Allora, quando progettiamo un viaggio a Roma?

Okay, so when we plan, progettare to plan, quando progettiamo un viaggio a Roma, when we plan a journey to Rome.

Nella lista dei luoghi da visitare

In the list of places to visit, remember the da plus infinitive is a really useful expression or molto da fare. I've got lots to do, so nel lista de luoghi da visitari in the list of places to visit.

Di solito non manca mai la famosa bocca della verità.

Usually never misses the famous bocca della verità, literally the mouth of truth. So usually the mouth of truth, the boca della verità is always there on your list.

Uno dei simboli storici della città eterna.

One of the historic symbols of the eternal city.

Reso famoso dal film Vacanze romane.

This is interesting because rezo is I think a an interesting word from the verb rendere. So it means made famous. But why wouldn't we say fattofamoso?

Uh it's just the collocation, you cannot say fare famoso, but rendere famoso.

Andre Famoso, so Rezo Famoso, made famous from the film Roman Holiday with, of course, Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck.

Ma che cos'è la bocca della verità?

What is the boca de la Verita?

Se chiudete gli occhi.

If you close your eyes.

Probabilmente potete visualizzare tutti l'enorme volto di un uomo barbuto.

you can probably visualize, you can all probably visualize, the enormous Volto

Volto, sì, è un sinonimo di faccia, sì, un po' più poetico.

Very posh, okay. So the enormous face of a bearded man, un uomo barbuto.

Che si trova fuori dalla chiesa di Santa Maria Cosmedina a Roma.

So which is found outside the Church of Santa Maria Cosmedin in Rome, of course.

Se vi recate in questo luogo

No. This is this is a bit posh. Yes, yes.

Yeah.

It just means if you go If you go to this place

Vedrete una lunga fila di gente.

Future tense there from the verb vedere. So, vedrete, you will see a long line of people, a long queue of people.

バンビニンクルーズ Che un po' nervosi.

A little bit nervous and of course nervosi there is is plural because it's referring to all these people and the bambi.

Infilano la loro mano nella bocca della verità.

So they are they were sliding in their hand. into the bocca della verità

In passato.

In the past?

Infatti...

In fact.

Si pensava che questa speciale bocca...

It was thought that, so si pensava, one thought that, one used to think that, but we could translate that as a passive in English. It was thought that this uh special mouse

Avesse il potere di capire.

Now this is interesting. Had the power of understanding we'll come back to it in a moment.

Se una persona stava dicendo una bugia o la verità.

So I think you can understand this if a person was telling the truth. Or sorry, was telling a lie or

This is a nice congiuntivo.

I mean, perfect. Some jungle.

We have a verb of opinion, pensare. And uh the action of pensare doesn't take place in the present but in the past. So we are talking about what people used to think in the past, and because it's an opinion, pensare. In Italian, uh every time we use pensare, uh we need to use a subjuncti in the clause that comes after.

Ok, so in this case, it's the verb avere And we're using the imperfect subjunctive of avere. And the reason for that is that trigger there. It's the verb pensare, pensare que we need the subjunctive, and of course it's a an imperfect here because we're talking about what happened in the past.

Exatamente.

So in the past it was thought that this mouth had the the possibility of knowing whether or not someone was telling the truth.

Soprattutto quando si trattava di verità in materia di fedeltà coniugale.

Above all when it was a question of quando si trattava di uh truth when it comes to um conjugal fidelity. So uh yeah, the truth about couples basically whether couples were being faithful. Okay.

ok una volta infilata la mano nella bocca

This is a little bit tricky, I think, because literally if we translate it one time Infilata, that's a an adjective or a kind of past participle here. Yeah. So one time uh slid the hand, la mano, ne la boca in the mouth. So one time slid the hand within the mouth, what we're saying is, once you put your hand in the mouth

Se la persona F Molto spesso una donna... Diceva la verità?

Was telling the truth.

Poteva estrarre la sua mano intatta.

She could extract or the person could extract his or her hand intact intact. But

Se la persona diceva una bugia.

If the person was telling a lie.

Allora la bocca le mangiava la mano.

So the mouth to him or her ate the hand. And now that le in there, it means in this case to her or to him or her because we're talking una persona

Si, si, si, si, si, si, si, si, si, si, si, si, si, si, si, si, si, si, si, si, si, si, si

If it were specifically a man, it would be lui mangiava la man. Good. Okay. Is this really?

No, tranquilli

Relax.

La bocca da sola non poteva mordere nessuno.

The mouth on its own wasn't able to bite anyone. Mm-hmm. In order to help it labbing the Bokka.

Qualcuno si nascondeva lì dietro.

Someone was hidden behind.

E con un enorme spillone

with a an enormous pen? Un spi una spill as a pen. So Spiloni is a big one.

Mamma mia, che paura, punzecchiava la mano della povera vittima.

Okay, so I have never ever come across the word punsecare, but it's got to have something to do with pinching or something like that.

Yeah, to sting to to prick.

Prick, okay. So prick to the hand of the poor victim. Fortunately that did not happen to me when I was a little child there.

Ori un bravo bambino, Mark. Chiederò conferma alla signora Gloria.

Okay, no the the Bocca delle Verita indeed had a different origin. It was it wasn't always that

Sì, la bocca della verità in origine aveva una funzione ben diversa.

So in or in origin it had a very different function.

Infatti veniva usata come copri tombino.

Right. Now this is interesting. Veniva usata. That's quite formal, isn't it? Because it's meaning it was used but we're using the verb venire and not essere there. It just was used.

Uh uh, in Italian we can use the verb venire to form the passive voice, so

So it was used as a copritomino. What's that?

See, I didn't know this word in English so uh manhole cover. Oh

Okay, right.

Nothing to do with tombs or

So a man who's cover.

E proprio per questo motivo.

R exactly for this reason.

Sia gli occhi che la bocca e il naso sono buchi.

Okay, so um can you help us here, Francesca?'Cause this CR seems like oh that's a subjunctive. What's going on?

No, no, no, nothing to do with the subjunctive, relax. The structure sia che in Italia means both and.

Right. So both the eyes, the mouth and the nose are holes.

Da cui poteva passare l'acqua.

through which water could pass. A manhole cover allowing drain drainage.

Sì, sì, i romani erano molto intelligenti da questo punto di vista. Ok, oggi, invece, vediamo cosa succede. Oggi la bocca della verità è soltanto una simpatica attrazione turistica.

Okay, so today the Boca de la Verita is simply a a nice tourist attraction.

Per grandi e piccini.

For old and younger, people basically for big and small.

Che, come ricordo della loro vacanza a Roma,

Who, as a souvenir of their holiday in Rome, would

¿Vogliano una foto?

They want a photo talking about these grandi epicini.

Eli immortali nel momento della verità.

Okay, so this is a photo and it's a specific type of photo which immortalizes them. It's a little tricky that, K li immortali.

sí.

En el momento de la verdad. En el momento de la verdad.

Sì, esatto. E anche se ormai tutti sanno che non c'è nessun pericolo.

We've seen that word or my lots of times, and even if by now everyone knows that there's no danger.

キッサー

Who knows? Perhaps.

Se un lieve brivido.

So that's a a a light shiver or something like that.

That's it. Allora, chissà se un lieve brivido scorre.

So runs down.

Scorre comunque lungo la schiena.

Runs down the back, however.

di chi si accinge Ad infilare la propria mano nella bocca più temuta del mondo.

Right.

Thanks, guys. A changer means to be about, to do something, to approach

In this case the box. So who knows if a a little shiver will run down the spine of whoever is about to uh slide their own hand into the most feared mouth of the world.

la bocca più temuta del mondo

Okay, I hope you've enjoyed this text. We'll be back in just a moment with more Italian for you.

Now, if you would like to get more out of the Coffee Break Italian magazine, then you may be interested in signing up for the full course over at the Coffee Break Academy. For each episode of the magazine, we also provide a transcript with lesson notes. vocabulary lists and exercises to help you get the most out of this course. Head over to CoffebreakAcademy.com for more information.

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Welcome back. This is the part of the show where the Coffee Break Italian listeners become the stars of the show. So who is going to be our star listener this week? Francesca?

Oggi abbiamo Greg!

Okay, let's listen to Greg's question.

Hi, this is Greg in Sol Korea. I've been studying Italian with coffee break Italian for about two years and I'm wondering if you could uh talk a little about the word prego. I hear it so much when I'm in Italy. I know it means you're welcome But could you also let us know other contexts in which it's used? Thank you.

Grazie mille, Greg.

sì sì che domanda interessante esatto

Okej Francesca, så how do vi just Prego?

well first of all as greg has just said is the natural response to grazie So we all know that already. But Greg is also right in pointing out that uh the word prego also has uh other uh functions. It's used in a in a variety of uh of situations. I must say that prego is a very nice and uh courteous uh word. And for example, we use it in Italian to show someone in uh to invite someone to take a a seat or to tell someone to go first.

Can you give us some examples?

ad esempio if you are about to enter my office or my house I would say prego entra pure

Okay so we've got that poor in there as well. Just please come in.

si, tu come in or if you want to tell someone to take a seat prego, accomodati ok

Okay, a comodati that's a tricky stress word, isn't it?

Acomodati. Acomodati. Prego, sjedi.

So please sit down.

I would say that Prego is always in this case is always accompanied by your hand showing the person uh uh that they can take a seat or they can take something that is on the table, for example. Or if you want to tell qualcuno di go first, prego, vada pure.

Okay, so the Vada there is our is our formal command, Vada pure uh or uh if we were at a a language show, one of these exhibitions that we sometimes do, and we were handing out leaflets there, could we say, you know, please take one?

or if someone is a bit hesitant and they want to take a leaflet for example but they're not sure whether they can or not we would encourage them by saying, Prego. So in this way it's a very, very nice and uh polite word.

Excellent. Is it also used in a in a in the sense of uh dining when you're in a restaurant, for example?

See, waiters, i camerieri or le cameriere, they always say prego when they are serving food. So if they're coming with your carbonara and they are about to put it on uh your table, they would say prego.

never pizza al pollo

No, no, no, no, no. Ti prego. Ti prego. Det är som... Oh, please don't. Do me a favor.

Literally it's I'm begging you, isn't it? Because

pregare

So to pray or to beg, so tibrego, I'm begging you. Could we use also prego in the sense of a religious sense?

See, the the word prego itself means uh I'm praying. So uh if you are entering uh a church or a mosque or wherever you pray, you can simply say prego like I'm praying.

And a linked word for a prayer is una preghiera.

Una preghiera, sì, certo, certo.

Is there anything else that you would use Prego for?

Let me think. Yes, actually this could be very useful for our learners. You can say Prego when you want when you don't understand what an Italian is telling you and you want them to repeat. So you could simply say prego skusi.

Yeah. Very, very useful word indeed. And obviously we we've covered Prego in the response to Grazie way way back in early lessons of of Coffee Break Italian. But at this point we're looking at getting more into the language and looking at these nuances of of the language. Fantastic question from Greg. If you have a question, then we'd love to hear from you. Simply go to coffeebreakquestions.com and ask your question there or use the voicemail link on our website.

Okay, so it's now time for the final segment of this episode, La Giuliagina Sulla Tortas. Jessica, what have you got for us today?

Today I was thinking of linking my ciliegina sulla torta with the main episode and I have prepared a saying.

Okay, a seeing, so something to do with the truth?

Something to do with truth, which could be very interesting for all the parents out there.

Okay.

And but also for the children, why not? Maybe we have some uh children listening to Coffee Break Italian

Oh okay, die

Allora, beh, devo dire che la verità è un concetto molto importante nella cultura italiana. Grazie a un personaggio che forse tutti i nostri ascoltatori conoscono.

Okay, so truth is a very important concept, as you've said, in Italian culture. And this is perhaps thanks to a a a character that we all know.

Sì, e ovviamente l'intramontabile pinocchio.

only Pinocchio.

Sì, il burettino di legno a cui cresceva il naso, ogni qualvolta diceva una bugia.

The wooden puppet, uh, whose nose grew every time he told a lie.

Sì, è vero. E ancora oggi i bambini italiani conoscono benissimo le avventure di questo eroe nazionale.

So he even today, Italian children uh know very well these adventures of of this national hero.

Sì, e ogni volta che cercano di nascondere la verità ai propri genitori.

Every time they want to hide the truth from their own parents.

Si sentono dire queste parole.

So this is your phrase coming up. These are f these are the words that the parents would say.

Non dire bugie o ti cresce il naso?

Don't tell lies or your nose will grow. So now you know how to say that in Italian.

If you'd like to practice your Italian, search for Coffee Break Italian on Facebook, and we are Learn Italian on Twitter and Coffee Break languages on Instagram.

We'll be back again soon with more Coffee Brick Italian. Until then, alla prossima. Ciao!

A presto!

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