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Giulia shows Alex how a Roman bar works.
un caffè means an espresso. If you want something longer, ask for un caffè lungo or un americano; a caffellatte is a breakfast drink and ordering one after a meal will raise an eyebrow. prego is the most overworked word in Italian. It answers grazie, it means after you at a door, go ahead when someone hesitates, and what can I get you? from behind a counter. If you only remember one polite word, make it this one. The pastry has regional names: cornetto in Rome and the south, brioche in Milan and much of the north, and in Naples you may be offered a sfogliatella instead, which is something else entirely and worth saying yes to. pagare keeps its hard g sound all the way through, so the tu form has to be spelled with an h: tu paghi, not tu pagi. Same with giocare — tu giochi. The h is doing pronunciation work, not grammar.
How do I read these pronunciations? See the pronunciation guide.
1. vorrei — the polite way to ask
Learn this as one word for now: vorrei means I'd like, and it is what you say at a counter, in a shop or at a restaurant. Voglio, I want, is grammatically correct and sounds blunt to the point of rudeness from a stranger. Just put a noun after it: Vorrei un caffè. Vorrei due cornetti. You can add per favore, though Italians add it less often than English speakers do — the vorrei is already the politeness. This is a conditional, and Lesson 41 will name it; until then it is simply the word for ordering things.
2. un, uno, una, un'
Italian's word for a or an has four forms, and which you use depends on the noun's gender and on the sound that starts it. Masculine: un before almost anything (un caffè, un amico), but uno before s+consonant, z, gn or ps (uno scontrino, uno zio, uno studente). Feminine: una before a consonant (una cassa), and un' before a vowel (un'amica). Note that only the feminine takes an apostrophe — un amico has none, because un was never shortened from anything.
3. Verbs ending in -are
The largest group of Italian verbs ends in -are: pagare, ordinare, parlare, abitare, arrivare. Take off the -are and add the ending. io -o, tu -i, lui/lei -a: io pago, tu paghi, lei paga. The ending tells you who, which is why the pronoun is usually left out — Pago io means I'll pay, with io added for emphasis precisely because it is not needed. You now have three of the six endings; Lesson 7 gives you the rest along with the -ere and -ire verbs.
4. Please, thank you, you're welcome
per favore is please, with per piacere and per cortesia as equally good alternatives. grazie is thank you; grazie mille is thanks very much. The answer is prego, or the warmer di niente, it's nothing, or figurati among friends. One thing to unlearn: Italians say please and thank you less often than English speakers in transactional settings, and a bare Un caffè is not rude. Tone and a greeting do most of the politeness work.
A. Fill in the Blank · Completa
Fill in the blank with the correct word.
- 1. un caffè, per favore.I'd like
- 2.Ecco scontrino.the (before s + consonant)
- 3.Prima alla cassa.we pay (pagare)
- 4.Grazie! — .the answer to grazie
B. Multiple Choice · Scegli
Choose the correct Italian.
- 1.Which article goes with scontrino?
- 2.Which is "a friend" (female)?
- 3.Which is the io form of pagare?
- 4.Which is the correct way to order?
C. Word Order · Metti in ordine
Put the words in the right order.
- 1.Tap tiles below…
- 2.Tap tiles below…
- 3.Tap tiles below…
- 4.Tap tiles below…
D. True or False · Vero o falso
Decide whether each statement about the dialogue is true.
- 1.You pay before going to the counter.
- 2.Alex orders a coffee.
- 3.Giulia orders nothing to eat.
- 4.The total is four euros fifty.
E. Matching · Abbina
Match each line to the reply that fits it.
F. Translation · Traduci
Translate between Italian and English.
- 1.I'd like a coffee, please.
- 2.Here's the receipt.
- 3.Prima paghiamo alla cassa.
- 4.Un cappuccino e un cornetto.
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Pay first, drink standing, and never after eleven
A Roman bar runs on a sequence that catches every visitor out once. You pay at the cassa first, say what you want while paying, and carry the scontrino to the banco, where you put it on the counter — often with a small coin on top — and repeat your order. Trying to order at the counter first will get you politely redirected. The receipt is not a formality either: Italian law requires the bar to issue one, and both of you can in principle be fined without it, which is why the till roll matters more here than it does elsewhere. Price depends on where you stand. Al banco, standing at the counter, an espresso is around one euro twenty and is drunk in about ninety seconds; sit down at a table and the same coffee can cost three or four times as much, because you are paying servizio for the seat. That is not a tourist trap — the two prices are usually posted, and locals drink standing. Finally, the cappuccino rule is real, if gently held: milky coffee belongs to breakfast, and ordering one after about eleven in the morning, and certainly after a meal, marks you out. Nobody will refuse to serve it. They will just know.