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Alex meets Signor Ricci, who owns Giulia's building.
This whole dialogue is in Lei, which is why every verb aimed at Signor Ricci looks third person: Lei che lavoro fa? Dove lavora? He is a landlord and a generation older, so tu would be out of place. Signor loses its final e before a name — signor Ricci, not signore Ricci — and is lowercase in running text, capitalised when used as a title before the surname. The same happens to dottore, professore and ingegnere: dottor Bianchi, ingegner Conti. Titles are used far more in Italy than in English-speaking countries. Anyone with a degree may be addressed as dottore or dottoressa, and it has nothing to do with medicine. bravo agrees with the person it praises: bravo to a man, brava to a woman, bravi to a group. Shouting bravo at a female singer is a small but audible mistake.
How do I read these pronunciations? See the pronunciation guide.
1. fare — to do, to make
The third of the big irregular verbs, after essere and avere: faccio, fai, fa, facciamo, fate, fanno. It carries far more than do and make. Jobs (faccio l'ingegnere), the weather (fa freddo), breakfast (faccio colazione), photographs (fare una foto), a walk (fare una passeggiata), a question (fare una domanda) and shopping (fare la spesa) all use it. When you cannot think of the verb you want, fare is often the one.
2. Two ways to name a job
With essere, use no article at all: Sono studente. È medico. Siamo insegnanti. With fare, use the definite article: Faccio l'ingegnere. Fa il cameriere. Both are completely ordinary, and the article goes with the verb rather than with the job. The article comes back after essere only when you describe the job rather than just name it: È un bravo medico. È un ingegnere molto giovane.
3. Where you work
lavorare in for the place: lavoro in un ristorante, in banca, in ufficio, in ospedale. Note that with in, common workplaces often drop the article entirely — in banca, not in una banca, unless you mean one particular bank. lavorare per for the employer: lavoro per una ditta francese. lavorare come for the role: lavoro come cameriere, which is a third way of saying the same thing as faccio il cameriere. And lavorare a is for a project: lavoro a un progetto.
4. perché does both jobs
One word asks why and answers because: Perché una ditta francese? — Perché parlo francese. English needs two words and Italian does not, which means a question and its answer can open identically. The accent is on the last syllable and is written, always. Two relatives worth having now: perciò, therefore, and siccome, since — which unlike perché can start a sentence: Siccome parlo francese, lavoro per loro.
A. Fill in the Blank · Completa
Fill in the blank with the correct word.
- 1.Che lavoro ?do you do (fare, tu)
- 2. l'ingegnere.I do (fare)
- 3.Lavoro una ditta francese.for (naming an employer)
- 4. parlo bene il francese.because
B. Multiple Choice · Scegli
Choose the correct Italian.
- 1.Which is the io form of fare?
- 2.Which names a job after essere?
- 3.Which preposition follows lavorare for a place?
- 4.Which is the noi form of fare?
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.Alex is a student who also waits tables.
- 2.The restaurant is near the Pantheon.
- 3.Signor Ricci is a lawyer.
- 4.Signor Ricci speaks French.
E. Matching · Abbina
Match each question to the answer that fits it.
F. Translation · Traduci
Translate between Italian and English.
- 1.What do you do for a living?
- 2.I'm an engineer.
- 3.Lavoro per una ditta francese.
- 4.Perché parlo bene il francese.
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Everyone is a dottore
Italy runs on titles. Finish any university degree and you are entitled to be called dottore or dottoressa, so the word covers accountants, historians and marketing managers as readily as physicians — and in the south especially it is used generously, sometimes to anyone who looks like they might have a degree. An engineer is ingegnere, a lawyer avvocato, a teacher professore or professoressa, and all of these are used in direct address where English would use a first name. Shortening happens before a surname: dottor Rossi, ingegner Conti, professor Bianchi. Underneath the courtesy is a tougher job market than the titles suggest. Youth unemployment has run far above the European average for years, short-term contracts are common well into people's thirties, and a great many graduates work in jobs unconnected to their degree — the student waiting tables in this dialogue is the ordinary case, not a hard-luck story. It is also why so many young Italians have left: the country has seen sustained emigration of graduates to northern Europe for over a decade, a pattern Italians call la fuga dei cervelli, the flight of the brains.