CBI Mag 1.01 | La Bocca della Verità

Coffee briquita di magazine season 1 è episode 1 Buongiorno a tutti e bentornati! Siamo tornati! Come stai Francesca? Ciao Marco, sta benissimo! Grazie tu! Sto benissimo! È molto dietro di essere qua, ancora una volta. Sì, anche ovviamente! Nello studio per fare un progetto nuovo! Sì, sono un'emozionatissima per questa nuovo progetto! 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 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? Sì, e' well, it could be a variety of different topics ranging from food, tourism, sports, cinema, famous Italians. Also it's good. So this will include a text in Italian and then we'll talk about the language in that text. Exactly! We'll go through the text in more detail. Then the second part of our show involves our listeners. Sì! 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 questions already to answer. And of course we're looking forward to heating more questions from our listeners. And then the third part. Tell us a little bit the third part of the show. The third part is like the cherry on the cake. Ah, I like the cherry on the cake. The cherry on the cake. We're going to give our listeners 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. All seems good. So are you ready? I'm ready and full of energy. Perfect, so let's start. Let's start. So, how do you do everything? Everything is fine? Yes, everything is fine. Thank you. Ah, I hear you. I have a question. Dimmi, Mark. Maybe a little discreet. Oh, ma mia, now I'm worried. So, first I went to the office. Yes? It's on your desk. Ah, yes. I saw you with Athens. No, it's not possible. I think we have to explain to our listeners that Francesca decided not to eat sweets for the whole month. Really? Now? Or a tube? No, I swear, Mark, that he didn't eat any sweets. Do you know what we're going to do? Dimmi. Let's go to Rome. And let's see what the real mouth is saying. I think it's a great idea. So, as we've explained, this first section is focusing on a text, and it's text, we're going to hear read out by Francesca. Francesca, can you read us our text, which of course is about the mouth of the truth? Yes. When we project a trip to Rome, in the list of the places to visit, usually the famous mouth of the truth, one of the historical symbols of the eternal city, famous network of the film "Vacanze Romane", with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck. But what is the mouth of the truth? If you close your eyes, you might be able to visualize all the huge vows of a barbarian man who is outside of the church of Santa Maria Cosmedina in Rome. If you read this book, you will see a long line of people, even children, who are a bit nervous, they fill their hand in the mouth of the truth. In fact, it was thought that this mouth of the truth had the power to understand if a person was saying a lie or truth. Especially when it was really treated in terms of loyalty to the legal, to help, once he filled his hand in the mouth, if the person, very often a woman, said the truth, he could stand his hand in touch, but if the person said a lie, then the mouth would eat the hand. Calmly, in reality, the mouth of the soul could not die, but to help him, someone hid behind him, and with an enormous pillow, he pointed the hand of the poor victim. But the mouth of the truth, in origin, had a good and different function. In fact, it was used as a blanket, and just for this reason, both the eyes, the mouth and the nose, are the mouth of which it could pass the water. Today, the mouth of the truth is only a sad tourist attraction, for large and small, which, as I remember from their vacation to Rome, they want a photo of the immortals in the moment of the truth. And even if they are never, all know that there is no danger, who knows if a small blanket is hidden, however long the corner, of whom is approaching to fill the hand itself in the mouth of the mouth of the world. Fantastico! I remember my very first visit to the book Del Averita. I was eight years old, and we had travelled to Italy, driven to Italy, from Scotland, with the caravan behind us, and all the way to Italy, and we were staying with my relatives in Tuscany, but then we also took a few days to go down to Rome, so we went down to Rome, stayed in Austria, in a campsite in Austria, and then we went into Rome, and I remember clearly going to visit the book Del Averita, and it was so scared to fit my hand into it, because I really didn't think it was going to bite me. Oh, che carina, il piccolo marco, roma! I'm sure there's probably a photo to Buonita's, "Signora gloria, if there's a photo somewhere. " Yes, "Signora gloria, inizi a cercare. " Ok, so what we're going to 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 listeners, and it was almost three minutes worth of quite tricky Italian, so let's go back through it and talk about the language, and that way it will help you understand it. We can talk about tricky things, which will be explained. So let's go back through, and Francesca, if you can read each part, and we'll talk about that, we'll explain what it means, give a translation, and then we can pick up on any tricky parts. Va bene, ok, cominciamo. Ok. Allora, e quando progettiamo un viaggio a Roma? Ok, 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, it's a really useful expression, o molto da fare, I've got lots to do, so nella lista dei luoghi da visitare in the list of places to visit, usually never misses the famous bocca della verità, literally the mouth of truth. So usually the mouth of truth, the bocca della verità, is always there on your list. One of the historic symbols of the eternal city. This is interesting, because "rezo" is, I think, an interesting word from the verb "rendere", so it means "made famous", but why wouldn't we say "fatto famoso"? It's just the collocation, you cannot say "fare famoso", ok? "Rendere famoso". So "rezo famoso", "made famous" for the film "Rumon holiday" with, of course, Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck. Ma che cos'è la bocca della verità? But what else, the bocca della verità? 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, si, è un sinonimo di faccia, si, è un po' più poetico. Ah, very push, ok. So the enormous face of a bearded man, un uomo barbuto. Si, che si trova fuori dalla chiesa di Santa Maria Cosmedina Roma. So which is found outside the church of Santa Maria Cosmedina in Rome, of course. Se vi recate in questo luogo. No, this is, this is a bit posh. Ui, oh, I'm talking about recarsi. It just means if you go. So if you go to this place, vedrete una lunga fila di gente. Ah, nice future tense there from the very vedere. So vedrete, you will see a long line of people, a long queue of people. Bambini, inclusive. Including children. Che un po' nervosi. A little bit nervous. And, of course, nervosi there is plural because it's referring to all these people in the bambini. Infilanola a loro mano nella bocca della verità. So they are, they are sliding in their hand. Si. Into the bocca della verità. Impassato. 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 special mouth. Avesse il potere di capire. No, this is interesting. Had the power of understanding. We'll come back to it in a moment. OK. Se una persona stava dicendo una buccia o la verità. So, I think you can understand this. If a person was telling the truth or, or sorry, was telling a lie or the truth, una buccia o la verità or the truth. Right. So, let's come back a little to this. Avesse. Si. Si pensava che questa speciale bocca Avesse il potere di capire. Si. Poi spiegarci. Si. This is a nice congiuntivo. And it's my perfect subjunctive, isn't it? In fact, we have a verb of opinion, pensare and the action of pensare doesn't take place in the present, but in the past. So, we're talking about what people used to think in the past. And because it's an opinion, pensare in Italian every time we use pensare, we need to use a subjunctive in the clause that comes after. Okay, so in this case, it's the avera avera and we're using the imperfect subjunctive of avera. And the reason for that is that trigger, it's the verb pensare. Pensare che we need the subjunctive and of course it's an imperfect here because we're talking about what happened in the past. Exactly. Okay, so in the past, it was thought that this mouth had the possibility of knowing whether or not someone was telling the truth. So, most of all, when it was a question of when it was a question of when it was a question of when it was a question of when it was thought that this mouth had the possibility of knowing whether or not someone was telling the truth. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. This is a little bit tricky, I think, because literally if we translate it, one time in fillata, that's an adjective or a kind of past participle here, yeah. So, one time slid the hand, la mano, nella bocca, 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, if the person, very often a lady, was telling the truth, she could extract or the person could extract his or her hand intact, intact, but, if the person was telling a lie, so the mouth to him or her ate the hand, and now that lay in there, it means in this case to her or to him or her, because we're talking to one person, okay. It could be a man or a woman in this case. If it were specifically a man, it would be li manjava la mano. Yeah. If we had, for example, se luomo diceva una bugia, allora la bocca gli manjava la mano. Okay. Good. Okay. So, is this really what happened? No, tranquilli. Relax. In reality, la bocca da sola non poteva mordere nessuno. The mouth on its own wasn't able to bite anyone. However, in order to help it, labbing the bocca, someone was hidden behind, with an enormous pin, an aspilla as a pen, so an aspilla is a big one. Okay, so I have never ever come across the word pun secare, but it's got to have something to do with pinching or something like that. To stink, to prick. To prick, to prick to the hand of the poor victim. Fortunately, that did not happen to me when I was a little child there. Okay, the bocca de la verità indeed had a different origin, it wasn't always that. Se la bocca de la verità, in origine, aveva una funzione ben diversa. In origin, it had a very different function. 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 very venire and not estere there. It came to be used, but it just was used. In Italian, we can use verb venire to form the passive voice, so. So it was used as a copri tombino, what's that? Yeah, I didn't know this word in English, so a manhole cover. Oh, okay, right, okay, that makes sense, yes. Nothing to do with tomb, so. Tambino, I was a little bit worried there, but no. So a manhole cover. Eh, proprio per questo motivo. And exactly for this reason. Si agli occhi, che la bocca e il naso, sono buchi. Okay, so can you help us here, Francesca, because the sea seems like, well, that's a subjunctive. No, no, no, nothing to do with the subjunctive, relax. Eh, the structure sia che in Italian 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. Exacto. Okay, so a manhole cover, allowing drainage. Si, si, i romani erano molto intelligenti da questo punto di vista. Ok, eh, oggi invece, vediamo cosa succede. Oggi la bocca della verità è soltanto una simpatica attrazione turistica. Ok, so, today, the bocca della verità is simply a nice tourist attraction. Per grandi epiccini. For all the younger people, they say for big and small. Eh, che come ricordo della loro vacanza a Roma. Who, as a souvenir of their holiday in Rome, vogliono una foto? They want a photo, talking about these grandi epiccini, che li immortali nel momento della verità. Ok, so, this is a photo, and it's a specific type of photo, which immortalizes them. Little check it out, che li immortali nel momento della verità, che in il momento di attrazione. Eh, anche se ormai tutti sanno che non c'è nessun pericolo. We've seen that word "ormai" lots of times, and even if by now everyone knows that there's no danger? Chissà. Who knows, perhaps? Se un lieve brivido. So, that's a light shiver or something like that, yeah? Eh, allora chissà se un lieve brivido scorre. So, runs down. Scorre comunque lungo la schiena. So, runs down the back, however? Eh, di chi si accinge ad infilare la propria mano nella bocca più temuta del mondo. Right, there's all what it is, isn't it? So, accingersi. Accingersi means to be about, to do something to approach. In this case, the box. So, who knows if a little shiver will run down the Spain of whoever is about to slide their own hand into the most feared mouth of the world? Si, la bocca più temuta del mondo. Brilliant. OK, 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 coffeebreakacademy.com for more information. 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. Greg, OK, let's listen to Greg's question. Hi, this is Greg in Seoul, Korea. I've been studying Italian with Coffee Break Italian for about two years. And I'm wondering if you could 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 context in which it's used? Thank you. Grazie mille, Greg. Si, si, che domanda interessante. Exatto. OK, Francesca, so how do we use "prego"? Well, first of all, as Greg has just said, it's the natural response to "grazie". "prego". Exatto, so we all know that already. Greg is also writing, pointing out the word "prego" also has other functions. It's used in a variety of situations. I must say that "prego" is a very nice and courteous word. And for example, we use it in Italian to show someone in, to invite someone to take a seat or to tell someone to go first. OK, can you give us some examples? Yeah. For example, if you're about to enter my office or my house, I would say "prego". Entrapure. OK, so look at that "pure" in there as well. Please come in. Ah, si, to come in. Or if you want to tell someone to take a seat, "prego", "accomo dati". OK, "accomo dati", that's a tricky, stress word, isn't "accomo dati". "accomo dati", "prego, si, editi". That was easier, yeah. So please sit down. I would say that "prego" is always in this case, is always accompanied by your hand showing the person that they can take a seat or they can take something that's on the table, for example. Or if you want to tell someone to go first, "prego", "vada pure". OK, so the "vada" there is a form, a command, "vada pure". Or if we were at 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", is that idea? "prego", "prenda pure", or if someone is a bit hesitant and they want to take a leaflet, for example, but they are not sure whether they can or not, we would encourage them by saying "prego". Yeah. Good. So in this way, it's a very, very nice and polite word. Excellent. Is it also used in a, in the sense of dining when you're in a restaurant, for example? Si, waiters, i camarieri, o le camarieri, 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 your table, they would say "prego". But never pizza al polo. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Ti prego. Ti prego. In that case, it was with ti prego, "si". So what does ti prego? Me. E come, "Oh, please don't do me a favor". Literally, it's "I'm begging you", isn't it? Yes. Because it's the verb "pregare". "Pregare". So to pray or to beg. So ti prego, "I'm begging you". Could we use also "prego" in the sense of a religious sense? See, the word "prego" itself means "I'm praying", so if you are entering 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 preguera". Una preguera, si, 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 don't understand what, and Italian is telling you, and you want them to repeat. So you could simply say "prego", "scusey", so just asking someone to repeat. Exactly. I have a very, very useful word indeed. And obviously, we've covered "prego" in the response to Grazie, way back in early lessons of Coffee Break Italian. But at this point, we're looking at getting more into the language, looking at these nuances of the language. So that's a 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. Ok, so it's no time for the final segment of this episode, "La Giliagina sull'atorza". Francesca, what have you got for us today? I was thinking of linking my "Giliagina sull'atorza" with the main episode, and I have prepared a saying. Yeah, ok, a saying, so something to do with truth. See something to do with truth, which could be very interesting for all the parents out there listening to us, and also for the children. Why not? Maybe we have some children listening to Coffee Break Italian. Oh, I said, oh, ok, bye. Ok, so, truth is a very important concept, as you've said in Italian culture, and this is perhaps thanks to a character that we all know. The one and only pinocchio. The wooden puppet, whose nose grew every time he told a lie. So, even today, Italian children know very well these adventures of this national hero. And every time they want to hide the truth from their own parents. Ok, so, this is your phrase coming up, these are the words that the parents would say. Don't tell lies or your nose will grow, so now you know how to say that in Italian. That is where we're going to leave this episode of Coffee Break Italian. We hope that you've enjoyed it. If you'd like to access the transcript and some lesson notes, then you can head over to coffeebreakitalian.com where you'll find everything you need to know. 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 Break Italian until then, alla prossima, ciao! A presto, non dite buggi, eh! You have been listening to a production of the Coffee Break Academy for the Radio Linguar Network, copyright 2019, Radio Linguilimitit, recording copyright 2019, Radio Linguilimitit, all rights reserved.