Asking people where they're from

Absolute Beginner Season 1, Lesson 2. You're not from Italy, are you? In today's class, we will focus on asking people where they're from, and we'll also study the verb essere, to be. This conversation takes place at the bus stop. The conversation is between Melissa Cox and Alessio Martini. In the first conversation, they will be speaking in formal Italian. In the second conversation, they'll use formal Italian. Let's listen to the conversation. In formal. Sono di Milano, e tu? Di dove sei? Io sono di Miami. Ah, non sei di Milano. Formal. Sono di Milano, di dove è lei? Io sono di Miami. Ah, lei non è di Milano. And now, with a translation. Questa volta, con la traduzione. Sono di Milano, e tu? Di dove sei? I am from Milan, and you? Where are you from? Io sono di Miami. I'm from Miami. Ah, non sei di Milano. Ah, you're not from Milan. Sono di Milano, di dove è lei? I am from Milan. Madam, where are you from? Io sono di Miami. I'm from Miami. Ah, lei non è di Milano. Ah, you're not from Milan. The first word we shall see is... Dove. Where. Do-ve. Dove. The next word is... Milano. Milan. Mi-la-no. Milano. And next we have... Io. I. I-o. Io. And today's last word is... Tu. You. Tu. Tu. Tu. The focus of this lesson... is about origins and the verb essere, meaning to be. As we have seen, di dove sei is the exact equivalent of... Where are you from? It indicates the precise place where one comes from. So, you should answer by naming your home city or the nearest important city in order to let the listener easily understand. Di is a stationary preposition that we use with essere. Let's now look at the conjugation of the regular verb essere, meaning... to be, when talking about a person's birthplace. Io sono. I am. Tu sei. You are. Lui, lei, è. He, she, it, is. Noi siamo. We are. Voi siete. You are. Loro sono. They are. Since the verb essere is irregular, there are no learning tips to make the drilling of... this verb easier. The easiest method to memorize it is to do some written verb drills. Please notice that, in the dialogue, di dove sei is translated as... Where are you from? But there is no to, Italian for you. This is because there is no need to specify it, as a say can only indicate you in the second singular person. This is always the way it is in Italian, unless we want to stress the person clearly. Exactly. Let us now... look again at a very important aspect of the Italian language regarding formal speech. The informal way to ask where are you from uses the second person singular to. However, when we want to use formal speech, we just have to switch to the third person, lei, thus creating a distance between the speakers. So, di dove è actually means where are you from, in formal speech. And what about negating a statement? Well, when negating... you should use the negative particle no and non plus verb. You can also skip the initial no and just answer with non plus verb. For example... Non sono di Milano. I'm not from Milan.