From the course: Italian for Absolute Beginners

Greeting your new friends

From the course: Italian for Absolute Beginners

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Greeting your new friends

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Absolute Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 1. Greeting your new friends with perfect Italian. In today's class, we will focus on Italian greetings. 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 informal Italian. In the second conversation, the Italian is very formal. Let's listen to the conversation. Informal. Ciao. Ciao. Mi chiamo Melissa. E tu? Ciao. Piacere. Io mi chiamo Alessio. Piacere, Alessio. Formal. Buongiorno. Mi chiamo Melissa Cox. E lei? Come si chiama? Buongiorno. Alessio. Alessio Martini. Piacere di conoscerla. Molta lieta. And now, with a translation. Questa volta, con la traduzione. Ciao. Mi chiamo Melissa. E tu? Hi. My name is Melissa. And you? Ciao. Piacere. Io mi chiamo Alessio. Hi. Nice to meet you. My name is Alessio. Piacere, Alessio. Nice to meet you, Alessio. Buongiorno. Mi chiamo Melissa Cox. E lei? Come si chiama? Good morning. My name is Melissa Cox. And you, sir? What is your name? Buongiorno. Alessio. Alessio Martini. Piacere di conoscerla. Good morning. Alessio. Alessio Martini. Nice to meet you. Molto lieta. Very pleased to meet you. Buongiorno. Good morning. Good day. Good afternoon. Buon. Gior. No. Buongiorno. And the next word is? Ciao. Hello. Hi. Bye. Ciao. Ciao. And today's last word is? And. E. E. The focus of this lesson is on Italian greetings. Let's start with ciao. Ciao is the easiest and most common Italian form of greeting people use to say hi, hello, or goodbye. But be careful. We should only use this greeting with people whom we are well acquainted with, such as friends or relatives. On the other hand, we may use buongiorno with anybody, even people we meet for the first time. Literally, buongiorno means good day. However, we may also interpret it as good morning or good afternoon. As a rule of thumb, we can use buongiorno only during daytime, from morning until evening, or from before daybreak to before dusk. And when we want to say good afternoon, we can use buon pomeriggio.

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