Unlocking Italian with Paul Noble: Your key to language success with the bestselling language coach. Paul Noble

/ “azione” from the end of it and add the “ato” from tomato in its place, you end up with the Italian word that means “ordered”.

      Now that you know this, how would you say in Italian “I have ordered”, “I ordered”, “I did order”?

       Ho ordinato

       (o or-din-art-oh)

      And how would you say “I ordered dinner” (you will say literally “I have ordered the dinner”)?

       Ho ordinato la cena.

       (o or-din-art-oh la chain-er)

      “The coffee” in Italian is:

       il caffè

       (eel ka-fe)

      So how would you say “I ordered coffee” (again, you will literally say “I have ordered the coffee”)?

       Ho ordinato il caffè.

       (o or-din-art-oh eel ka-fe)

      And once again, how would you say “for you”?

       per Lei

       (pair lay)

      And so how would you say “I ordered the coffee for you”?

       Ho ordinato il caffè per Lei.

       (o or-din-art-oh eel ka-fe pair lay)

      Good, now can you recall how to say “I visited”?

       Ho visitato

       (o visit-art-oh)

      How about “I spent”?

       Ho passato

       (o pass-art-oh)

      “I reserved” / “I booked”?

       Ho prenotato

       (o pray-no-tart-oh)

      “I prepared”?

       Ho preparato

       (o prep-are-art-oh)

      “I ordered”?

       Ho ordinato

       (o or-din-art-oh)

      “Paid” in Italian is:

       pagato

       (pag-art-oh)

      So, how would you say “I have paid”, “I paid”, “I did pay”?

       Ho pagato

       (o pag-art-oh)

      Do you remember what “we have” is from the “Building Blocks” section in Chapter 1? If not, don’t worry, it’s:

       Abbiamo

       (ab-ee-arm-oh)

      So, with this in mind, how would you say “we have paid”, “we paid”, “we did pay”?

       Abbiamo pagato

       (ab-ee-arm-oh pag-art-oh)

      And do you remember what “you have” is in Italian?

       Ha

       (a)

      So, how would you say “you have paid”?

       Ha pagato

       (a pag-art-oh)

      “The bill” in Italian is literally “the account”, which is:

       il conto

       (eel kon-toe)

      So, how would you say “you have paid the bill”?

       Ha pagato il conto.

       (a pag-art-oh eel kon-toe)

      How about “we have paid the bill”?

       Abbiamo pagato il conto.

       (ab-ee-arm-oh pag-art-oh eel kon-toe)

      And “I have paid the bill”?

       Ho pagato il conto.

       (o pag-art-oh eel kon-toe)

      Again, how would you say “I booked a table”?

       Ho prenotato un tavolo.

       (o pray-no-tart-oh oon tav-oh-loe)

      What about “I ordered the dinner”?

       Ho ordinato la cena.

       (o or-din-art-oh la chain-er)

      And how about “I paid the bill”?

       Ho pagato il conto.

       (o pag-art-oh eel kon-toe)

      Let’s now try making a list out of these things. Start by saying “I booked a table, ordered the dinner, paid the bill.” Take your time working it out in your head, bit by bit – there really is no rush. So again “I booked a table, ordered the dinner, paid the bill”:

       Ho prenotato un tavolo, ordinato la cena, pagato il conto.

       (o pray-no-tart-oh oon tav-oh-loe, or-din-art-oh la chain-er, pag-art-oh eel kon-toe)

      Let’s add “then” into this sentence to make it sound more natural. “Then” in Italian is:

       poi

       (poy)

      First try simply saying “then paid the bill”. How would you say that?

       poi pagato il conto

       (poy pag-art-oh eel kon-toe)

      And what was “and” in Italian?

       e

       (ay)

      Right, now say “and then paid the bill”.

       e poi pagato il conto

       (ey poy pag-art-oh eel kon-toe)

      Okay. Let’s try to put this all together and say “I booked a table, ordered the dinner and then paid the bill.”

       Ho prenotato un tavolo, ordinato la cena e poi pagato il conto.

       (o pray-no-tart-oh oon tav-oh-loe, or-din-art-oh