31 Comments
I have a very hard time understanding what the audio is saying, I can't make out the sounds she is making a lot; does anyone else have this problem?
Glad to hear I'm not the only one. She tends to drop sounds off the words just like the Florentine Italians do. It's annoying for a learner but I understand the Florentine accent better! Still very annoying!
Yes I have this problem too, especially in any situation with background noise. I have heard other Italian speakers that enunciate more clearly and have harder consonant sounds (if you've ever heard the people speaking on Coffee Shop Italian that is a good example) and that would be a much easier voice to learn from.
Interesting to see that "tempo" means both weather and time... just like "temps" in French and "vreme" in Bulgarian and most other Slavic languages.
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I think you missed the word "I' in your answer. :-) I don't know....instead of the informal "dont know..."
Yes, I know, but I'd like to know if the informal answer (without "i") could be used as well.
Your sentence as written would typically be considered incorrect except in the context of a real time exchange such as a conversation or texting/chat. This is because English does not have special verb endings to indicate the subject. In a real time conversation, the subject will be known, which is why we often leave them out when talking or texting. But without the context of the real time conversation, things can become ambiguous (who doesn't know? You don't know, or they don't know?). As such, it would be considered incorrect in any written context. Again, texting and chatting are technically written, but move like spoken language and in fact are almost their own language with their own conventions and rules. So if your asking if there would ever be a situation when that would be correct, well, it depends on what you mean by "correct"... (But it's almost always best to err on the side of more grammatically correct than less.)
I think I agree with EmilyAS. We should all strive to speak and write formal English. Also, I think that it might confuse a lot of people if they encode informal grammar and mix it with formal grammar.
Shouldn't this also be "I don't know if I have the time" as in like not sure if you have your watch?
I think the meaning here is something like "I don't know if I have time (to do something)"
"Non so se c'è tempo" is general
"Non so se ho tempo" means that I don't know if I will make it in time, because my schedule is tight. I don't know for the schedule of other people.
"Don't know if I have time." is not accepted as a correct answer. While I think it's a sentence I could use in (informal) English <> Do you agree/disagree?
You really have to practice these lessons often. I have done this lesson 4 times now and this is the first "tempo" I have come across "tempo." =)
Pay attention Jenna! Tempo only means time as the one that flows... If you mean "the first time" you have to use volta (= la prima volta)
Learned that a week ago! Thank you for letting me know though. I wish these had date stamps longer than a week. =)
This particular audio does not pick up my pronounciation correctly. I know I keep saying it correctly. Frustrating!
