Italian Gone Sexy (IGS)

Lezione 16-'C'è'-'There is'

Ciao!! Come va?

Sei pronto? (Are you ready?) =D

Oggi we're going to learn how to say 'there is' in italiano. Buono studio!

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Particelle- particles

Cosa sono? (What are they?)= An adverb or preposition that has little meaning and used with verbs to make phrasal verbs.

In italiano there are many more particles than the very simple one we will be learning in this lezione.

First of all, 'ci' is the one we translate as 'there'.

Therefore you get the daily phrase:

'There is'... in English.

And in italiano? Well done! You must have said or thought 'Ci è', which is correct-but not exactly.

'Chee-eh' sounds pretty brutal if you think about it. Like past excerpts of pronunciation ugliness (or cacophony/cacofonia), 'ci è' gets simplified to a more dignified and shorter phrase: C'è.

Pronounce it how you see it: 'Cheh'.

Esempi:

C'è un cane. There is a dog.

C'è un gatto. There is a cat.

Simple! Just insert c'è within the sentence before the noun, just like in English.

C'è una donna-There is a woman.

C'è un uomo-There is a man.

C'è un bambino-There is a child.

C'è un albero-There is a tree (ALbero-tree. MEMORIZE!)

Use it to indicate any singular noun-both in English and in Italian.

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And negative? Add non BEFORE c'è:

Non c'è un bambino-There isn't a child.

Non c'è una donna-There isn't a woman.

Non c'è un uomo-There isn't a man.

E non c'è un gatto-And there isn't a cat (lol).

If you want to form a question, simply add a question mark at the end of the sentence, therefore your tone of voice is raised towards the end:

C'è il tuo fratello? Is there your brother?

Ci sono I tuoi fratelli? Are there your brothers/siblings?

Whereas you could also ask something like:

Non c'è tuo fratello? Isn't there your brother?

Non ci sono i tuoi nonni? Aren't your grandparents there?

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What about if I wanted to indicate more than one noun, though?

You would say: there are in English. So in Italiano, say it how you think it:

Ci sono. (Ci=there and sono=are, third person singular).

Ci sono=There are

So, you insert it before the noun which will be either in plural form or precede another noun:

Ci sono donne-There are women.

Ci sono bambini-There are children.

Ci sono uomini e donne-There are men and women.

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Add non BEFORE ci sono to form the negative:

Non ci sono donne-There aren't any women/There are no women.

Non ci sono bambini-There aren't any children/There are no children.

Non ci sono uomini e donne-There aren't men and women/There aren't any men or women.

You can also simply say:

Non ci sono uomini e non ci sono donne-There aren't any men and there aren't any women.

That sentence is used just to emphasize what is not there =)

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BUT you cannot always use this form of expressing singular and plural nouns, as you will often have to use a preposition which we will see in lezione 16- one of the last lessons of the Beginners level :).

Alla prossima!