Summer’s coming and that can only mean one thing…
Gelato!
In today’s lesson, you’ll learn how to order an ice-cream in Italian. Along the way, we’ll help you avoid some common mistakes tourists make in Italian shops and cafés.
To help you remember what you learnt in today’s lesson, below you’ll find bonus materials like word lists, quizzes and flashcards. But first…
Click here to listen to the “gelato al cioccolato” song
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Bonus Materials
Remember and practice using what you learnt with the bonus materials for today’s episode.
Today’s Italian words
Gusti = flavours
Cioccolato = chocolate
Limone = lemon
Pistacchio = pistachio
Vaniglia = vanilla
Menta = mint
Melone = melon
Crema = custard
Fragola = strawberry
Nocciola = hazelnut
Ciliegia = cherry
Stracciatella = vanilla with chocolate bits
Il mio gusto preferito = my favourite flavour
Due palline = two scoops
Pagare = to pay
Pagare alla cassa = pay at the till
Un cono = a cone
Una coppetta = little paper cup
Lo scontrino = the receipt
il banco = the counter
un cono cioccolato e vaniglia = a cone with chocolate and vanilla
Take the Quiz!
How much did you learn? Find out in the 5-minute Italian quiz!
Click here to take the quiz for this episode: How to order a gelato in Italian
Italian flashcards
Remember the vocabulary from your 5 Minute Italian lessons by downloading the digital flashcard pack.
- Download the flashcards: How to order gelato in Italian
- Not sure how it works? Click here to watch the tutorial.
Transcript
Please note: This is not a word-for-word transcript.
Summer’s coming, and that can only mean one thing. Gelato time! Find out how to order an ice-cream in this week’s episode of 5 minute Italian.
Ciao a tutti e benvenuti a 5 minute Italian, hi everyone and welcome to 5 minute Italian. I’m Katie…
And I’m Matteo. Ciao.
And in this week’s episode, we’re going to learn a very important skill. Possibly THE most important skill you will ever master in Italian, and that is… how to order gelato!! We’ll also learn be learning some useful phrases for buying things in shops and loads of different food names.
Alright so let’s get started.
Katie: So you walk in the shop, and the first thing you say is…
Matteo: Buongiorno.
Katie: And just a quick cultural note here, it’s really important to greet people when you walk into shops. So in England, it’s quite normal just to walk into a shop or a newsagent and look around, then say hi when you go up to the counter. Italians, always say buongiorno as soon as they walk in unless it’s a really big shop like a supermarket.
Matteo: Then, you walk up to the counter and you see all these amazing gusti, which means flavours.
Katie: Let’s here some of the ones which are quite similar to English and see if you can guess what they are.
Matteo: cioccolato
Katie: which of course means chocolate
Matteo: limone
Katie: Lemon
Matteo: pistacchio
Katie: This is interesting, so Italians say pistachio with a hard K sound.
Matteo: banana
Katie: no prizes for guessing what that means!
Matteo: vaniglia
Katie: that’s vanilla, with the “gli” sound in the middle – if you want to know more about how to pronounce that you can head back to episode 5 on how to pronounce “gli” in Italian. Another flavour similar to vaniglia is fior di latte. What’s the difference between vaniglia and fior di latte? I’ve never been able to figure it out.
Matteo: Vaniglia is vanilla flavour, fior di latte is just milk flavour.
Katie: What else have you got?
Matteo: Menta
Katie: Mint
Matteo: Melone
Katie: Melon of course. Now let’s hear some gusti which aren’t so similar to the English translations.
Matteo: Crema
Katie: Custard. Which sounds a bit odd, but it’s a really popular flavour in Italy and it’s amazing.
Matteo: Fragola
Katie: Which means strawberry
Matteo: Nocciola
Katie: Hazelnut, another amazing flavour
Matteo: Ciliegia
Katie: Cherry
Matteo: Stracciatella
Katie: Which is vanilla with chocolate pieces in it. Next, il mio gusto preferito – my favourite flavour. Do you know which one?
Matteo: Nutella
Katie: Certo, of course.
With so many flavours, it’s really hard to choose. Good news is, you don’t have to narrow it down to one. In Italy, you can get due palline (two scoops). Or if you’re feeling ambitious, you can get tre palline.
The standard portion is two, so the servers will assume you want 2 flavours, unless you specify otherwise.
So you’re looking at all these amazing ice-creams, but you can’t get stuck in just yet. First, you need to pagare (pay)
Matteo: That’s right, so in Italy, you have to pagare alla cassa, pay at the till, first. When you get to la cassa, you’ll need to tell the server if you want un cono or una coppetta.
Katie: A cone or a little paper cup. If you want to blend in like an Italian, don’t order your ice-cream and then pay. Go to the till and pay first.
After you’ve pagato (paid), you need to take lo scontrino, “the receipt” over to il banco (the counter) and finalmente, finally, you can order your gelato.
Matteo: The last thing you need to know is the word “and” so you can put the flavours together. “And” is e. So to say a cone with chocolate and vanilla you’d say… un cono cioccolato e vaniglia
Katie: Let’s do a quick recap. How do you say hazelnut
Matteo: nocciola
Katie: And how would you say “a cone with hazelnut and pistacchio?”
Matteo: un cono nocciola e pistacchio.
Katie: That’s your favourite flavour combo of all time. And what about if you want one of the little paper cups, how would you order one of those, with vanilla and strawberry
Matteo: una coppetta vaniglia e fragola
Katie: How about chocolate and custard?
Matteo: una coppetta cioccolato e crema.
Katie: And where do you pay, in the gelateria? How do you say “at the till?”
Matteo: Alla cassa
K: That’s it from us today – there’s a famous Italian song about ice-cream, which is called gelato al cioccolato. which is a slightly odd song, but I think it’s a fun way to keep learning, so we’ll link to that in the show notes.
Click here to listen to the “gelato al cioccolato” song.
Thanks for listening to 5 Minute Italian. And if you’d like to get more mini Italian lessons delivered to your inbox, don’t forget to subscribe by following the link in the below. Grazie, and ciao for now, see you next time, or as we say in Italian, alla prossima!
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