Unit 77 Guidebook: talk about occupations
KEY PHRASES
Talk about occupations
Where do you work?
I am a police officer.
The engineers work with us.
My father is at work.
My daughter is a policewoman.
TIP
You better work
The noun lavoro in Italian means both work and job.
My father is at work.
My sister has a job.
And it gets better! Lavoro is also the I form of the verb lavorare, to work.
I work for them.
And speaking of work, in Italian you can talk about people's professions by using the verb to be, like in English, but you can also use fare + a word like il, la, l', etc.
He is a lawyer.
He is a lawyer.
TIP
What's your job?
Generally speaking, Italian doesn't use gender‑neutral occupations terms as much as English does. Most of them end in ‑o in their masculine form, and in ‑a in their feminine form.
| masculine | feminine |
|---|---|
| il poliziotto | la poliziotta |
| il segretario | la segretaria |
You will also notice that a lot of occupations end in ‑tore in the masculine, and in ‑trice in the feminine.
My husband is a researcher.
I know a researcher.
Here are some more examples.
| masculine | feminine |
|---|---|
| il pescatore | la pescatrice |
| il direttore | la direttrice |
| lo scrittore | la scrittrice |
He is a fisherman.
But there are a few exceptions to these patterns. For example, the feminine form of dottore is dottoressa.
TIP
The sounds of S
Like in English, the letter s in Italian has many different sounds.
There's no general rule for how s is pronounced, so keep your ears open when you see this letter.
As all double letters in Italian, double s always sounds longer and stronger.