Tutorial Transcript

Hello everyone and welcome back to my channel! How are you? I hope you're all very well, like every week! In today's video I would like to tell you about the difference between the two words "volta" and "tempo". We will see some examples to try to understand when and how to use these two words. So, let's start with the word "tempo". We use the word "tempo" to refer to weather. "Oggi il tempo non è bello, ci sono molte nuvole in cielo". In this case, the English translation of "tempo" it's "weather". But the word "tempo" is also used to refer to the another thing, namely to the time measurable with the clock, with the calendar, etc. And so it is to refer to the passing of the events. For example: "Do you have time to read my letter today?"; or "During the week I do not have time to watch television ". In this case, the English translation for the word "tempo" is "time". So we have these two uses of the word time, obviously they are not the only ones, because the word time is used in many contexts, for example, musical time is another thing. So, now let's just focus on these two uses of the word "tempo", which are those more easily confused with the word "volta", especially when talking of the passing of events. Thus, the word "tempo" is used to speak of weather, and of the measurable time in days, hours, etc. Let's move on to the word "volta". The word "volta" is used when talking about the repetition of an action or a fact. So, this is very important. The word "volta" is used to express the repetition of a fact. And this is where there is confusion between the word "tempo" and the word "volta". So if I have to say that an action is repeated over time, I have to use the word "volta". So: "This week I went to the supermarket a couple of times"; "I have read this book 3 times"; "I told you several times that I do not like it barley. " Ok? Why is there confusion? Because the translation of "volta" in this context is "time". "Una volta", "one time" or "once", that's why reason that the word is often mistakenly used "tempo" in Italian (nb who learns Italian). So if I have to stress the repetition of a fact, of an event, over time, I have to use the word "volta". "I play sports three times a week". I also want to tell you another context in which these two words have the same meaning. That is, when we talk about the past. When we refer to a past not well defined, then "in the past", simply, we can say: "una volta" or "un tempo". For example, if I want to say: "in the past they will cost them different ", I can use both these words. "una volta le cose erano diverse" and "un tempo le cose erano diverse". So, only in this case "volta" and "tempo" are synonyms, because they both mean "in the past". For the rest, keep the difference in mind we talked about in this video. Obviously these words, "volta" and "tempo", have also other meanings. "Volta" is a word you find in architecture, "tempo", as we said before, is one word that you find also in the music field, in the philosophical field, etc. So in this video we do not cover every meaning of these two words, but only those meanings that lead many students to confuse the use of these two words in the conversation. I stop here for today, because I want that you reflect well on these two words, because of course knowing how to use them well does it difference when talking. Thank you very much for watching this video and we'll see you in the next video next week! See you soon bye!

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