Learning Italian in Rome - Phrase of the Week: Fatto io (I made it.)

Okay, this is basically an excuse to post one of my favorite Italian commercials (ironically, starring an American actor). No, it isn’t the George Clooney Nespresso spots, though I like those too. It’s a pretty old one by Dustin Hoffman. 

I also needed something short and sweet, but with an expression I’ve heard a lot. Drumroll please…

Fatto io.

Expr: Short for “L’ho fatto io.” - I made it.
Related: “Faccio io.” - I’ll do it.
Also Related: “Facciamo noi.” - We’ll do it.
Heard a lot: “Fasciate voi?” - Are you all going to do it?

Obviously, the verb Fare (to do) is pretty nifty, and above are just a few of its uses. Are we ready for the video?

Lezioni di Caffè - Lessons in Coffee

Super easy, right? Here’s the quick and dirty breakdown. (Note, these aren't literal translations. It's how I would actually say these phrases in English.)

Maestro. Signore Vergnano. Tu insegna a me il caffè Italiano. Cominciamo! 

Okay, to be fair, I do think this line should have been in the Lei form (seeing as how he started off with “Maestro” and “Signore). Nonetheless, they are being informal. The only things you probably need to know here is that insegnare is the verb “to teach” and cominciare is the verb “to start” 

Those who’ve learned how to conjugate -are verbs might ask: “So if he’s using the Tu form, why did he say insegna instead of insegni?” Short answer? He’s using the imperative form (giving an order), in which case the conjugation is flipped (Italian is evil, I know). 

Cominciamo is the equivalent of us saying “Let’s start!”

Lungo. Normale. Corto. Macchiato. Scusa Sig. Vergnano.

Okay, the words are the same (Long, Normal, Short, Macchiato), but in Italy, these sizes have no relation to what you’re used to at Starbucks. A caffè normale is an American espresso. A macchiato is an espresso with a dollop of milk (a very small dollop). One would think that lungo would be a double espresso, but no—it’s an espresso with a little more hot water (but the same amount of coffee/caffeine). Corto is obviously an espresso with a little less water. An actual double espresso would be a doppio. Everyone probably already knows that scusa means “Pardon/I’m sorry.”

Franco, ti piace? Moltissimo. Ahh… Fatto io.

Ti piace? means “Do you like it?” The verb to like “piacere” works quite differently than in English. The way I think about it is that it literally means “To be pleasing to.” (A te=ti) piace il caffè? literally translates to “Is the coffee pleasing to you?” as opposed to “Do you like coffee?”

Dulcis in fundo, Fatto io means “I made it.”

Learning Italian in Rome - Sign of the Week - BiciRoma ROAR (October 26, 2014)

As you can probably tell, I'm still playing around with the format of these posts. Up until now, the signs I've picked have been a tad light on text, so it made sense to do the translation beneath. However, the one I've chosen today has a ton of information, so I had to get creative.

This post also serves as a public service announcement: if you own a bike and are in Rome on the 26th, this could be fun! Since one of the named sponsors is a bike rental company, there's a good chance you'll be able to rent a ride as well. 

I'll be participating in the "Ciclopasseggiata," assuming I don't oversleep... (I put my chances at fifty-fifty).

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Original Sign - BiciRoma Roar 26 Ottobre 2014
Photo Credit: BiciRoma.it

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BiciRoma Roar - October 26, 2014 - Rough English Translation

By the way, my Italian teacher stumbled upon this blog recently, and she pointed out some pretty glaring spelling mistakes in my earlier posts. Mi dispiace ( I apologize). I'll try to correct them a little later this month.

Ciao, tutti! Ci vediamo presto. (Good-bye all! We'll see each other again soon.)

[Written with significant help from WordReference]

Learning Italian in Rome - Sign of the Week - Emergenza

EMERGENZA | TAKEN AT VILLA ADRIANA | TIVOLI (25-40 MIN DRIVE FROM ROME) | SEPTEMBER 20, 2014

It's been a little longer than a week since I posted, but who's counting? I spotted this sign on our recent trip to Villa Adriana and couldn't resist snapping a picture. It makes me feel a wee bit better when I mess up the congiuntivo imperfetto in class. 

Ci siamo? (Our Crossfit instructor uses this in place of "Are we ready?" As a rule, I no longer attempt to breakdown sentences when ci is involved. Non ne vale la pena - It's not worth the pain. Since we're on the subject, I avoid figuring out what the ne does as well.)

Moving on...

As you can see by the lovely UK flag, an attempt has been made to translate this sign into inglese. I'll let you come to your own conclusions regarding the accuracy of these ... umm ... phrases, but here's how I would break down the sign.

Emergenza = Emergency (so far, so good, sì?)

In caso di necessità = In caso di translates quite conveniently to "In case of." Though necessità does translate to "necessity," here it would be best translated to "need." Add the two together, and you get "In case of need." (Side Note: Most English signs of this nature would say "In the event of an emergency" rather than "In case of need." There is no explanation I can give an ESL reader as to why this is the case.)

Rivolgersi a(l)  = I have no idea how this ended up as "apply," since that's not what shows up in the dictionary. Rivolgere means to point or aim, and the reflexive form rivolgersi (a) means to turn to or go to someone.

(il) personale di vigilanza = Il personale (not to be confused with la personale) means staff, personnel, or employee. (If you're curious, the feminine form la personale means an art show or exhibition). La vigilanza means security or surveillance. Add those two together, and I'd translate the chunk as "security personnel."

sul luogo = Su (+il = sul) translates to a whole bunch of different prepositions in English, one of which is on. Luogo means location or place. While "on location" would be a correct translation, most English speakers would probably say "on site." ("On location" has too much of a Hollywood movie set feel to it)

o presso = O means or. Presso means near or at.

i presidi di vigilanza = Un presidio also translates to a whole host of things, from garrison and citadel, to a medical device. In this case, I think "outpost" or even a more generalized "area" best applies. This would make i presidi di vigilanza security outposts.

As such, I'd translate In caso di necessità, rivolgersi al personale di vigilanza sul luogo o presso i presidi di vigilanza to "In the event of an emergency, please direct yourself to security personnel, either on site or at the nearest security outpost." (not literal).   

Per urgenze telefonare al numero = Okay, urgenza does translate to urgency, but it also means an urgent situation (which is not the same as urgency.). Per literally means from, but, as we already know, prepositions in Romance languages do not translate well. In this case, I would translate per urgenze telefonare al numero as "In urgent situations, please call."

Thus concludes my sign of the week. Remember, I'm happy to take requests. If there's something you'd like me to attempt to explain or translate, shoot it to me in a comment or email, and I'll try my best. 

Ciao, tutti! Ci vediamo presto. (Good-bye all! We'll see each other again soon.)

[Written with significant help from WordReference]

Learning Italian - Sign of the Week - Io non posso entrare

Villa Adriana | Tivoli (25-40 min drive from Rome) | September 20, 2014

It's been a long while since I've done a Learning Italian post, and I'm trying to get back on the figurative blogging horse. Now that I live in Rome, I thought it best to shift the focus to day-to-day language as opposed to more esoteric stuff.

That said, I'm happy to take requests! My breakdown of the Gelato Commercial, had been surprisingly popular, which goes to show I'm horrible at predicting these things. If there's something you'd like me to attempt to explain, shoot it to me in a comment and I'll try my best. 

This sign is pretty self-explanatory (I'm trying to start small). I took this picture outside a gift shop and bookstore at Villa Adriana, which is also known as Hadrian's Villa (my Instagram feed has pictures). While this ancient Roman ruin is open to four-legged friends, the store is not. By the way, Italians va/vanno matto per (are crazy about) i cani (dogs), which is both a good and a bad thing. The upside if you have a dog is that they can more or less go with you anywhere. The downside comes from the significant percentage of dog owners who do not pick up after their pets, which means you may want to play a mental "poop patrol" game at all times (yes, even when you're at a several thousand year-old UNESCO world heritage site).

Here's a breakdown of what the sign says: 

io = I 
non = not
posso = can (1st person present tense conjugation of potere, v. to be able to)
entrare = enter (infinitive form, v. to enter)

Tie that all together, and you get "I can't enter."

Ciao, tutti! Ci vediamo presto. (Good-bye all! We'll see each other again soon.)

My Italian Word of the Week - Farfalla (n. Butterfly)

Smithsonian Live Butterfly Exhibit - Taken by Me - April 2014

Farfalla (n.)

n. butterfly
adj. butterfly-shaped (ex. bow tie, butterfly valve)
n. fig. person who is easily changeable, fickle
n. butterfly stroke (swimming)
n. type of pasta

definitions Corriere.it ; WordReference.com

Welcome to this week's installment of IWOW.

I'm a wee bit lazy today, so I picked something simple (and for which I have a picture). Farfalla is a butterfly. A farfalla can be used to indicate something is shaped like a butterfly. For example, una cravatta a farfalla  is a bow tie (i.e. a butterfly-shaped neck tie). Una valvola a farfalla is the throttle valve (i.e. a butterfly-shaped valve). A levered door handle/door lever is una maniglia a farfalla, and when car doors open by lifting upward (gull-wing), the feature is referred to as a farfalla. 

For most Americans, however, farfalla is a type of pasta, which brings us to this Barilla commercial from 1999. There's actually no talking in this spot (sì, sono pigra questa settimana), but it's cute and there's some text. It also is a really nice review of hypothetical sentences, also known to many an Italian student as "that darn imperfect subjunctive and conditional combination."

Uomo: Se fossi una farfalla volerei da te.

So, believe or not, "Fossi" is a derivative of the verb essere (to be). As you saw above, sono is the first person present tense conjugation of this verb (i.e. am). Fossi is the imperfect subjunctive mood. Before you launch into a rant about the subjunctive (which I have done upon occasion), remember it exists in English too. We don't notice it as native speakers, but it has boggled the mind of many an ESL student as well. Se (io) fossi, is equivalent to the English "If I were." I've tried explaining to a non-native speaker why one uses "were" instead of "was" or "am," and I've had no success. I usually end the discussion with "It's just the way English works."

Volerei is the present conditional conjugation of the verb volare (to fly) and NOT volere (to want). The present conditional is the equivalent of the English "would do something," so (io) volerei da te translates to "I would fly to your place." Put the two parts together, and we get "If I were a butterfly, I would fly to your place."

Donna: E io ti mangerei.

Since the two are still chatting in the hypothetical, the lady also responds in the conditional. Mangerei is the first person present conditional conjugation of mangiare (to eat). The entire sentence translates to, "And I would eat you [if you were a butterfly pasta...]."

Donna: È bello cenare con le nostre farfalle...

This sentence doesn't have any weird tenses. E bello translates to "It's good." Cenare is the verb to dine (i.e. to eat dinner). In plural, la farfalla turns into le farfalle. Put it all together, and we get "It's good to dine with our butterflies." (Yes, I know it's cheesy. 90s commercial for pasta--enough said). 

Uomo: È come guadare la stessa stella. 

Guardare is the verb "to watch/to look at." You probably already know stella means star and stesso/stessa means the same. Come means a lot of things, but in this case I think the whole sentence comes together to say "It's as though (we're) looking at the same star."

Donna: Che padre romantico avrà il nostro bambino.

Dulcis in fundo, padre means father and bambino mean's child. Avrà is the third person future tense of the verb avere (to have). The significance here is that she used avrà (simple future) as opposed to avrebbe (present conditional) to indicate a definite event in the far future (as in not tomorrow/next week/or even next month--which Italians tend to use the present tense for). This line translates to "What a romantic father our child will have." (i.e. I'm pregnant).

Since I've been avoiding carbs, I'm now quite hungry. Ciao, tutti! Ci si vede il giovedì prossimo. (Good-bye all! See you again next Thursday.)

Disclaimer: I am writing this as a student of Italian. If there is anyone out there who would like to add to or correct my posts, please leave a comment.

My Italian Word of the Week - Scusa (n.) and Scusare (v.)

Häagen-Dazs® - Gelato - Sea Salt Caramel

Scusa (n.)

n. an apology
n. a pardon/forgiveness
n. an excuse
n. a defense, justification

Scusare (v.)

v. to excuse, to pardon
Conjugation: Italian Verbs

definitions Corriere.it ; WordReference.com

Welcome to this week's installment of IWOW.

If you're like me and get most of your TV entertainment through Hulu, you've experienced the commercial-loop effect. By this I mean having the same exact commercial play over and over again, so much so that you've seen it 4 times over the course of a single episode. I also go on Grey's Anatomy binges, which is how I cope with post-submission nail-biting. Perhaps because of the viewer demographic, the looped advertisements I've had to watch were for Haagen-Dazs' relatively new Gelato line. Luckily for me, this commercial is entirely in Italian.

Before I break down the short clip below, let me quickly go over one of the most useful noun-verb sets in Italian: Scusa (n. an apology or excuse) and Scusare (v. to excuse or pardon).

What you will probably hear most often is the phrases Scusa, Scusami, Mi Scusi, or Scusate, all of which translate to "Pardon me," "Excuse me," or "Forgive me" in English. You would say this when you're bumping into people as you try to squeeze off a bus, or if you've just hangrily snapped at your husband and needed to say sorry.  (Hangry=hungry+angry. Yes, it's a made up word)

Now don't let the "a"s and "i"s fool you. At first glance, you would think that Scusa/Scusami is formal and Mi Scusi is informal because you've been taught to recognize the former as the Lei conjugation of scusare and the latter as the Tu conjugation. It's actually the other way around in this case because (wait for it...) we're in the imperative tense (i.e. you're "ordering" the person to forgive you). This tense has it's own conjugation scheme (that is very similar to the subjunctive), and thus Scusa/Scusami is actually informal and Mi Scusi is formal. You could, however, avoid this entire conundrum of you're speaking to more than one person and opt for Scusate, the Voi (second person plural) form.

I loathe the imperative because it has weird rules (such as using the infinitive for negative statements), so I prefer to avoid it when I can. As such, I prefer the longer but less confusing route: Devo chiederti scusa (informal) or Devo chiederLe scusa (formal), which translates to "I must ask your pardon." This checks two boxes: (a) I'm not technically giving an order, and (b) I get to use the present tense of dovere (must, to be required to), which I'm more comfortable with. 

Which brings us to the Haagan-Daz Gelato commercial. The English subtitles give you a gist of the conversation, but I'm going to break it down line by line and give you a more literal translation so you can see how the moving parts all come together. It's super short, so we'll go through the entire clip.

Husband: Ciao Amore. -- Hello Love.
Wife: Me ne vado! -- I'm leaving!
Husband: Di nuovo?-- Again?

Okay, the first and third lines are obvious, but the second probably isn't. The wife is using the compound verb andarsene. These verbi pronominali are the bane of many an Italian student's existence because they just don't translate well to English. Basically, while andare means to go (and is a very irregularly conjugated verb already), andarsene (andare + se + ne) means to leave. Se and ne are pronouns, and the se part changes depending on the subject. Me ne vado is the first person present tense conjugation of this verb.

Wife: Si di nuovo.-- Yes, again.
Wife: Vado a cercare qualcun in grado di amare qualcun altro oltre se stesso -- I'm going to search for someone (who is) able to love someone else in addition to himself.

As you can see, vado is simply to go (and do something), as opposed to me ne vado, which means to leave. By the way, in grado di is a really useful chunk of language. Adesso, non sono in grado di palare Italiano bene means "Right now, I'm not able to speak Italian well." I find it much easier to use essere (to be) + in grado di (able) than potere (can, to be able to). Amare means to love, qualcun(o) means someone, altro means else, oltre means in addition to, and se stesso means oneself/himself. 

Husband: Vai a ta mama! -- Go to your mother!
Husband: E l'unica pazza che ti supporta -- (She) is the only insane woman that puts up with you.

Vai is the second person imperative (and present tense) conjugation of andare, so vai a ta mama obviously means "Go to your mother." L'unico/l'unica means "the only." Pazza is being used as a noun in this case to mean insane woman (although it can also be used as an adjective). The verb supportare literally means to prop up or to sustain, but it's used figuratively to mean "to put up with."

Wife: E finita. -- It's finished!
Husband: E a ora -- It's at (that) time.
Wife: Addio -- Farewell
Husband: Finalmente -- Finally.

Okay, so you can probably tell the translators took a wee bit of artistic license. Finito/finita means to be finished or done. Ora means time, so e a ora means "it's at (that) time," but figuratively means "about time!" Addio you should already know, and finalmente means finally or at last (I think they went with "good riddance" to add drama). And now we get to the Word of the Week. 

Wife: Scusami. -- Forgive me. 
Husband: Amore mio -- My love. 
Wife: Perche non mi chiedi scusa? -- Why aren't you asking forgiveness? 
Husband: Ma perche non chiederti scusa? -- But why don't I ask your forgiveness?
Wife: .... -- (All I hear is gibberish, sorry)

Since I went over scusami and chiedere scusa earlier, this should be easy. Amore mio is "my love" and is used as a term of endearment. Perche means why. Non mi chiedi scusa breaks down to "you not ask forgiveness to me," which doesn't literally translate. Mi  is a (to) + me (me). While a literally means "to," it's used in a lot of instances where an English speaker might use "from," as is the case here. In English, we say "ask for something from someone," but in Italian, it's chiedere qualcosa a qualcuno. In the next sentence, the husband's being sarcastic--as in, "Why don't I ask your forgiveness?". Then the wife screams something I don't understand.

Ciao, tutti! Ci si vede il giovedì prossimo. (Good-bye all! See you again next Thursday.)

Disclaimer: I am writing this as a student of Italian. If there is anyone out there who would like to add to or correct my posts, please leave a comment.

My Italian Word of the Week - Trovare

DVD Cover - Lo Hobbit: Desolazione di Smaug - Amazon.it - Warner Brothers (C)

Trovare (v.)

v. to find, locate, spot
v. to find, get, obtain (a desired object, goal, or outcome)
v. to find, uncover, retrieve (an object that was once yours)
v. to find, discover, observe, notice, come across, catch, stumble upon

v. to find, reckon, have an opinion

definitions Corriere.it ; WordReference.com
conjugations Italian Verbs

Welcome to this week's installment of IWOW.

This week, we're touching upon what I consider to be one of the most useful first conjugation (-are) verbs, trovare (note: I'll treat the reflexive version trovarsi to it's own post). Trovare means "to find", and as I've tried to illustrate in the translations listed above, it's used literally and figuratively in much the same way as "to find" is used in English.

The simplest use refers to locating an object, person, or place. For example, (io) Ho trovato le chiavi translates to "I found the keys." Devo trovare mio marito means "I must find my husband." The verb can also be used when referring to surprising or chancing upon something or someone. Ho trovato i ladri in casa  means "I found the burglars in the house."

When used in conjunction with adjectives and adverbs, trovare can come in handy for expressing opinions. Trovo noioso il film translates to "I found the film boring," and the informal greetingTi trovo bene means "I find you well/You look well." One can also use it to pass judgement on other people--Trovo scortese da parte tua dire queste cose roughly translates to "I find it rude on your part that you said those things."

Which brings us to the Italian trailer for Lo Hobbit: La Desolazione Di Smaug (okay, that was a horrible segway, I admit). While I'm mainly motivated by the prospect of looking at Orlando Bloom in elf form, my attempt to translate the first minute or so will definitely touch upon the verb "to find" (un anello, meaning a ring, for those not in the know). I'll also confess to needing to go back and forth between the English and Italian versions since there are lots of low frequency words in the opening. Ready?

Davvero. I raconti e le canzoni non rendono giustizia, a la tua enormità, o Smaug...l'immenso. 

I will probably never ever say this in Italy, but hey, picking out the words is kind off fun. Davverro means really or truly. Un raconto is a tale or story. Una canzone is a song. Rendere means a lot of things, but in this case it's used as to give. Giustizia means justice, and immenso means limitless. Put it all together, and you get: Truly. The tales and songs don't give justice to your enormity, or Smaug...the Limitless.  

Siamo i nani di Erebor. Siamo venuti a reclamare la nostra terra natia.--Io vi offro mio aiuto.

So un nano is a dwarf (yes, I looked it up). Venire means to come, reclamare to reclaim, and offrire to offer. La terra natia is the homeland, and l'aiuto is help. All combined, we get: We are the dwarves of Erebor. We have come to reclaim our homeland. -- I offer you (all) my help.

Pretty easy once you break it all down, isn't it?

Come sappiamo che non ci tradirà? Non lo sappiamo. 

Okay, this one gave me a hard time (I couldn't make out tradirà, so I had to Google it). Now that I know however, it's pretty easy since there are only two verbs. Sapere - to know, and tradire - to betray. With all the little words, the sentence comes together as: How do we know that he won't betray us? We don't know (it). 

Non c'è ancora un re sotto la montagna e mai ci sara. 

There's actually only one verb in this sentence--essere, the verb to be (in third person present and third person future). Un re is a king. Ancora means already, and mai means ever/never. Adding the cognate and the pesky little ci, we get: There isn't already (fig. has never been) a king under the mountain and there never will be. 

Non finirà qui. Con ogni vittoria questo male si rinforzarà. 

Today seems to be a verb day. Finire means to finish/end, and rinforzare to strengthen. Vittoria means victory and male means badness/evil. Summed up, we get: (It) will not end here. With each victory this evil strengthens (itself).

Now we can get to my favorite line. 

Legolas è molto affezionato a te. Non dargli speranza dove non c'è. 

Affezionato is an adjective meaning attached to or fond of. Dare means to give and speranza means hope. Together with all the annoying pronouns, the sentence means: Legolas is very attached to you. Don't give him hope where there isn't. 

Non ai alcun diritto di entrare in quella montagna. -- Sono l'unico ad averlo. -- Siamo stati ciechi. Nella nostra cecità, il nostro nemico e tornato. 

So here we get to witness the wonderful world of subject-verb-tense agreement. Sono (1st person singular present) and siamo stati (1st person plural simple past) both derive from essere, the verb to be. Diritto means right, cecità blindness, and cieco blind. You also get avere, the verb to have, in infinitive form (combined with the direct pronoun "lo") and in second person present "ai". Dulcis in fundo, nemico means enemy, and tornare to return. Altogether, we arrive at: You don't have any right to enter that mountain. -- I'm the only (one) (who) has it. -- We were blind. In our blindness, our enemy has returned. 

And now the last sentence, which obviously contains this week's word: 

Ho trovato una cosa nella galleria degli Orchi. -- Cosa ai trovato? -- Umm.... Il mio corragio.

Cosa  means something, and galleria a tunnel or underground passage. The rest of the words are cognates, so the sentences are: I found something in the tunnel of the Orchi (a made-up word, meaning goblins only in the Lord of the Rings world). -- What did you find? -- Umm... My courage. 

Ciao, tutti! Ci si vede il giovedì prossimo. (Good-bye all! See you again next Thursday.)

Disclaimer: I am writing this as a student of Italian. If there is anyone out there who would like to add to or correct my posts, please leave a comment.

My Italian Word of the Week - Raffreddore

Photo Credit: Flikr Creative Commons  - SuperHua (C) - Attribution License

Raffreddore (n.m.)

n.m. cold (acute respiratory inflammation)

definitions Corriere.it ; WordReference.com

This week's installment of IWOW is going to be the shortest yet because (io) ho il raffreddore, meaning "I have a cold." It's nothing serious, just one of those change of season things, but I tend to be an absolute baby when I'm under the weather. On top of that, writing while blowing one's nose lends itself to typos, so I beg your forgiveness in advance. 

According to the CDC, over 200 viruses can cause il commune raffredore (n.m. the common cold), although the rhinovirus is the most common type. By the way, a virus in Italian is il virus (thank goodness for life's small blessings). Symptoms include stanutire (v. to sneeze), il naso che cola (n.m. runny nose), il mal di gola (n.m. sorethroat), gli occhi lacrimosi (n.m.pl. watery eyes), and il mal di testa (n.m. headache). 

Il raffredore non si cura (one doesn't cure the cold), but there are multiple methods of symptom relief, including riposare (v. to rest), bere molta acqua (v. to drink a lot of water), and popping multiple caramelle per la tosse (n.f.pl. cough drops).

On that note, devo fare una buona tazza di tè (I must go make a nice cup of tea), so I'll bid you all a hasty adieu.  

Ciao, tutti! Ci si vede il giovedì prossimo. (Good-bye all! See you again next Thursday.)

Disclaimer: I am writing this as a student of Italian. If there is anyone out there who would like to add to or correct my posts, please leave a comment.

My Italian Word of the Week - Giusto

DVD - La Ragazza di Fuoco - Amazon.it - Universal (C)

Giusto (adj., adv., n.m.)

adj. just, fair, impartial
adj. legitimate, righteous
adj. correct, true
adv. exactly, precisely, on point
adv. just (recently)
n.m. the "right"

definitions Corriere.it ; WordReference.com

Welcome to this week's installment of IWOW.

So you probably noticed the new theme in my Italian Word of the Week posts. Ever since my classes ended, it's been a struggle to maintain the language, especially when it comes to listening comprehension. So I decided to link these posts to a movie trailer, allowing me to get a few minutes of deciphering spoken Italian in every week. 

This week's word is giusto, which you can see has a plethora of uses. For explanations of the adverb and noun forms, you can mosey on to the above-linked WordReference post. Today, I'm going focus on its use as an adjective.

Giusto is a cognate to the English adjective "just" and is used similarly to indicate a sense of fairness. For example, Il giudice e severo ma giusto means "the judge/prosecutor is severe but just/fair." By the way, judges and prosecutors in Italy are interchangeable, and they are both called giudice. Giusto can also mean "morally good/right", as in Credo che sia giusto andare da loro, which means I think it would be good/right to go to their place. 

I most commonly heard this word as part of the sentence (tu) Sei giusto  (you are right/correct) or E giusto (it's right/correct), and in my mind there's a connotation of precision or exactness to the word. Vorrei trovare la parola giusta per spiegare i miei pensieri (I would like to find the right word to explain my thoughts) is a stalling tactic I may have used once or twice in class.

On that note, let's check out the trailer for Hunger Games: La Ragazza di Fuoco (there is a tie-in to this word, I promise). 

Okay, I'll admit to needing to watch the English trailer before I was able to decipher the first 10 seconds. I'll tell you why it was so difficult in just a sec. 

Katniss: Qualsiasi cosa farò si ritorcera su di te and su di mama, e io non voglio.

So the reason I couldn't understand it (aside from the speed), was because I had never come across the reflexive verb ritorcersi before today. I looked it up, and it means "to backfire." Qualsiasi cosa is equivalent to the English "Whatever." Farò is the first person future tense of fare, the verb "to do." Su means "on". Te is the direct object pronoun for tu (you). Mama means "Mom" (thank goodness for cognates!), and voglio is the first person present tense form of the irregular volere, the verb "to want." Put that all together, and we get: Whatever I will do will backfire on you and on mom, and I don't want (it).  

Ready for the next sentences?  

Prim: Dagli ultimi Hunger Games, qualcosa e cambiato. Lo vedo. 
Katniss: Che cosa vedi?
Prim: Speranza

If you've been following these posts, you'd know that vedere is the verb "to see." Vedo is the first person present tense conjugation, and vedi is the second person informal present tense conjugation. Ultimo (adj.) means "last/most recent". Qualcosa means "something" while che cosa means "what (thing)". Yes, if you're wondering, cosa is the Italian equivalent of "thing." From here, you just need cambiare, which is the verb "to change", and it's used in the past tense in this case. Last but not least, speranza is the noun "hope."

Put it all together, and you get: Since the last Hunger Games, something changed. I see it. What do you see? Hope. 

Still with me. I'm stopping at the 0.45 mark, don't worry. We're almost there.

Peeta: Ci hai salvati. Lo so. Ma sono stanco di recitare per le telecamere, per puoi ignorarci nella vita reale. 

This is a bit easier. Once you know Ci means "us," it's easy to guess Ci hai salvati means "You saved us." Lo so means "I know it." Lo is "it", and so is the first person present tense conjugation of sapere, the verb "to know." Ma means "but", recitare is the verb "to act," and you're just going to have to trust me when I say ignorarci (a combination of ignorare and the direct object ci) translates to "ignore each other."

Since the rest of the words are cognates, we can put it all together as: You saved us. I know. But I am tired of acting for the cameras, to then ignore each other in real life. 

All right. Last set of phrases (and now you'll know why I picked giusto). 

President Snow: Lei non e quello che credono. Deve essere eliminata. 
Plutarch Heavensbee: Certo ma nel modo giusto. Al momento giusto. 

Lei in this case means "she," though it can also be used as the formal form of "you." Quello che translates to "what." Credono is the third person plural present tense conjugation of credere, the verb "to think." Deve is the third person present tense conjugation of dovere, the verb "must." Essere is the verb "to be", which you've already seen in the first person (sono), second person informal (sei),  and third person (è). And, modo means "way," leaving us with cognates. 

Putting all those words together, we get: She isn't what they think (she is). She must be eliminated. Certainly, but in the right way. At the right moment.

And thus concludes my attempt this week to keep my Italian fresh. Ciao, tutti! Ci si vede il giovedì prossimo. (Good-bye all! See you again next Thursday.)

Disclaimer: I am writing this as a student of Italian. If there is anyone out there who would like to add to or correct my posts, please leave a comment.

My Italian Word of the Week - Ghiaccio

DVD - Frozen - Amazon.it - Walt Disney Pictures (C) 

Ghiaccio (n.m.)

n. ice
adj. ice-cold, frigid

definitions Corriere.it ; WordReference.com

Welcome to this week's installment of IWOW.

It seemed only fair after my post on fuoco (n.m. fire) to do a post on ghiaccio (n.m. ice), which is somewhat related to my post on freddo (adj. cold). I was inspired by the recent tempesta di ghiaccio (n.f. ice storm) that somehow arrived in Washington, D.C. even though it's the end of March and technically the official beginning of primavera (n.f. Spring). It doesn't feel like inverno (n.m. Winter) is over since it's freddo come il ghiaccio (adj. ice-cold, frigid) right now.

On that note, check out the Italian trailer of Disney's Frozen, aka Il Regno di Ghiaccio. Not only is it a good learning tool, it's funnier in Italian than in English. 

Since ghiaccio is a pretty straightforward masculine noun meaning "ice," I decided to do something different today and attempt to translate the first 20 seconds of the video above. It has quite a few useful weather-related words, and for an Italian student with only 6 months of formal lessons under her belt, understanding it is no simple task. See if you can follow along. 

L'estate nella citta di Arundel non potrebbe essere piu calda o piu soleggiata, ma tutto sta per cambiare per sempre.

So let's pick out a few useful words. I gave away primavera (Spring) and inverno (Winter), and now you can add estate (Summer) to your list of seasons. While we're at it, I might as well mention autunno (Fall/Autumn). On the topic of weather, caldo/calda means hot, and soleggiato/soleggiata means cold. Without getting into the verbs, I'll give you the literal translation: Summer in the city of Arundel can not be more hot or sunny, but everything is about to change for always.

Ready for the next line? It's really short.

Arundel ... e completamente ghiacciata. 

You can probably guess at this point that ghiacciato/a is the adjective derivative of ghiaccio, and it means frozen. e is the third person present tense form of the irregular verb essere (to be), and completamente (adv.) is a cognate meaning completely. On a side note, "-mente" in Italian is used to form adverbs in very much the same way "-ly" is used in English.

Freddo, freddo,  freddo, freddo, freddo, freddo, freddo, freddo, freddo...

The above is my reaction whenever I step outside lately, and I'm not wearing a ball gown with no shoulder coverage. Freddo is the singular masculine form of the adjective "Cold"

Una bufera di neve a luglio, sì?

Dulcis in fundo (last but not least), una bufera (n.f.) means "storm, blizzard or squall" and can also be used figuratively to mean an "upheaval or distubance." Neve (n.f.) means "snow," luglio (n.m) means "July," and sì means "yes." Put that all together, and you get: A snow storm in July, Yes?

And thus concludes my attempt this week to keep my Italian fresh. 

Ciao, tutti! Ci si vede il giovedì prossimo. (Good-bye all! See you again next Thursday.)

Disclaimer: I am writing this as a student of Italian. If there is anyone out there who would like to add to or correct my posts, please leave a comment.