11

Is "bella" considered as an adjective and "ciao" as a noun? OR "bella" is the addressee and "ciao" is an interjection meaning "goodbye".

Stated differently, is it translated as "beautiful goodbye/ beautiful farewell" OR "O beautiful, goodbye/ goodbye, beautiful"?

** This is the famous partisan song. I first heard it in La Casa de Papel.

Improve this question
7
  • 2
    Welcome to Italian.SE!
    – Charo ♦
    Commented May 18, 2019 at 7:58
  • 1
    Can you explain more precisely in which context you found the expression?
    – Denis Nardin ♦
    Commented May 18, 2019 at 8:03
  • 2
    @DenisNardin: Immagino si tratti della famosa canzone dei partigiani.
    – Charo ♦
    Commented May 18, 2019 at 8:13
  • 1
    Yes, this is the famous partisan song. I first heard it in La Casa de Papel.
    – OS1799
    Commented May 18, 2019 at 8:26
  • 1
    Should probably be written bella, ciao! since that's the meaning in the song.
    – Bakuriu
    Commented May 18, 2019 at 14:54

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
7

The second one, definitely. Bye, beautiful.

I would translate A beautiful goodbye as Un bel saluto or Un bell'addio (masculine --- I'm not sure why, but in practice these kinds of salutations and interjections all get the masculine), and What a beautiful goodbye to Che bell'addio. All of these sound a bit awkward to my ear.

You can also say un bel ciao (again masculine --- as can be seen also in the recently popular meme ciaone), but I would take it to mean "a nice, friendly salutation with the word ciao". Note that ciao in Italian does not have the meaning of "farewell / final parting salutation" that goodbye has in English. If you wish to stress the fact that you won't see someone ever again, you use the more dramatic addio. So in the text of this song it's just a casual salutation.

As @DenisNardin points out in a comment (thanks!), the word ciao in Italian is a generic salutation used with the informal register (dare del tu), and is used indifferently both when meeting (like hello) and when parting (like bye). Given the context of the song I would choose to translate it to goodbye, but both meanings are possible.

Improve this answer
6
  • 3
    You already alluded to it, but it might be worth specifying that ciao in Italian means both bye and hello, so un bel ciao could also mean a nice greeting.
    – Denis Nardin ♦
    Commented May 18, 2019 at 9:36
  • “I'm not sure why, but in practice these kinds of salutations and interjections all get the masculine”: Just because. :) I'd say there is no precise “why”... Why is tavolo masculine and sedia feminine? (Yes, sometimes because Latin etc., but there is no real “because”.) And by the way, at the very least buonanotte and buonasera, as nouns, are feminine.
    – DaG
    Commented May 18, 2019 at 10:05
  • buonanotte and buonasera, as nouns, are feminine. Are they? Would you say "Mi salutò con un buonasera" or "Mi salutò con una buonasera"? The first one sounds correct to me, and Google seems to return more results for the first expression.
    – Federico Poloni
    Commented May 18, 2019 at 10:20
  • My ear (which of course is no authority, but I find un buonasera weird), Treccani, De Mauro and Zingarelli all agree on feminine for buonasera and buonanotte...
    – DaG
    Commented May 18, 2019 at 10:33
  • 1
    And, would you say “Ti ho chiamato per darti il buonanotte”?
    – DaG
    Commented May 18, 2019 at 10:34

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.