I have an Italian scene in my film and in this scene owner of the house asks his maid to answer the phone but maid doesn't reply. So can owner of the house say "disgraziata!" ? He is not very angry but he just means that maid is not useful for anything. Does "disgraziata" fit in there?
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1 Answer
Translating from the Treccani definition:
disgraziato 1a adj. [...] In an exclamation, addressing someone who has committed [...] a bad action [...], was severely reckless [...]
In current use, I think that saying disgraziato! to someone is very rude, and that someone on the receiving end would feel offended, particularly for something so trivial as not answering the phone once.
To me, it sounds more like something that a master would say to a servant (or a parent would say to a child) in the 19th century than what a common person would say to someone who cleans their house in 2022 Italy.
Having said that, it's quite possible that some people might still say this. It likely depends on the type of characters in your film, and especially on the relationship betwen the house owner and the cleaner.
"Good for nothing" can be directly translated as buona a nulla - however this is also quite offensive to say in Italian!
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1Oh, I see now. The character is not a cruel man but he has some self-confidence issues and it effects his control over his anger. So in this case if it is less offensive I will go with the buona a nulla then. Grazie mille Andrea! Commented Aug 23, 2022 at 10:39