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I would like to ask the following question: besides people from Rome, what other Italians make frequent use of the word "mò" (meaning "now")?

Thanks!

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    For instance, Dante. :-)
    – DaG
    Jan 23, 2015 at 18:06
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    @DaG, se metti quel commento fai sembrare come se 'mo' si usasse normalmente in Italia, cosa che non è vera perché, invero, mo si usa solo al Sud.
    – Elberich Schneider
    Jan 23, 2015 at 21:47
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    @ElberichSchneider: I am sorry if such a confusion arose. I only meant to point out a curious fact (Dante used mo, and more than once) and to give a useful link (that Treccani article clearly specifies that «oggi la parola è viva nelle regioni centro-merid.»).
    – DaG
    Jan 24, 2015 at 8:31
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    Funny, although I'm a rather fussy native speaker, I didn't know that mo' can also be written without an apostrophe!
    – Walter Tross
    Jan 24, 2015 at 22:23
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    @iSar: I've seen your answer to this question and I think it's a pity that you deleted it. I think that simply you should reformulated it a bit because in the way it was it seemed more a question rather than an answer. It would be a good idea to add some examples of dialects or of regions of Italy that use the word "mo".
    – Charo ♦
    Jan 25, 2015 at 11:43

2 Answers 2

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Nowadays the word mo' (with or without the apostrophe), is commonly used in the center and south of Italy (I'm a northern, so please correct me if I'm wrong!). For instance, I heard it from people who live in Abruzzo and in Umbria, but also from people who live in Naples.

An example of its usage can be something like

Ho visto il tuo messaggio mo'

that means "I just saw your text message", or

Mo' chiamo Alessia

that is "I'm calling Alessia now".

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  • So it can mean both "now" (adesso), as well as "just now" (appena adesso), perhaps accoding to where in the sentence the word is found? I didn't know that.
    – John Sonderson
    Jan 26, 2015 at 14:34
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    I think that the position of the word in the sentence doesn't have any particular influence in this case, since "mo" is used only in the spoken language and in an informal context. The second sentence could be rewritten as "Chiamo Alessia mo'." and the meaning won't change.
    – user1143
    Jan 26, 2015 at 14:40
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    I cannot speak for other parts of Italy, but in Rome the examples with mo' at the end would sound unusual. One would say, in the two cases, «L'ho visto mo', il tuo messaggio» and, as given by ele_ctric, «Mo' chiamo Alessia».
    – DaG
    Jan 26, 2015 at 16:06
  • I agree with DaG, although the following is possible (but I don't know where exactly in Italy): Ho visto il tuo messaggio mo' mo'
    – Walter Tross
    Jan 26, 2015 at 18:30
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    @Roberto: you mean that lo faccio mo' mo' is more correct than l'ho fatto mo' mo'? I don't think so, but I may be wrong.
    – Walter Tross
    Jan 27, 2015 at 9:03
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Mo' è usato anche nelle Marche e deriverebbe dal latino "mox", "immediately"

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    Benvenuto su Italian.SE!
    – Charo ♦
    Apr 7, 2019 at 14:03
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    Perché “immediately” in inglese? E comunque “mo'” deriva da “modo”.
    – DaG
    Apr 7, 2019 at 20:13
  • @DaG Non credo che mo' nel senso di adesso or ora, com'è adoperato in certe parti d'Italia, derivi da modo; la derivazione da mox sembra in effetti più ragionevole. Tuttavia occorrerebbe qualche fonte più certa.
    – egreg ♦
    May 21, 2019 at 9:08
  • @egreg: In effetti il link che davo era sbagliato: quello giusto è questo, con il “mo'” di cui stiamo parlando e la stessa origine da “modo”, l'avverbio latino che, nelle specificazioni temporali, significa esattamente “ora, adesso, subito” (cito dal Castiglioni-Mariotti, ma cf. anche qui, al punto II.).
    – DaG
    May 21, 2019 at 11:40

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