12
votes
Accepted
Ma che sei grullo?
From the Treccani vocabulary:
grullo agg. [etimo incerto], tosc. – 1. Sciocco, semplicione; si dice soprattutto di persona che ha scarsa vivacità d’intelletto e di chi per eccessiva ingenuità si ...
- 12.2k
9
votes
Accepted
Applying an adjective to a masculine AND a feminine word
In Italian, masculine + feminine = masculine plural: e.g., il tavolo e la sedia bianchi. It is probably more common to encounter this construction with a copula (il tavolo e la sedia sono bianchi), ...
- 3,380
8
votes
Accepted
When is it appropriate to say "Ciao ragazzi"?
The Zingarelli 2017 reports for the word ragazzo also the following meaning:
(fam.) uomo adulto (spec. come appellativo rivolto ai membri di un gruppo, oppure con tono di familiarità).
Similar ...
- 267
8
votes
Accepted
Come faccio a capire quando “torta” corrisponde a “cake" e quando a “pie”?
I must admit that, as an Italian, I am not sure about the difference between “cake” and “pie” (apart from specific cases). In fact, I find the two images quite similar and both look like particular ...
- 37.2k
8
votes
Accepted
Chi ha chiamato Mario? = "Who did Mario call?" or "Who called Mario?"
Yes, it's ambiguous and usually understood from the context. The ambiguity ensues from the fact that both "chi" and "Mario" are in the third person, so the verb could be referring ...
- 4,429
7
votes
Why does "mi piace" mean "I like" instead of "he/she/it likes me"?
You are just used to the English construction, but I'm not sure if it is more natural than the other. Compare with the English sentence Basketball pleases/interests/attracts me. What is the action ...
- 3,380
7
votes
Accepted
Mi Amore? Is this correct?
The correct translation depends, unsurprisingly, from context. The following is a rough set of indications, with the caveat that there no absolute rules, just guidelines
If you want to use it as an ...
- 12.2k
6
votes
Accepted
Commas to separate city and country?
None of those. That is a peculiar English usage, often even with well-known cities (such as “Washington, D.C.”).
In Italian, it is far less common having to specify the country a city is in: for ...
- 37.2k
6
votes
Wither on the vine
The Cambridge Dictionary says:
If something withers on the vine, it is destroyed very gradually,
usually because no one does anything to help or support it: When the
new resort was built, the ...
- 20.4k
6
votes
Accepted
What is the closest equivalent to the English "good to go"?
For a toaster you could say
È a posto, può andare
meaning it’s ready to go into operation again.
For a person you could say
Pronto a partire
or simply
pronto
meaning you’re ready to ...
- 20.4k
6
votes
Bravo, brave, or bravas?
When you say “Bravo”, you don't refer to the meal (or the music played, or whatever). You are saying that the person itself – chef, actor, musician, pupil – is bravo, that is, good at doing whatever ...
- 37.2k
6
votes
Accepted
"Colpo di espresso" = "shot of espresso"?
As a native Italian speaker, I've never encountered the expression "colpo di caffè espresso" (please notice the Italian word is "caffè", with a double "f"). In general, ...
- 1,201
5
votes
Accepted
Prepositions vs Preposizioni
The concepts of a preposition in Italian and in English are the same. Just consider two standard dictionary definitions: for English:
a word governing, and usually preceding, a noun or pronoun and ...
- 37.2k
5
votes
Accepted
Writing a friend a birthday wish in Italian...?
It should be:
Possano oggi e tutti i tuoi giorni essere pieni di avventure meravigliose, energia creativa e molte occasioni per brindare!
(Google missed some singular/plural agreements.)
As for ...
- 37.2k
5
votes
Accepted
Il sostantivo "manufatto" è il participio passato di un verbo irregolare?
No, è solo un aggettivo (e, in altri contesti, un sostantivo). Come si può leggere sui dizionari (per esempio sul Treccani), deriva dalle parole latine manu factus, cioè “fatto a mano”.
Un po' fuori ...
- 37.2k
4
votes
Accepted
Could a translation error lead to squares to not be considered as rectangles?
In Italian, a rettangolo is any quadrangle with four right angles (including squares), a quadrato is any quadrangle with four right angles and all sides the same length.
For the sake of completeness, ...
- 37.2k
4
votes
How to translate cool, nice, great in Italian
It's not so easy to give a common answer, you can use one of the following:
Bello (neutral)
Forte (a little childish)
Interessante (formal)
but I usually skip directly to a follow up question, ...
- 141
4
votes
Accepted
Is there an Italian equivalent for the English abbreviation "MC" for "main character?"
I have been a part of the Italian pen and paper role-playing community for over 20 years. In that context, when a player is referring to their own character, or any character controlled by another ...
- 1,556
4
votes
Accepted
Why does "mi piace" mean "I like" instead of "he/she/it likes me"?
The peculiar structure with verb "piacere" you noticed is due to the fact that literal translation of this Italian verb is "to be pleasing to (someone)", so that this "someone&...
- 39.1k
4
votes
What is this grammar? It's so confusing
The Italian sentence might be
Non era un legno di lusso, ma un semplice pezzo da catasta; uno di quelli che […]
However in this context the pronoun can be safely omitted and the sentence flows ...
- 18.1k
3
votes
Accepted
Can I use G instead of GG (short for days) if I am out of space?
As you can see in this page about abbreviations the correct way to express the abbreviation of giorni in Italian is gg.
It's up to you to decide if you can stretch a point about your constraints, but ...
- 20.4k
3
votes
Tradurre "Membership" o "Memberships", "Member" in assenza di contesto
Ciao Unfulvio,
Affiliazione e adesione sono le parole più italiane per dire membership. Allora potresti dire:
una persona parte di un'affiliazione (o piuttosto: un affiliato)
Puoi dare un'...
3
votes
Cross-language equivalents of Italian proper names
TL; DR: Such a website is unrealistic, because the relationship between names in different languages are way to messy for it to be feasible.
Name correspondence between languages is always flawed and ...
- 12.2k
3
votes
What is the Italian equivalent for "well/so"?
It has come the time for something (sudden decision): "bene, beh"
Bene/Beh, io vado (it's time for me to leave).
You want to push someone to do something or you're annoyed by something: "allora"
...
- 151
3
votes
Are there multiple ways to count age in Italian?
About why the cited sources gave 67 as his age at death, there is more than one possibility.
Maybe they just didn't know (and didn't care to search for) the day of his birth.
They rounded up his age ...
3
votes
Traduzione di "commit" in informatica (es. "git commit")
Essendo l'inglese la lingua "ufficiale" della programmazione, molti termini tecnici derivano dalla lingua comune, ma per loro specificità non sempre possono essere tradotti come il termine ...
- 288
2
votes
Bravo, brave, or bravas?
You would say 'Brava', 'Bravo' to a female, male person respectively, and 'Bravi' would be used for more than one person. These could be used for other living beings such as animals, but not for food. ...
- 121
2
votes
Accepted
Italian verb for "to hash" in computer
If you want one word in your sentence, I'd say protette:
Le password nel database sono protette con SHA256
Or if you want to make it clearer that they aren't passwords:
Le password nel database ...
- 2,238
2
votes
Is there an Italian equivalent for the English abbreviation "MC" for "main character?"
I think that English people tend to use acronyms much more than what Italians do; moreover, nowadays, there are many specialized sectors, each one having their own acronyms. Being English the language ...
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