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sabato 1 novembre 2008

Parole del giorno

Figliola, figliolo... daughter, son
bagascia...someone making a fool of herself
vischiata...spoiled
dispreggiativo...insulting
le mele: butt cheeks (literally apples): Alza le mele!: get up!

There are so many patterns of speech in Italian that just can't be expressed in English. As Rosa told us during orientation, the culture and the language are tied together and you can't separate them. And even though it is much easier for me to express myself in English, I'm starting to think in the patterns of Italian. For example the word invece. Literally it means instead, but its uses don't correllate with the uses of instead in English. Conversationally, you use invece to distinguish yourself, usually from whom you're speaking to.
Io mangio colazione alle otto
Io invece non mangio mai prima le dieci.
You can't do that in English that I know of. Not as elegantly, at least.

1 commento:

betsy (pharmgirl) ha detto...

Beth - here's a word i heard in Italy that nobody could really translate for me: comunque

not sure if I'm spelling it right - but everyone was saying this over and over