Lymbery Sylvia. Colloquial Italian. Parte 1
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• non . . . ancora ‘not yet’
Non abbiamo ancora mangiato. Perché non viene a
mangiare con noi?
We haven’t eaten yet. Why don’t you come and eat
with us?
Non sono ancora pronto. Puoi aspettare?
I’m not ready yet. Can you wait?
Note: ancora without non means ‘still’:
E’ ancora molto giovane. He’s still very young.
C’è ancora tempo. There’s still time.
or it can be used thus:
Vuoi ancora dell’insalata?
Do you want some more salad?
C’è ancora del caffè?
Is there still (any more) coffee?
• non . . . nessuno ‘no one’, ‘nobody’, ‘not . . . anyone’
Non conosco nessuno a Napoli.
I don’t know anyone in Naples.
Non abbiamo visto nessuno.
We didn’t see anyone.
It can also precede the verb, in which case non is not used:
Nessuno fa le lasagne al forno come mia madre.
No one makes lasagne like my mother.
nessuno can also be used with a noun, i.e. as an adjective. It
then behaves like un. When there is a verb and nessuno comes
after it, non must precede it:
Non si vende in nessun negozio in questo paese.
It’s not sold in any shop in this village.
• nè . . . nè ‘neither . . . nor’, ‘not . . . either . . . or’
Non conosco nè la signora Biondi nè suo marito.
I know neither Mrs Biondi nor her husband/ I don’t know
either Mrs Biondi or her husband.
Nè Mario nè Carla possono venire.
Neither Mario nor Carla can come.
220 Unit 15: Buona fortuna!
Notice in the second case, since nè . . . nè precede the verb, non
is not necessary. This is always the case when the negative
expression precedes the verb.
Most negatives can be used alone:
– Sei andato negli Stati Uniti? – Mai.
– Have you been to the United States? – Never.
– Chi ti ha aiutato a fare tutto il lavoro? – Nessuno.
– Who helped you do all the work? – No one.
– Che cosa hai imparato alla conferenza? – Niente. Non ho
capito!
– What did you learn at the lecture? – Nothing. I didn’t
understand!
Reminder: When used with the passato prossimo, niente, nulla and
nessuno go after the past participle. The other negatives go before
the past participle.
Non ho mangiato niente.
Non ho visto nessuno.
But:
Non ho mai visto il presidente.
più
ancora
With nè the negative word goes in front of what it is negating:
Non ho nè mangiato nè bevuto.
Non ho mangiato nè carne nè pesce.
Exercise 4
Say the opposite of the following.
1 Vado spesso al cinema.
2 Vedo molta gente nella piazza.
3 A Maria piace tanto la musica rock.
4 Carlo ha molti amici.
5 Mangio sempre al ristorante.
6 Il direttore beve molto.
7 Ho molto da fare.
8 E’ già arrivato il professore.
Unit 15: Good luck! 221
Offering to do something, insisting on
doing something
How does Edoardo offer to get the lottery tickets? Vado io a pren-
derli. One of the cases in which you use the pronoun io rather
than omitting it, is when you are offering to do something. In
English you would stress the ‘I’ with your voice. In Italian you put
it after the verb:
Lo faccio io.
I’ll do it.
Pago io.
I’m paying.
Dialogue 2
Se fossi in te
Aldo, whose Sicilian holiday we heard about, is troubled. He has
been asked by the company he works for to move to the US for two
years to oversee a new development the company is planning. It is a
promotion and a challenge he would love to accept. But his wife has
her career and the children are in high school (liceo). Enrico spots
him looking glum in the canteen and gets him talking.
1 Is Patrizia, Aldo’s wife, pleased at the prospect of two years in
the US?
2 Why does Aldo think it may be difficult for Maria to go?
3 Enrico thinks it may offer exciting possibilities for Patrizia. In
what way?
4 Why does Enrico think it’s an opportunity for the children?
ENRICO: Bravo, congratulazioni. E’ un’occasione meravigliosa.
Patrizia dev’essere molto contenta.
A
LDO: Magari! Non ho ancora avuto il coraggio di parlargliene.
Se fosse casalinga . . . Ma ha il suo lavoro che non
lascerebbe mai.
E
NRICO: Ah, capisco.
A
LDO: Poi ci sono i ragazzi. Maria è all’ultimo anno di liceo.
Ha la maturità quest’anno e dovrebbe iscriversi all’
università in autunno.
222 Unit 15: Buona fortuna!
ENRICO: Guarda, Aldo. Se fossi in te, ne parlerei subito con
Patrizia. Tenerti tutto per te non risolve niente. E poi,
chissà? Potrebbe essere un’opportunità anche per lei.
Può darsi che possa avere un anno o due di aspettativa.
Forse potrebbe lavorare anche negli Stati Uniti o magari
fare un master. Lì sono all’avanguardia nel suo campo.
ALDO: Non avevo pensato a questo. E’ vero. Se potesse
aggiornarsi in un’università, ne avrebbe vantaggi per il
suo lavoro. Ma i ragazzi, come potrei convincerli? Se
avessero 4 o 5 anni, se facessero ancora le elementari.
Ma hanno la loro vita, le loro amicizie. Alla loro età è
difficile partire.
ENRICO: Ma Aldo, non lo sai? Due anni negli Stati Uniti e il loro
inglese sarebbe perfetto. Oggi è tanto importante per
un giovane conoscere bene l’inglese. E anche per loro
ci sono possibilità nel campo degli studî.
ALDO: In effetti, hai ragione.
ENRICO: Se fossi in te, presenterei la cosa come una decisione
collettiva da prendere insieme nell’interesse dell’intera
famiglia.
Vocabulary notes
se fossi in te ‘if I were you’ (you can say se fossi te, but in is often
used; fossi is explained below, p. 224)
magari! ‘if only she were!’ (in this context; see below, p. 229)
Unit 15: Good luck! 223
maturità* the high school leaving certificate in Italy
(necessary to enrol in a university: see notes)
aggiornarsi ‘to get up to date’
le elementari ‘elementary’ or ‘primary school’ (classi is understood)
The imperfect subjunctive: ‘If I were
you . . .’
When you express an idea needing the conditional in the main
clause, you need the imperfect subjunctive in the ‘if’ clause. The
idea you are expressing is that if something were the case, then
certain things would follow. You are talking about the improbable
or even impossible.
Se io fossi in te, direi tutto a Patrizia.
If I were you, I would tell Patrizia everything.
Se avessi tempo, lo farei volentieri ma oggi non posso.
If I had time I would happily do it but today I can’t.
Se potesse, ci aiuterebbe.
If he/she could, he/she would help us.
The subjunctive and other moods/modes
Language learners tend to panic at the word subjunctive, but they
should try not to. What follows is technical but is given to try to
clarify what the subjunctive is. Italian grammarians classify verbs
into modi. This is usually translated into English by the word
‘mood’ but ‘mode’ might convey the sense better since the word
refers to the manner in which the speaker presents the action or
state of the verb. The modi are:
(a) Modi finiti: these have tenses and different forms for each
person.
1 The indicative (indicativo), the mood/mode for presenting facts,
straightforward statements:
Carlo mangiava. Charles was eating.
2 The imperative (imperativo), the mood/mode for giving orders:
Sta’ zitto! Be quiet!
224 Unit 15: Buona fortuna!
* In a recent reform of the education system, the name of the examination was
changed to esame di stato, but it is still often referred to by the old name maturità.
3 The conditional (condizionale), the mood/mode for actions that
depend on a condition being fulfilled:
Se venisse, gli parlerei.
If he came, I would speak to him.
4 The subjunctive (congiuntivo), the mood/mode for expressing an
element of subjectivity with regard to the action (for example,
doubt about it, desire that it should take place etc.). In the case
we have been dealing with the speaker is expressing lack of
probability.
Se fosse casalinga, le cose sarebbero diverse.
If she were a housewife, things would be different.
(b) Modi non finiti: these do not have different forms according
to the person.
1 The infinitive (infinito), this can be present or past:
Present:
essere o non essere
to be or not to be
Past (for verbs using avere for the passato prossimo):
avere amato e avere perduto
to have loved and lost
Past (for verbs using essere for the passato prossimo):
essere andato
to have gone
2 The participle (participio), the ending can be changed as if it
were an adjective:
finito/a/i/e finished
3 The gerund:
andando a Roma going to Rome
The form of the imperfect subjunctive
The subjunctive has four tenses: present, imperfect, perfect and
pluperfect. The form of the imperfect subjunctive is not difficult,
and you can use it without knowing the above summary of modes,
Unit 15: Good luck! 225
but for some learners it helps to get the full picture clear. Take
the same root as for the imperfect indicative (see Unit 13). Any
verb that has a special root for the imperfect (e.g. fare) will have
the same special root in the imperfect subjunctive, with three
exceptions (see below). The endings are as follows.
parlare decidere partire fare
parlassi decidessi partissi facessi
parlassi decidessi partissi facessi
parlasse decidesse partisse facesse
parla
ssimo decidessimo partissimo facessimo
parlaste decideste partiste faceste
parlassero decidessero partissero facessero
The stress in the first and third person plural, falls on the ante-
penultimate syllable.
The three irregular verbs are:
essere dare stare
fossi dessi stessi
fossi dessi stessi
fosse desse stesse
fo
ssimo dessimo stessimo
foste deste steste
fossero dessero stessero
The stress occurs as with the regular verbs.
In Dialogue 2 you met the most common use of the imperfect
subjunctive. There are those who say the subjunctive is dying in
Italian but this usage is very much alive.
Exercise 5
How would you say in Italian:
1 If we went to Rome we would see Marco.
2 If he wrote to me I would answer.
3 If we had the money, we would help him.
4 If you won the lottery, Anna, what would you do? (tu)
5 If you won the lottery, Prof. Turco, what would you do?
6 If they knew, they would be pleased.
226 Unit 15: Buona fortuna!
The pluperfect subjunctive and the
past conditional
These are used to say what you would have done if . . . Look at
these sentences:
Se avessi saputo, non avrei parlato così.
If I had known, I would not have spoken in that way.
Se fossimo partiti un quarto d’ora prima, saremmo arrivati
in tempo.
If we had set off a quarter of an hour before, we would
have arrived in time.
The events have taken place, they are past, but if only the clock
could be put back . . . In order to express that idea, both tenses
have been put into the past, using avere plus a past participle in
the case of verbs that form their passato prossimo with avere, and
essere for those that make it with essere. The names given to these
tenses are:
Pluperfect subjunctive:
avessi saputo, fossimo partiti
Past conditional:
avrei parlato, saremmo arrivati
Note: In colloquial speech this idea can be expressed by two imper-
fect tenses:
Se mi diceva che era stanco, lo aiutavo.
If he had told me he was tired, I would have helped him.
Se non andavo alla festa di Giulia, non incontravo Tommaso.
If I hadn’t gone to Giulia’s party, I wouldn’t have met
Tommaso.
This way of avoiding the subjunctive is one that some Italians
prefer to take – and you might too.
Exercise 6
Did you ever play the game of consequences? Here are some
actions and their consequences. If one thing hadn’t happened
neither would the other. Or if someone had done something, some-
thing else would not have occurred. Can you say this?
Unit 15: Good luck! 227
Example: Sono arrivata in ritardo. Mio marito si è arrabbiato.
Answer: Se non fossi arrivata in ritardo, mio marito non si
sarebbe arrabbiato.
If I hadn’t arrived late, my husband would not have
got angry.
1 Non mi ha detto che era stanco. Non l’ho aiutato.
2 Ha bevuto tanto. Si è sentito male.
3 E’ andato veloce. Ha avuto un incidente.
4 Sono andata alla festa da Giulia. Ho incontrato Tommaso.
5 Ho comprato un biglietto della lotteria. Ho vinto un
premio.
Ways of saying ‘perhaps’
While talking of the unlikely and what one would do if circum-
stances allowed, you often need to say ‘perhaps, maybe’. Italian
has more than one word for this.
Using forse
forse is problem-free. It expresses doubt, uncertainty, hesitation or
possibility, including the idea of hope:
Forse viene domani.
He/she may be coming tomorrow, perhaps he/she’ll come
tomorrow.
E’ stato forse un errore.
Maybe it was a mistake.
Using può darsi
può is of course the third person singular of the verb potere ‘to
be able’. You can also say può essere. Used by itself può darsi is
very common and does not present any problems; but to introduce
a clause it becomes può darsi che and needs to be followed by a
subjunctive:
Può darsi che possa avere un anno o due di aspettativa.
Maybe she’ll be able to have a year or two’s leave.
This form and use of the subjunctive will be dealt with in Unit 17.
228 Unit 15: Buona fortuna!
Using magari
magari has two meanings. The tone of voice tells you which.
(a) ‘Perhaps’ (like forse):
Magari viene domani.
He may be coming tomorrow.
Magari è stato un errore.
Perhaps it was a mistake.
(b) ‘Would that it were so’, expressing strong desire or hope:
– Hai vinto? – Magari!
– Did you win? – I wish I had!
– Patrizia deve’essere contenta . . .
– Magari!
– Patrizia must be pleased . . .
– I wish she were!
In this use it can be used with the imperfect subjunctive:
Magari fosse vero!
Would to God it were true!
Expressing doubt: chissà?
This literally means ‘who knows?’ and can also be written chi sa?.
It is also used to express doubt, uncertainty or vague hopefulness:
Ci rivediamo, ma chissà quando.
See you again, but goodness knows when.
Reading
Per le vie dei borghi d.o.c.
I paesini più belli d’Italia
1 What are the two requisites to qualify for membership of the
club?
2 The author is suggesting by implication that the readers will
want to . . . do what?
Unit 15: Good luck! 229