Don't do it! Conjugate negative imperatives, that is...

One thing that struck me as strange for a long time was how the infinitive (full -re ending, like parlare, capire, volere) kept popping up from time to time in a seemingly imperative manner.

Well, truth be told it still seems to happen occasionally in a manner I can't explain, but I managed to finally solve the bulk of the mystery by one day stumbling on the fact that you use the infinitive for the negative imperative! (*for the informal "tu", which is the most common...)

OK OK, so many of you might say "of course! That's what it says in the book...". That might be true, but somehow I missed that page. Others of you might be saying, "Huh? What the heck are you talking about?", so I'll break it down a bit.

An imperative is a command, when you tell someone to do something, such as "Bring me the book!" or "Close the door!" or "Shut up!". These are considered positive imperatives, and are conjugated according to a certain scheme... "Portami il libro!", "Chiudi la porta!", "Stai zitto!".

A negative imperative, naturally, is the opposite- when you tell someone to NOT do something. "Don't go to work", "Don't leave me", "Don't worry". All of these are formed simply with the infinitive... "Non andare al lavoro", "Non mi lasciare", "Non ti preoccupare".

To the untrained eye, those can seem a bit strange... "Don't to-go to work"? "Don't to worry yourself"? But lucky you, you're no longer untrained!

Ma tu fai senso!

A man from Italy arrives in NYC.
He goes to a candy shop and buys a candy.
Then the shopkeeper asks him : -Five Cents !-

The man becomes very angry and replies. : - TU FAI SENS !!!!!!!!!
Taken from here

Why was the man upset? Because "fai senso" is bad, and pretty much means "you disgust me".

Quick, pop quiz: How would you say "that makes sense" in Italian?

Virtually all learners start with the direct translation, which would be.... "fa senso"! (fare=to do, to make) See where I'm going here?

Indeed, "fa senso" does not mean "it makes sense" in the literal way, but rather "it's horrible" (more or less). To say that something "makes sense", you actually say instead that it "has sense", which would be "ha senso".

Some examples:
"It doesn't make sense to travel so much" -> "non ha senso viaggiare così tanto"

"In my opinion, the lawyer's argument didn't make sense" -> "Secondo me, l'argomento del avvocato non aveva senso"

Ultimately, that small joke/story (barzeletta) above is what really helped me remember this, and hopefully it'll help you too! Ha senso? Spero di si!

E' qui! O qua? Forse li'... o la!?

Two concepts: here and there.

Four words: qui, qua, lì, la.

That equation seems a bit difficult to balance at first. What's the difference? Which do I use?

First, the reassuring simple answer: don't worry. They'll all be understood, and you'll be fine.

But the not-so-simple answer is a bit more nuanced (and as it turns out, the nuance is why I like these words so much). It basically breaks down to two main principals:

1) Locality: above all, the difference comes in the very very fine distinction as to exactly where it is. Qui and Lì are more general. Qua and La, however, imply a tiiiiny bit more specificity. To put it a different way, "Sono qui" means "I'm here", like "I'm here at the store". "Sono qua" can be a bit more specific, like I'm right here where I stand. Similar for lì and la, where lì is like "over there", and la is "that specific point".

2) Speech style: I've noticed that people from different areas will lean toward one or the other for certain situations. So, it basically becomes an issue of style, and you use whichever sounds better according to you.

The most concrete example of this that comes to mind is someone telling someone else to "come here". I've heard parents yell at their children using both "vieni qui", and others "vieni qua". It seems to be purely regional.

So there you go. It almost falls into the realm of useless trivia, but it's subtleties like this that will eventually make you sound more and more natural.

Ciao alla prossima!

(P.S. Bonus tip! To say "it's over there" you say "è di la". I learned this wandering haplessly through the streets of napoli with my friends one night)

Benvenuti!

Ciaooo a tutti! Welcome to "Tante Piccole Cose"!

This blog is roughly related to learning italian, which has been my personal hobby for the last few years. Over that time I've reached a pretty decent level, which it turns out is fairly hard to do for someone who lives in California and can't go live in italy. It also turns out that there are a TON of people that fit that description who still have a strong desire to learn, and it's them that I hope to help and engage with this blog.

My goal with this blog is not to teach italian. I wouldn't be so presumptous as to say that I was good enough to be an authority on the language- I'm definately not! Instead, my goal is to share some of the many insights (cioe', le piccole cose :) ) I've gained through the course of my studies with other people who are in the same position I was. Things that are tough for english speakers, things I think aren't normally explained well, things that are really handy but rarely found in textbooks... you know, useful things!

Along the way I hope to also write a bit here and there on language learning in general, random things about italy, and about the state of the italian language in the US and beyond.

So, welcome once again, e in bocca al lupo per i tuoi studi!