Monday, December 14, 2009

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!

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