Riesco a spiegare?

I was talking with someone a while ago, and in discussing my wife (who hasn't studied italian), I said: "ma riesce a capire bene".

The person I was speaking to didn't understand "al volo" (on the fly, right away), so I said "Cioè, può capire un po' di italiano", which they understood immediately.

The thing is, in this case "riesce", coming from riuscire/to succeed, is the more "proper" thing to say in Italian.  

As English speakers, we almost never say "I succeed in doing something", even though that might be what we really mean. We use "can" for nearly everything, ignoring the subtle differences in meaning that can be achieved with other words. I'm always reminded of the classic grammar school situation:

"Mrs. X, can I go to the bathroom???"

"I don't know, can you?"

"Arg! Fine, may I go to the bathroom?"

These nuances exist in Italian as well, it just that they tend to actually use them more, at least in the case of riuscire vs. potere. Riuscire is to succeed or be successful in doing something. Potere, generally, is more about being physically capable of it. It's a style point that takes some getting used to for English speakers, which really just means that it takes practice. I suggest keeping your ears open now that you're aware of it, and looking for examples. Over time, start to critique yourself when you want to use "potere"- are you talking about succeeding in something? If so, you might sound better using "riuscire".

The title of this post is a great example. In english, I would say "Can I explain (...this topic)?". But what I really mean to ask is not whether I can physically explain it, but whether I'll be successful in conveying the information. Therefore, "riesco a spiegare?" is the better way to go.

Allora, ci ho riuscito?

Strange singles

There are a few times when Italian uses the singluar when we, as English speakers, would use or expect the plural. This can be counter-intuitive, and like anything counter-intuitive, often leads to mistakes/difficulties for us.

Like most things I do around here, I'm not going to list off every possible example, just the ones that come to mind or prompt me to write an article. If you guys know of any examples, please feel free to comment. I say this because there are really only 2 examples that I want to talk about, which are VERY common:

1) Qualche - always takes the singular. It means "some" in the sense of "some thing", not as a quantity (like "some food", which would be "del cibo"). You might not think this is so strange, but I promise you that once in a while when you go to use it you'll catch yourself wanting to use the plural for whatever word comes next, and will have to go to the "grammar bank" to explicitly think of the "only singular" rule.

For a handy example, we can go to the title of a 1965 film, which I would translate to "For a few more dollars": "Per qualche dollaro in più". Note that "dollaro" is singular, though you would almost certainly translate it in the plural in english.

2) Gente - is a singular noun, even though it means "people", which is an inherently plural noun in english. This is always very tough for me, and it's one of several cases where I must "fly by grammar"- that is, do what I know is correct based on grammar knowledge instead of what I feel is correct. This really comes into play when "la gente" is the subject of a sentence, and does something, because that noun must, of course, be singular.

I could give some examples, but I suggest you head over to "google.it" and search for "la gente". You'll immediately see what I'm talking about. A few of the results that stood out to me:

«Pantheon chiude» concerto interrotto e la gente viene cacciata - "Pantheon Closed", concert interrupted and people chased out. "Chased out" might be a bit aggressive, but the point here is that you use the singular "la gente" instead of the plural that we'd use in english

"Spero che la gente torni ad esserci vicina" - "I hope that people come back to support us" - This phrase comes from a soccer player about a victory. My translation obviously isn't literal, but captures the sentiment. "Torni" is the singular, 3rd person, subjunctive of "tornare". It's subjunctive because it follows "spero che". The important part, though, is how "la gente" is used.

These are just a few small examples of this. I encourage you to explore by typing different phrases into google.it and see what shows up, or investigating more by searching the excellent forums at wordreference.com.

Alla prossima...