Expressing the concept of "some" in Italian

I found this in my little song booklet-

"Some say in the village..."

"Dicen en la aldea..."

Thanks, but I have no idea what that is.

It's all I have <walks off feeling sheepish> Oh well.

It's okay. You can make it up to me in the usual way.

<unzips pants>

Haha! But seriously folks! Can anyone help me out here?

Kicky, posso aiutare?

See this :

Alcuni dicono che
quando è detta,
la parola muore.
Io dico invece che
proprio quel giorno
comincia a vivere

A word is dead - Emily Dickinson

A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say
I say it just
Begins to live
That day
:wink:

Re: Expressing the concept of "some" in Italian


I'm not easy with you paragraph, Kicky.

Consider :

- Without having some aesthetic concience - senza avere alcuna coscienza estetica

- Is there some conscience in the leadership? - ha un po' di coscienza nella direzzione?

lotsa!!





Isn't 'molto' used to indicate this, 'Molto buena!!'

Do you mean "molto buona"?

Bookmark

Thank you all, but you guys are confusing me with all these separate examples that don't have anything to do with my specific question. Here's the question again. This is all I want to know.

Kicky,

alcuno = someone, is this countable?
qualche = one of this, is this countable?

is something indefinite countable?

as I'm not a native english speaker, please divide your question as I can percieve the meaning..

Well, english is tough and unfortunately not a precise language, so translating can be hell.

Some depends on which of the 8buhzillion ways you're using it. It's as bad as up when it's not the opposite of down (don't get me started!) and the one that my Italian teacher loves: Get.

Someone, something is as Francis mentioned: when it's a subject or object, then you use alcune or qualche--Some would say that yaddi yaddi.

I want some bread or He took some of the cake is the di + mode. So, when it's an adjective "some bread" then it's di +

If you want to stay safe, don't get into some as, "Boy, you've got some hot avatar!" oy.

i learned italian a while ago, from the natives i used it for just about anything-- un po' di tutti, etc. parlo un po d'italiano, etc. ho un po di soldi, etc.


the probelm i had with taking it as a class is that the teacher holds you to these strict standards-- whereas, while living there, it's less formal and more relaxed. so, your teacher may want to slap my wrists for this incorrect version.

No, all the teachers where I take class are native speakers and hilarious! They quite often discuss the difference between written/formal Italian and "street" or real Italian!

But the samples you quoted all were what I was saying--you're using un po di + as the adjective, not as a subject-I speak some/little Italian, I have a little/some money.

Still, even at it's least formal and most dialectic, it's a more precise language that English-what isn't?? I would hate to be trying to learn it as a second language! For every rule, there are 50 exceptions!

lois, the only way i could learn it is from the street-- so i guess we're thinking alike but explaining it differently. i've never understood the difference of adjective vs. subject, so it's all instinct.

I was only talking about specific things, not indefinite things like something, someone, etc. I meant things like some bread, some rain, some oranges, some dogs, some women, etc.

I didn't realize that this was going to be such a hard question. Thanks everybody for your input. I don't know if I understand it any better, but I appreciate you all trying to help.

I read in my grammar book that "un po' di" can be used for countable things, but it's colloquial to do so. I guess there is no definite answer here.

lol!

One thing I found out, but didn't initially believe, is that once you do start really speaking you do come to have an instinct about what "sounds" right--where the accent goes, when to use certain phrases. I'd go for street training everytime! Only way I could learn it, initially anyway, was in class!

yeah, we don't learn to speak our native language by writing and studying-- we learn it by listening as wee tots. that's why i always hated studying other languages instead of hanging around with the natives it or reading it from a newspaper or popular magazine. the academic stuff just takes the fun out of it...