Let's look at a word used in a recent episode of Volare that has both a verb and a noun form. It's an easy cognate, but you might not think of it, since "to deserve" is the verb we would use in English, and alas, it has no cognate in Italian.
So meritare is a good verb to know. The noun form is il merito. In English, we would usually say "Thanks to [someone or something]." Or we might say, "The credit is all yours/his/hers/theirs." So, you'll probably understand these words when you see them, especially when they are in a clear context, but you might not add them to your vocabulary if you are thinking in English. They are worth adopting, though. "Being worth it" is another way to translate meritare!
È merito della signora se sono qui, eh.
It's thanks to the lady if I am here, huh.
-No, Lei è qui perché se lo merita,
-No. You are here because you deserve to be.
non deve ringraziare nessuno.
You don't have to thank anyone.
Captions 22-24, Volare - La grande storia di Domenico Modugno - Ep. 1
Play Caption
You might have noticed that the speaker uses the reflexive form of meritare, meritarsi. Both ways are OK, but when it's reflexive it feels a bit more personal (and it's a bit more complicated to use).
Il successo l'hai meritato.
Il succeso te lo sei meritato.
Let's look at some examples from Yabla videos:
Una come Teresa non si meritava di morire così.
Someone like Teresa didn't deserve to die like that.
Caption 62, I Bastardi di Pizzofalcone S1EP3 Vicini - Part 4
Play Caption
Se hai una pessima idea di me, me lo merito.
If you have a bad impression of me, I deserve it.
Caption 72, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP5 - Il Raggio Verde
Play Caption
Se questa operazione è riuscita, il merito è tuo. Brava, Sardi.
If this operation succeeded, it's thanks to you. Very good, Sardi.
Caption 26, Il Commissario Manara - S2EP4 - Miss Maremma
Play Caption
Eh, va be', però bisogna avvertirlo, perché il critico ha dato tutto il merito a te.
Well, all right, but you should let him know because the critic gave you all the credit.
Caption 24, La Ladra - Ep. 5 - Chi la fa l'aspetti
Play Caption
Pensavo di meritare di più dalla vita.
I thought I deserved more from life.
Caption 19, Il Commissario Manara - S2EP10 -La verità nascosta
Play Caption
Poi sicuramente Pisa merita una visita
Then, of course, Pisa is worth a visit
con la sua torre pendente che non casca mai.
with its leaning tower that never falls.
Captions 75-76, L'Italia a tavola - Interrogazione sulla Toscana
Play Caption
As you can see in the final example, to deserve something and be worth something are very close. Sometimes they are interchangeable. They are in Italian too, so check out our lesson about valere (to be worth).
In a previous lesson, we talked about the popular pronominal verb cavarsela (to get by), and the verb it comes from, cavare (to extract, to get something out of something). Consider the noun il cavatappi. It's a corkscrew for extracting the cork from a bottle.
We also have scavare (to excavate, to dig, to dig up). The s- prefix often gives an opposite meaning to a word. In this case, we are extracting the soil or rock by digging.
Il primo passo consiste nel scavare una cavità nella pietra, nella roccia.
The first step consists of digging a cavity in the stone, in the rock.
Caption 6, Meraviglie - EP. 2 - Part 13
Play Caption
Naturally, there are other words related to cavare that can be easily understood:
una cavità (a cavity)
concavo (concave)
la cava (the mine, the quarry)
You might be asking yourself: What about the English word "cave?" There are a few choices.
Allora, questa casa, questo ambiente, in realtà è per il settanta percento
So, actually, seventy percent of this house, this space,
costituito da una grotta.
consists of a cave.
Captions 8-9, Meraviglie - EP. 1 - Part 12
Play Caption
la caverna (the cave, the cavern)
la grotta (the cave, the grotto)
la spelonca (the cave)
Have any of you ever gone spelunking?
But we also have ricavare as a common verb. Sometimes this ri- prefix means "again," just as "re-" in English can mean that, as in rifare (to re-do).
Sometimes this prefix does double duty and may or may not mean "to do something again," if we consider verbs like tornare - ritornare (to return), suonare - risuonare (to sound, to resound), chiedere - richiedere (to ask - to request). There are subtleties.
Ricavare can mean a couple of things. It might be helpful to think of "carving out," as in making a cave. Often ricavare is used when you are carving out material to make something new, especially if we think of the second meaning of ricavare: "to obtain." The following example gives us an image of what ricavare can mean in a concrete sense. Surely a lot of rocky material was extracted (cavato, scavato) to build the amphitheater.
Fra gli edifici per lo spettacolo,
Among the buildings for events,
l'anfiteatro ricavato nelle pendici est della Collina di San Pietro
the amphitheater built into the eastern slopes of the Hill of Saint Peter,
occupava un'area a sud della città.
occupied an area south of the city.
Captions 41-43, Itinerari Della Bellezza - Abruzzo
Play Caption
One meaning of ricavare is "to obtain," as in making a profit: The past participle is often used as a noun: il ricavato.
L'avrei costretto a dividere il ricavato con me.
I would have forced him to share the proceeds with me.
Caption 39, Il Commissario Manara - S2EP10 -La verità nascosta
Play Caption
Current context:
It's easy to envision a situation in which you have to work from home. But you might have to carve out a space in your small apartment. Ricavare is a great verb for this, and it can be used figuratively, too, as you can see in the final example.
Devo ricavare uno spazio in questo apartamento per lavorare tranquillo (I need to carve out some space in this apartment to work in peace).
Ho ricavato una stanza in più, trasformando questo locale di sgombro (I built an additional room by transforming this storeroom).
Mia sorella è riuscita a ricavare un po' di tempo la sera per fare yoga (My sister managed to carve out some time in the evening to do yoga).
Carving out and obtaining something "new."
Spanish
French
German
Chinese
English
English 
Español
Français
Deutsch
Italiano
