La badante: What's that?

By Sigrid Lee

As more and more people are living to old age, they often can no longer take care of themselves.The person who is hired to look after an old or infirm person at home is called la badante (the caregiver, the home-health aide). If the caregiver is a male, then it's il badante.

Sì, La moglie fa la badante a una signora. Si chiama Adele.

Yes. The wife is a home-health aide for a woman. Her name is Adele.

Caption 56, Il Commissario Manara S2EP10 -La verità nascosta - Part 5
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The verb this noun comes from is badare "to take care" or "to look after."

We don't only use it with the old and infirm...

Ci devo badare io a mio fratello Radu, ma io non volevo mancare [a] scuola e così l'ho portato.

I have to take care of my brother Radu, but I didn't want to be absent from school and so I brought him.

Captions 11-13, Provaci ancora prof! S1E4 - La mia compagna di banco - Part 2
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Guarda che io so badare a me stesso, eh.

Look, I can take care of myself, huh.

Caption 48, La Ladra EP. 7 - Il piccolo ladro - Part 1
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We also use it to mean "to pay attention."

Non ci badare, è matto.

Don't pay attention to him, he's crazy.

Caption 16, Psicovip Cappuccetto Rosso - Ep 7
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Ma, io non ci bado molto ai piedi.

Well, I don't pay much attention to feet.

Caption 12, Psicovip Cappuccetto Rosso - Ep 7
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Non ho badato se facevo del male a qualcuno.

I didn't pay attention to whether I was hurting someone or not.

Caption 62, Sposami EP 3 - Part 22
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For grammar nerds: If we look at the conjugation of badare, we see that the noun la badante is actually the present participle of the verb badare.

If you want someone to pay attention, be careful, or take note, you can say: