There is already a lesson about dunque on Yabla. It primarily discusses the noun form of this word, il dunque, equivalent to il punto (the point.)
But dunque is first of all a conjunction, a somewhat more formal equivalent of quindi meaning "therefore," "so," or "then."
Immagina che tu e una persona di tua conoscenza siete saliti su di una barca, fate un giro in mare e chiacchierate. State dunque facendo la stessa cosa e nello stesso momento, quindi state condividendo questa esperienza.
Imagine you and a person you know have gotten on a boat. You go for a boat ride at the sea and chat. So you are doing the same thing at the same time, thus you are sharing this experience.
Captions 14-19, Marika spiega Espressioni legate al mare e al mondo nautico - Part 1
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We could have translated dunque as "therefore," "thus," "so," "so then," "as a result," etc.
One common way to use dunque is to introduce something you are going to say, such as an explanation, a list, or a question. In other words, you are saying, in essence, "Now I am going to tell/ask you something." So it can also be an equivalent for allora. See this lesson about allora.
In the following example, an oncologist is about to list different types of tumors or cancers. He could have said, "Allora, esistono..." Dunque has a slightly different and perhaps a more serious feel to it, as in "Now I am going to tell you something important," whereas allora is very general and can be placed in a sentence just about anywhere. Allora can also stand alone.
Dunque, eh, esistono vari tipi di tumore al rene, alcuni sono più subdoli, più insidiosi, più difficili da combattere.
Well, uh, there are various types of kidney cancer. Some are sneakier, more insidious, harder to fight.
Captions 36-38, La linea verticale EP 7 - Part 2
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Professor Camilla uses dunque as she chooses a student for an oral quiz. In this case, she is going down her list of students, so we have translated dunque as "let me see..."
E mi affiderò al caso, anzi al registro. Dunque, Ilenia.
And I will rely on chance, or rather on the register. Let me see... Ilenia.
Caption 73, Provaci ancora prof! S2E5 Vita da cani - Part 5
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Of course, at the same time, dunque can be conclusive because its original meaning is "therefore." In English, the adverb "therefore" is used less and less except in formal or technical language. It follows, then, that we use it less and less in translations. We can think of it as meaning "as a result," or "consequently." In the following example, however, we are talking about art, about history. In this case, dunque is conclusive and can be translated with "therefore."
Ecco, dunque, quale potrebbe essere stata l'occasione, il perché della Resurrezione di Piero.
That is, therefore, what the occasion could have been, the reason for Piero's Resurrection.
Captions 28-29, La pittura più bella del mondo La Resurrezione di Piero della Francesca - Part 13
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The following example is informal.
I miei genitori sono invece nonni di cinque nipoti ed io sono la zia di quattro nipoti. -Sì. Nostro figlio ha dunque... sei zii, o meglio, tre zii e tre zie, da parte mia...
My parents are, on the other hand, grandparents of five grandchildren and I'm the aunt of four nephews and nieces. -Yes. Our son has, therefore... six aunts and uncles, or better yet, three uncles and three aunts, on my side...
Captions 21-25, Giuditta e Marino presentano La nostra famiglia
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Our first instinct was to use "so." We used it at the beginning of the sentence, although the Italian has dunque at the end, or, at any rate, not at the beginning.
"Yes. So, our son has..."
But then a subscriber commented that there was no translation of dunque and suggested "then," which could possibly have worked. Instead, we inserted "let's see..." because Marino was clearly doing some calculations in his head. However, we neglected to remove "so." Another subscriber noticed that things didn't match up and wrote a comment. After considering "well", we decided that although "therefore" might not be our first choice, it is conclusive and clear in its meaning and so that's what we chose. And that is the reason for this lesson. Dunque is a great word to know, but the translation is not always clear-cut or obvious.
If you are about to make a list or explain something, dunque works great at the very beginning of a sentence. When you want it to be conclusive, it can be in the middle or at the end. It can also be used as "filler" for when you are thinking, similar to quindi and allora.
Dunque non vuoi festeggiare in compagnia?
So, don't you want to celebrate in company?
Caption 36, Volare - La grande storia di Domenico Modugno Ep. 1 - Part 18
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In every language, there are words that are used as "filler." In English, we have "so," "you know," and "I mean," among others, as common filler words. A very common filler-type conjunction in Italian is cioè, so let's get familiar with it.
Cioè is made up of two words, ciò and è. Ciò means "that" (see this lesson about ways to translate "that") and è means "is," in other words, the third person singular of the verb essere (to be). Sometimes, it works to simply translate cioè "word for word," with "that is."
Ah, io ero venuta a cercare Michele, il quale lavora, cioè lavorava per il Professor Lenni.
Ah, I had come to look for Michele, who works, that is, used to work for Professor Lenni.
Captions 19-20, Il Commissario Manara S1EP1 - Un delitto perfetto - Part 2
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However, it's used in so many contexts that "that is" doesn't do the trick in all cases. Alternative translations are "in other words," "that is to say," "I mean," or even "you know," depending on the context. And there are surely others!
Cioè is often used as a one-word question. It's a way of saying, without actually forming a question, "What do you mean?"
Ho giocato da solo. -Cioè?
I went solo. -Meaning?
Captions 15-16, La Ladra EP. 12 - Come ai vecchi tempi - Part 4
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L'italiano, praticamente, è una lingua soltanto letteraria per molti secoli, cioè fino a, praticamente, a dieci o vent'anni fa.
Italian, practically, has been solely a literary language for many centuries, that is to say, until, practically, until ten or twenty years ago.
Captions 1-2, La super storia Via Pasolini - Part 3
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E non devono essere arance normali, cioè, devono essere arance biologiche, non trattate chimicamente.
And they mustn't be normal oranges, in other words, they have to be organic oranges, not treated chemically.
Captions 15-16, Adriano L'arancello di Marina
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E infatti m'han' detto: "vogliamo un bianco e nero molto contrastato", sia per dare forza, insomma, a quello che, che, che accade, sia per distinguere i, questi due momenti che si vivono nel film, cioè la, tutta la preparazione allo spettacolo e poi lo spettacolo in sé.
And in fact, they told me, "We want a very contrasted black and white," both to give strength, basically, to what, what, what is happening, and to distinguish the, these two moments that are experienced in the movie, in other words the, all the preparations for the show and then the show itself.
Captions 3-6, Fratelli Taviani La passione e l'utopia - Part 17
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Come è possibile che questi stanno girando, [attore] queste due persone non litigano, non litigano mai. Cioè, io di solito ho delle idee che non condivido,
How is it possible that these guys are filming, [actor] these two people don't argue, they never argue. I mean, I usually have ideas that I don't share,
Captions 38-40, Fratelli Taviani La passione e l'utopia - Part 24
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Cioè is definitely a word to become familiar with. Listen to people use it (in real-life conversations or Yabla videos) and soon you will be including it in your conversation at just the right moment.
Of course, you can search this word yourself, to check out other examples of cioè. Which English translation to use is not set in stone and you can disagree with (and challenge) our translations. But the important thing is to get a feel for cioè, for when and how it is used.
The more Italian you learn, the more you start noticing the little words. Often these are little words that could be used in English but are frequently omitted. We'll be looking at several of them, but let's start with the conjunction che. It is, indeed, a conjunction, but it can also be a pronoun or even an adjective in some cases. Most of the time it will mean "that" or "which," but it can also correspond to the relative pronoun "that" or "who." It can also mean "what?".
In Italian, we can't omit che, but in English, we can omit its equivalent, sometimes.
Mi dispiace che m'hanno bocciato.
I'm sorry they flunked me.
Caption 22, Ma che ci faccio qui! - Un film di Francesco Amato
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The translation could have been:
I'm sorry that they flunked me.
1) There is a little error in the previous example. Maybe you can see why he flunked! What should he have said? (It's an error that lots of people make every day, so don't worry if you don't see it.)
Ma come faccio a entrare nella divisa che m'hai dato? Eh?
So how am I supposed to fit into the uniform you gave me? Huh?
Caption 38, La Ladra - EP.11 - Un esame importante
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So how am I supposed to fit into the uniform that you gave me? Huh?
While this second translation isn't wrong, we don't need the "that."
2) What if the speaker were talking to more than one person. What might she have said?
Here's another example:
Supponiamo che stiamo preparando una pasta alla carbonara
Let's assume we're preparing some pasta alla carbonara
per quattro persone, quindi ci serviranno trecento grammi di pancetta,
for four people, so we'll need three hundred grams of bacon,
cinquecento grammi di pasta.
five hundred grams of pasta.
Captions 1-3, Adriano - Pasta alla carbonara
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We could have translated it like this:
Let's assume that we're preparing some pasta alla carbonara for four people, so we'll need three hundred grams of bacon, five hundred grams of pasta.
Typically, one of the cases where Italian uses the conjunction che and English does not is when using the verb "to know." Let's look at some examples.
Lo sai che abbiamo bisogno di te. -Sta sbattuta, Elisa.
You know we need you. -She's in bad shape, Elisa.
Caption 33, Chi m'ha visto - film
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It would be just as correct to say:
You know that we need you. -She's in bad shape, Elisa.
We just tend not to.
Here's an example in the imperfetto (simple past):
Sapevi che ti stavamo cercando.
You knew we were looking for you.
Caption 41, Il Commissario Manara - S2EP11 - Uno strano incidente di caccia
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It could have been translated as:
You knew that we were looking for you.
We have to keep in mind that in many cases, the conjunction che takes the subjunctive. This happens primarily with verbs that indicate uncertainty. This may be new for you, in which case, go ahead and check out the several lessons Yabla offers about the subjunctive.
So if instead of using the verb sapere (to know) which indicates certainty, we use the verb pensare (to think), we are in another grammatical sphere, or we could say, "mood." The congiuntivo (subjunctive mood).
Io... io penso che Karin sia andata via apposta.
I... I think that Karin went away on purpose.
Caption 43, Provaci Ancora Prof! - S1E3 - Una piccola bestia ferita - Part 19
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In this case, the translator did use "that" in English, but she could have chosen not to (which might have been more natural):
I... I think Karin went away on purpose.
3) What if you were to use the verb sapere in the above sentence?
4) What if the person were named Alfredo instead of Karin? Use both sapere and pensare.
When che means "who" or "whom," we are probably talking about a (relative) pronoun, not a conjunction. For our purposes, it doesn't really matter. What we do need to keep in mind is that, while we also have the pronoun chi meaning "who" or "whom" (with a preposition), when it's a relative pronoun, it's che.
Sì, al TG della sera hanno parlato di quel ragazzo che hanno ucciso.
Yes. On the evening news they talked about that boy they killed.
Assomiglia molto a uno che viene spesso...
He really looks like someone who often comes...
Captions 39-40, Provaci Ancora Prof! - S1E3 - Una piccola bestia ferita - Part 10
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This is a bit tricky because in the example above, it would be a little bit awkward to fit in "whom" or "who." But it's interesting that we need the che in Italian to make the sentence make sense.
Yes. On the evening news they talked about that boy whom they killed. He really looks like someone who often comes...
Of course, a lot of Americans use "that" instead of "who" or "whom." It would still be awkward. It should be mentioned that in the previous example, "the boy" is the object, and that's when the che is omitted in English. But when it's the subject, we do need it.
Be', scusa se... se non t'abbiamo avvertito prima, ma
Well, sorry if... if we didn't let you know beforehand, but
c'è Valeria che deve dirti una cosa.
here's Valeria who has to tell you something.
Captions 37-38, Provaci Ancora Prof! - S1E3 - Una piccola bestia ferita - Part 10
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Of course, the purpose of Yabla translations is to help you make sense of the Italian you hear and read. Sometimes taking a look at how our own language works can help, too. And when we are translating from English to Italian, we need to call on words we are omitting, so it can get tricky.
Hopefully, this lesson has helped you to be just a bit more aware of the word che. It's a word that means plenty of things, so this is just the tip of the iceberg. And if you have some particular questions about che, please let us know and we'll try to shed some light on them. newlsetter@yabla.com
1) Mi dispiace che mi abbiano bocciato.
This may be open to question because the kid knows they flunked him, but some would argue that the subjunctive should have been used.
2) Lo sapete che abbiamo bisogno di voi. -Sta sbattuta, Elisa.
3) Io... io so che Karin è andata via apposta.
4) Io... io penso che Alfredo sia andato via apposta.
4b) Io... io so che Alfredo è andato via apposta.
In a recent lesson we talked about the conjunction affinché (in order that) and how it prompts the subjunctive.
We also mentioned how it can easily be confused with finché (as long as) or finché non (until) because it sounds very similar. We looked briefly at these two conjunctions in a previous lesson. In Italian, they differ only in the addition of the negation non. This is a bit tricky since in English we use two different terms: “as long as” and “until.”
Sometimes, even when Italians mean to say “until,” they will leave out the non after finché. This is partly because they don’t need to be any clearer than that in a given situation, or because it’s quicker and easier, and for Italians, in some situations, it just doesn’t matter.
Let’s take the very recent video featuring Marika and Anna who are busy in the kitchen making panzerotti, a kind of deep fried dumpling, filled with mozzarella and tomato sauce.
It’s a casual situation, they’re very busy, and wouldn't you know it, they use finché without non even though they mean "until." However, what they mean to say is very clear, so they don’t pay much attention, and it's not even considered "wrong."
OK, quindi possiamo andare avanti ad oltranza, finché [sic: finché non] finisce il nostro impasto. -Sì.
OK, we'll go ahead until done, until we've finished up with the dough. -Yes.
Caption 34, L'Italia a tavola - Panzerotti Pugliesi - Part 2
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Sì, finché [sic: finché non] abbiamo, appunto, terminato l'impasto e [abbiamo] un certo numero di panzerotti da friggere.
Yes, up until the point, right, that we've finished the dough and we have a certain number of “panzerotti” to fry.
Captions 35-36, L'Italia a tavola - Panzerotti Pugliesi - Part 2
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The meaning is clear because they use finisce (is gone, is finished, is used up), so they understand each other: They’ll keep making panzerotti until all the dough has been used up.
Of course, there are plenty of instances where Anna and Marika do use finché with non, so it’s not a question of not knowing.
La cosa importante, con i bambini piccoli, è cambiare spesso posizione della schiena finché, naturalmente, non sono in grado di stare in piedi da soli.
The important thing with little children is to often change the position of their backs, until, naturally, they are able to stand up by themselves.
Captions 9-11, Anna presenta - Attrezzature per un neonato
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We could also say, to better follow the Italian:
The important thing with little babies is to often change the position of their backs, as long as they are unable to stand up by themselves.
We could think of it this way: Non is a negation, and in a way, so is “until,” when used as a conjunction. “Un” is also a prefix meaning “not.”
Here is another example, where we can take finché non apart, to better understand it.
E poi, finché... si lavorava finché il padrone non diceva "basta",
And then, until... we worked until the boss said, "that's enough,"
Caption 27, Gianni si racconta - Chi sono
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Another way to say this in English would be:
We kept working as long as the boss had not yet said, “that’s enough.”
It’s a bit awkward in English, which is why we use the word “until.”
Here is another very informal example:
Ti devo dire una cosa, non mi interrompere finché non ho finito.
I have to tell you something. Don’t interrupt me until I have finished.
It could also be:
Ti devo dire una cosa, non mi interrompere finché sto parlando.
I have to tel you something. Don’t interrupt me as long as I am still speaking.
Further learning:
Do a Yabla search of finché and look at all the examples. Some will be correct without non, to mean “as long as,” some will use non, to mean “until,” and some will be "wrong." Hint: Federico Fellini uses this conjunction the "wrong" way.
Can you understand the difference between finché and finché non? Feel free to let us know, or to make a comment in the comment section of the video in question.
We’ve mentioned that in different parts of Italy, or based on personal styles, the subjunctive gets skipped, the remote past is rarely used, and finché non might be abbreviated, too. But for those who are learning Italian, it’s good to be able to use finché, finché non, and affinché correctly.
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