Sorry! Search is currently unavailable while the database is being updated, it will be back in 5 mins!
All Topics "Verbi pronominali" Accentuation Adjectives Adverbial phrases Adverbs Alphabet Animals Answers Arguing Articles Articoli partitivi Basics Being polite Business Chunks Cognates Colloquial speech Comparatives Compound Tenses Congiuntivo Conjunctions Conversation Courtesy forms Crossword Crosswords Culture Diminutives Direct objects English words in Italian Everyday Speech Exercise Solutions Exercises Expression Expressions Expresssions False Friends Food Food and Drink Formal Speech Forms of Address Games Gender Grammar Grammatica Greetings History How to Use Yabla Idiomatic expressions Idioms Imperative Imperative Form of Verbs Informal Speech Information Italian Culture Italian holidays Learning Letter writing Music Negation Nouns Numbers Parole alterate Particelle Particles Passive voice Past Participles Personal Pronouns Photography Phrasal verbs Plurals Poetry Prefixes and suffixes Prepositions Preposizioni Preposizioni articolate Pronominal verbs Pronouns Pronunciation Proverbs Punctuation Question words Questions from Students Quick takes Recipes Reference Reflexive Verbs Relative Pronouns S prefix S- prefix Scribe Senses Slang and idiomatic expressions Spelling Sports Subjunctive Subunctive Suffixes Superlatives The many faces of "si" Time Top verbs Transportation Travel Tricky verbs Verb conjugations Verb tenses Verbs Vocabolario Vocabulary Vocabulary insights Vowels Writing and spelling Yabla Video info il si impersonale il si impersonale - the impersonal si languages

Aria fritta (fried air)

In many contexts, aria fritta is a way of saying, "hot air," for example, when someone, such as a politician, goes on talking and talking without saying anything. It's "empty talk." In English, we have various ways of saying this, such as "Yada, yada, yada" (from the popular TV series "Seinfeld").

 

banner PLACEHOLDER

But in the context of a recent episode of Sposami, Nora is trying to sell what Iside, who is listening in, considers to be "fried air." In other words, she is making promises she won't be able to keep. Hype, but no substance. All talk and no action. You obviously can't fry air, so it is something with no substance, something that doesn't really exist.

Qui si vende aria fritta. -Ecco, esatto. Allora vengo subito lì e buttiamo giù l'accordo, va bene? -E il bello è che c'è qualcuno che se la compra [l'aria fritta].

Here we're selling fried air [empty promises]. -Right, exactly. So, I'll be right there, and we'll sketch out the agreement, all right? -And the good thing is that there is someone who buys it.

Captions 31-34, Sposami EP 4 - Part 23

 Play Caption

 

Nora is very good at what she does, and she might just pull off the deal she is making, and then it won't be aria fritta  anymore.

 

Another expression using aria (air) to indicate nothingness: campato in aria (surviving on air, far-fetched, based on nothing). 

Questa è tutta una sua ricostruzione totalmente campata in aria. -Campata in aria? Vuoi che ti dica le prove,

This is all her totally far-fetched reconstruction. -Far-fetched? You want me to tell you the evidence,

Captions 9-10, Imma Tataranni Sostituto procuratore S1 EP2 Come piante fra sassi - Part 5

 Play Caption

banner PLACEHOLDER

 

Campato in aria is used as an adjective, whereas aria fritta is a noun. Aria fritta is given out intentionally, whereas campato in aria might just be an idea having no rational basis.

Expressions

Signup to get Free Italian Lessons sent by email



Caption 34, 33, 32, 31
Intermediate

You May Also Like