In English, we say, "Wait a minute," "Wait a second," "Wait a moment," Just a moment," and so on. In Italian, we have cognates that work just fine: un minuto, un secondo, and un momento.

We can say (using the familiar form):

Aspetta un minuto/secondo/momento (wait a minute / second / moment).

Luca, Luca, Luca, aspetta, un minuto.

Luca, Luca, Luca, wait, one minute.

Caption 1, Il Commissario Manara S1EP12 - Le verità nascoste - Part 4

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Grazie, fratellino. Un secondo solo, eh.

Thanks, little brother. Just a second, hey.

Caption 32, Il Commissario Manara S1EP10 - Un morto di troppo - Part 1

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Un momento!

Just a moment!

Caption 17, La Ladra EP. 8 - Il momento giusto - Part 5

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But in English, we usually use a verb or adverb, such as "wait" or "just." In Italian, there are some additional choices and the word order can change. The method can be applied to all three nouns mentioned above.

Solo un momento (just a moment).
Un minuto solo (just a minute).
Un momento (just a moment).

But there are two other words describing an instant of time that can be used interchangeably with the cognates we have looked at thus far.

L'istante (the instant)

In English, we don't use the cognate "instant" in this context very often, but we can easily guess its meaning.

It's common to say un istante solo, for example. (Note there is only one N in this word!)

Eh, se mi può scusare un istante, perché dovrei mandare un messaggino.

Uh, if you'll excuse me a moment, because I have to send a text.

Caption 11, La Ladra EP. 5 - Chi la fa l'aspetti - Part 12

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Un attimo (an instant)

In a recent segment of Provaci ancora Prof, we hear yet another word describing a very short interval of time: un attimo. It also means "an instant" but it's not easy to think of a cognate for this. Sometimes it's helpful to find out the etymology of a word to help remember it.

Interestingly, some scholars say it comes from the word for "atom": Latin, atŏmum, from the Greek átomos — indivisible quantity. We think of an atom as being pretty tiny. 

But other scholars say it might come from the German for "breath": "der Atem." One breath is pretty quick, too.

So in the context of "Wait a minute!" we can add attimo to the list of choices.

Oppure: "Aspetta un attimo, ora lo chiamo".

Or else: "Wait a moment. I'll call him right away."

Caption 56, Corso di italiano con Daniela Ora - Part 1

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We can also say:

un attimo solo (just a second).

or, with a bit more impatience or irritation:

un attimo (just a second)!

La prego Marzio, un attimo!

Please, Marzio, just a moment!

Caption 35, Il Commissario Manara S1EP12 - Le verità nascoste - Part 10

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So un attimo is a very short period of time, likened to "an instant," "the blink of an eye." It rolls off the tongue nicely, but don't forget the double T (which gives it the feel of irritation) and the single M.

And even though un attimo is a very brief period of time, Italians like to make it even shorter. Un attimino. 

Libero, potrei conferire con te un attimino?

Libero, could I confer with you a moment?

Caption 70, Un medico in famiglia Stagione 3 S3 EP2 - Un nuovo medico in famiglia - Part 13

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Italians like to use the word attimo in conversation, and it can find its way into sentences quite easily. We'll look at some example in a future lesson. 

One of our readers has expressed interest in knowing more about a certain kind of verb: the kind that has a special idiomatic meaning when it has particelle (particles) attached to it. In Italian these are called verbi pronominali. See this lesson about verbi pronominali. The particular verb he mentioned is pensarci, so that's where we are going to start.

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

The root verb is pensare, so we assume it has to do with "thinking." The particle is ci. Ci is one of those particles that mean a lot of things, so check out these lessons about ci. In the following example, pensare is literal: "to think," and ci stands for "of it."

Ma certo! Come ho fatto a non pensarci prima?

But of course! Why didn't I think of it before!

Caption 21, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP12 - Le verità nascoste - Part 10

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Sometimes, when used as a kind of accusation, it's basically the same but it has a different feeling.

È un anno che organizziamo questo viaggio. -Potevi pensarci prima.

We've been organizing this trip for a year. -You could have thought of that before.

Caption 32, Ma che ci faccio qui! - Un film di Francesco Amato - Part 2

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In the two previous examples, pensarci stays in the infinitive, because we have another helping or modal verb in the sentence. But we can conjugate it, too. In the following example, it is conjugated in the second person singular informal imperative.

Pensarci can mean "to think of it," but it can also mean "to think about it."

Noi non potremmo mai mandare avanti la fabbrica da soli, lo sai bene. Adriano, pensaci.

We could never run the factory on our own. You know that well. Adriano, think about it.

Captions 37-38, Adriano Olivetti - La forza di un sogno Ep. 1 - Part 8

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But sometimes, pensare doesn't exactly mean to think. It means something more along the lines of "to take care," "to handle," and here, pensare is really tied to the little particle ci as far as meaning goes. Ci still means "of it" or "for it." But we're talking about responsibility. Ci pensi tu (will you take responsibility for getting this done)? For this meaning, it's important to repeat the pronoun, in this case, tu. It helps make the meaning crystal clear, and is part of the idiom. What a huge difference adding the pronoun makes!

Barbagallo, pensaci tu.

Barbagallo, you take care of it.

Caption 1, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP3 - Rapsodia in Blu - Part 16

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Toscani, io c'ho un appuntamento, pensaci tu.

Toscani, I have an appointment, you take care of it.

Caption 57, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP8 - Morte di un buttero - Part 7

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Even though in meaning, ci is connected to pensare, we can still separate the two words.

Ci penso io!
I'll take care of it!

Ci pensa lei!
She'll take care of it.

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

Pensarci is a very widely used verb in all of its meanings. When you want someone else to do something, it's a very common way of asking. Here are some examples to think about.

Ci pensi tu a lavare i piatti (will you take care of washing the dishes)?
Ci pensi tu a mettere benzina (will you take care of getting gas)?
Ci pensi tu al bucato (will you take care of the laundry)?
Ci pensi tu a preparare la cena (will you take care of getting dinner ready)?
Ci pensate voi a mettere a posto dopo cena? Io vado a dormire (will you [plural] clean up after dinner? I'm going to bed)!
Vuoi veramente comprare una macchina nuova? Pensaci bene (do you really want to buy a new car? Think twice about it).
È il momento per andare in vacanza? Pensiamoci bene (is it the right time to go on vacation? Let's think about it a moment).