There are certain moments in life, and January is often one of them, when we reassess things, we try something new, or we turn over a new leaf. Did you ever wonder if there is an equivalent expression in Italian for turning over a new leaf? There is! It's voltare pagina (to turn the page). It's not exact, but it's close. Turning over a new leaf looks to the future with the adjective "new," and it implies getting a fresh start, whereas voltare pagina might imply leaving the past in the past. It can mean "to move on." It all depends on the context. Turning over a new leaf is usually applicable to one individual, whereas voltare pagina can be general or specific. 

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When you turn over a new leaf, it's like turning the page. Back in the day, at school, we would use loose-leaf notebooks, also called "ring binders." In Italian, these are called either raccoglitori ad anelli or quaderni ad anelli. So "leaf" is another word for "page" (or more precisely, "sheet of paper or parchment"), even though when we hear, say, or read the word "leaf," we usually think of a tree or plant with leaves. In Italian, a leaf is una foglia.

Fun fact: 2 Italian nouns, la foglia (the botanical leaf) and il foglio (page, leaf, sheet of paper including back and front) come from the same Latin word "folium," meaning "leaf" or "sheet of paper."

Il mese di gennaio è un buon momento per voltare pagina.

(The month of January is a good opportunity for turning over a new leaf.)

Il passato non torna, Albe'. Dobbiamo voltare pagina.

The past doesn't come back, Albe'. We have to turn the page.

Captions 4-5, Non è mai troppo tardi EP1 - Part 5

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Sì, lo so che non me ne dovrebbe fregare più niente, che... che dovrei andare avanti, ma, ma... non ci riesco.

Yes, I know I shouldn't give a damn anymore, that... that I should move on, but, but... I can't.

Captions 8-9, Sposami EP 3 - Part 20

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In the previous example, the speaker could have said:

Sì, lo so che non me ne dovrebbe fregare più niente, che... che dovrei voltare pagina, ma, ma... non ci riesco.

Yes, I know I shouldn't give a damn anymore, that... that I should move on, but, but... I can't.

For more about the verb voltare (to turn) and its origins, and about other related words and topics, see this lesson, especially the section titled: 
"When manuscripts had leaves, not pages."

Here are two examples contrasting foglia and foglio.

Allora qua abbiamo un pittore, come vedete, che disegna foglie secche e frutta marcia.

So here we have a painter, as you see, who designs dry leaves and rotten fruit.

Captions 40-41, Caravaggio EP1 - Part 6

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Se vuoi fare contento un bambino, dagli un foglio bianco e una matita colorata.

If you want to make a child happy, give him a white sheet of paper and a colored pencil.

Captions 7-8, Questione di Karma Rai Cinema - Part 1

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Have a little fun with words that have different meanings depending on whether they end in a or o. 

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Troppo (too, too much, too many) is an essential word to know. It's also easy because its meaning is clear even if you use it by itself, even if you use it incorrectly. It is a word that will serve you well if you travel to Italy, and especially if you do any shopping. But let's remember that it can be used as either an adverb or an adjective. So it's just one more thing to think about when using it (correctly). 

Troppo caro! is an important phrase to memorize. Too expensive!

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The question you might ask before saying that is:

Quanto costa (how much does it cost)?

If you don't understand the answer, try to get the vendor to write down the price.

Here below, troppo is used as an adverb. We see there is an adjective following it: caro (expensive, dear).

Ma è troppo caro, ma questo vasetto qua...

But that's too expensive, but this little pot here...

Caption 60, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP10 - Un morto di troppo

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You can also just say È troppo (it's too much) or Costa troppo (it costs too much).

Typical uses of troppo as an adverb:

Troppo difficile (too difficult)

Troppo forte (too loud, too strong)

Troppo caldo (too hot)

Troppo complicato (too complicated)

Even when the adjective modifies an adjective with a feminine ending, troppo (as an adverb) remains the same.

Lei è troppo ansiosa (she is too anxious).

I miei professori sono troppo esigenti (my teachers are too demanding).

But we can also use troppo as an adjective. Attenzione! When we use troppo as an adjective it has to agree, or correspond, to the noun it is modifying. We have to consider gender and number and thus, in translating troppo as an adjective, we have to think of whether it's "too much" or "too many."

So let's say we are again finding an item to be too expensive. We can say: 

Sono troppi soldi (that's too much money) .

Remember money is countable in Italian. Un soldo (a penny) or i soldi (the money).

Chances are that when you see troppo (with an o at the end) it will be an adverb but look around to see whether there is an adjective or a noun after it.

C'è troppo aglio.

There's too much garlic.

Caption 1, Dafne - Film - Part 18

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When you see troppi or troppe, then you know they are adjectives.

Tu ti fai troppi problemi, troppi.

You're having too many scruples, too many.

Caption 16, Sposami - EP 3 - Part 20

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Ti ho perdonato... ti ho perdonato troppe volte.

I've forgiven you... I've forgiven you too many times.

Caption 43, Concorso internazionale di cortometraggio - A corto di idee

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Let's also be aware that troppo is often used by itself: È troppo! to mean, "that's too much!" in a figurative way.

Tanto 

Tanto is another word that is very useful and very common, although it does have various meanings and uses that we won't cover here.  We'll limit ourselves to talking about its function as an adjective or adverb to mean "a lot," "much," "many," or "very."

Ben presto però si sviluppò in Europa, dove ebbe tanto successo.

Quite early on, it spread to Europe, where it had a lot of success.

Caption 7, Adriano - balla il Tango Argentino

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In the example above, there's a noun after tanto, so we can see it's an adjective. But in the following example, there's an adjective after tanto, so it's an adverb. When translating, we'll need "very" when tanto is used as an adverb.

Il problema principale è che Boss era un gatto...

The main problem was that Boss was a cat...

era ed è un gatto tanto socievole.

he was, and is, a very sociable cat.

Captions 31-32, Andromeda - La storia di Boss

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We use tanto a lot in negative sentences too, or we can use poco the same way:

Non è tanto bello (it's not very nice).

È poco bello (it's not very nice).

When tanto is used as an adjective, we have to watch the endings, just as we did with troppo.

Si può aggiungere il caffè, si possono aggiungere tanti ingredienti...

One can add coffee, one can add many ingredients...

Caption 10, Andromeda - in - Storia del gelato

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...in vista di tante passeggiate all'aria aperta.

...in anticipation of many walks in the open air.

Caption 35, Adriano - Le stagioni dell'anno

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So basically troppo and tanto work the same way, in terms of grammar. As we said before, tanto has other meanings or nuances, so we suggest doing a search of tanto in the lessons tab, to see multiple lessons about the word. Check them out! 

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