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

Beccare

Just as “get” in English serves many purposes, and has many shades of meaning, there are words in Italian that work in a similar way. One of these is beccare. It comes from becco (beak) and means “to peck,” but it’s used in colloquial speech to mean “to take,” “to catch,” or “to get.” It’s often used reflexively (for more on reflexives, see this lesson), and that’s how Manara uses it as he questions an uncooperative witness: 

 

Se non vuoi beccarti un'incriminazione per complicità in omicidio...

If you don't want to get yourself an indictment for complicity in murder...

Caption 24, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP4 - Le Lettere Di Leopardi

 Play Caption

 

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

Here’s one more example from a Yabla video:

 

I fotografi! -C'hanno beccato!

The photographers! -They've caught us!

Captions 3-4, Trailer - Paparazzi

 Play Caption

 

If you get caught doing something you shouldn’t, that’s when you say mi hanno beccato (they caught me)! You might use beccare if you get caught in the rain without an umbrella: mi sono beccato [or beccata] un raffreddore (I caught a cold), or if after dialing someone’s number many times, they finally answer: finalmente t’ho beccato (I finally got you)! 

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

It's not always easy to know when using beccare would be appropriate, but by listening for it and repeating it to yourself when you hear it, little by little you'll find it on the tip of your tongue at just the right moment. More meanings and examples can be found here

Expressions

Signup to get Free Italian Lessons sent by email