In the expression un po’, po’ is short for poco (small quantity). Poco is a very common word that can be an adjective, adverb, noun, or pronoun, and, depending on the context, can correspond to different degrees of quantity.
This week on Yabla, we take a first look at the city of Florence. Arianna has a map to help her figure out how to get around. As she thinks out loud, she uses a common phrase:
Vediamo un po' come possiamo raggiungere il centro della città.
Let's have a look at how we can reach the center of the city.
Caption 7, In giro per l'Italia - Firenze - Part 1
Play Caption
Another way to translate vediamo un po’ is simply “let’s see.” It is extremely common for Italians to add un po’ to a verb, just to round off the expression:
Sentite un po' il congiuntivo imperfetto e trapassato:
Have a listen to the simple past and past perfect subjunctive:
Caption 27, Anna e Marika - Il verbo essere - Part 4
Play Caption
Allora ci dice un po' quali sono frutta e verdura tipiche romane?
So could you tell us a little which fruits and vegetables are typically Roman?
Caption 37, Anna e Marika - Fruttivendolo
Play Caption
In the example above, the addition of un po’ doesn’t really add any meaning to the phrase, but it rounds it out. We might also translate it as:
So could you just tell us what fruits and vegetables are typically Roman?
Sometimes un po’ can mean “pretty much” or “just about.” It loses its actual diminutive significance.
Al nord abbiamo precipitazioni e burrasche, un po' dappertutto.
In the north we have rain and storms, just about everywhere.
Caption 59, Anna e Marika - in TG Yabla Italia e Meteo - Part 9
Play Caption
It can be used to give a vague kind of answer:
Sì. Un po' e un po'.
Yes, in a way, yes, in a way, no [a little bit and a little bit].
Caption 15, Amiche - Filosofie
Play Caption
Ironically, we can also use un po’ to mean a lot, when we insert the adjective bello (nice, beautiful): un bel po’ (a good amount, a good number, plenty).
Non deve essere troppo salata, non... insomma ci sono un bel po' di cose da sapere legate alla mozzarella.
It shouldn't be too salty, not... in other words, there are plenty of things to know in connection with mozzarella.
Captions 37-38, Anna e Marika - La mozzarella di bufala - La produzione e i tagli - Part 1
Play Caption
Un po’ has come to mean so many different amounts, and can also simply mean “some.”
Mi dai un po’ di pane?
Could you give me some bread?
So, if someone asks you if you speak Italian, you can answer un po’ but if you really want to say you don’t speak much at all, you might use the diminutive of an already “diminutive” word: un pochino. Or you might even diminish the amount further by saying pochissimo.
Practice - verbs in context:
Returning to this week’s video about Florence, here are the infinitive forms of the verbs Arianna uses in the first person plural (with noi/we). Can you recognize their conjugated forms in the video? Attenzione, some of them are used as auxiliaries/helping verbs attached to other verbs. You can use your ears to listen for the verbs while watching the video, or use your eyes with the transcript (you’ll find the pop-up link following the description of the video). Don’t forget, you can choose to see only Italian or Italian and English. A couple of these verbs are irregular, but super common. Why not take the opportunity to review the other conjugations of these verbs? Links are provided to a conjugation chart for each verb.
Essere (to be)
Vedere (to see)
Andare (to go)
Stare (to be/to continue to be)
Potere (to be able to/can)
Attraversare (to cross)
Chiamare (to call)
Whether you need something or need to do something, you need to know what words to use in Italian to express that need, especially since there's no simple, one-word equivalent of the verb "to need." In the following example, Marika uses a highly irregular verb that’s quite common in Italian, but which causes quite a bit of confusion for non-native speakers, both because it doesn't get conjugated and because it's so similar to its related noun form. It's practically useless to mention the infinitive because it doesn't ever get used.
Marika gives a news report about a school perched high on a hill. Let's see what she says:
Per arrivare nella scuola più piccola d' Europa
To get to the smallest school in Europe,
bisogna fare trecentocinquanta scalini.
you need to go up three hundred fifty steps.
Caption 3, Anna e Marika - in TG Yabla Italia e Meteo
Play Caption
In talking about the search for the right location for his restaurant, here's how Gualtiero Marchesi uses bisogna:
Bisognava inventarsi tutto.
I had to invent it all.
Caption 6, L'arte della cucina - L'Epoca delle Piccole Rivoluzioni
Play Caption
The infinitive of this indispensable verb is bisognare, but you never see it in this form, nor in any conjugation except the third person, where it is used impersonally. Marchesi uses it in the past tense: bisognava, and it will often appear in the conditional (bisognerebbe) or the future (bisognerà) as well.
Bisogna is a quick and neutral (sometimes maddeningly neutral) way to talk about what needs doing. For example, one housemate might say to the other:
Bisogna comprare il pane. (One needs to buy bread.)
Clearly, bread needs to be bought, but who's going to buy it? That detail is left to our imagination (or sense of duty).
This statement can also easily be expressed in the conditional:
Bisognerebbe comprare il pane. (Someone should buy bread.)
or in the future:
Bisognerà comprare il pane. (Someone will have to buy bread.
This way of using bisogna is easy: bisogna + verb in the infinitive
The other and more complicated way is: bisogna + che + verb in the subjunctive, but that's a topic for a future lesson.
Another way to express need is with the related noun bisogno (need), which is also easy to use, since the only verb you need to conjugate is avere (to have).
In fact, Gualtiero could have said:
Avevo bisogno di inventarmi tutto. (I had need of inventing everything for myself.)
He also could have said:
C’era bisogno di inventarsi tutto. (There was need [it was necessary] to invent it all for oneself.)
This is also easy because the verb essere will always be in the third person singular. In the above example, it's in the simple past.
It all has to do with sorting out the difference between bisogna (verb) and bisogno (noun) and remembering the simple rules about how they work. For a full explanation see this article.
In a nutshell:
Putting them together just for fun:
Bisogna andare in banca. In effetti, c'era bisogno di andare ieri, ma ieri bisognava fare tante altre cose. Bisognerà anche andare a fare la spesa questo pomeriggio, quindi, di che cosa abbiamo bisogno? C'è bisogno di fare una lista. Avrei bisogno di caffè, ma per quello, bisognerà andare in un altro negozio. C'è bisogno dello zucchero? No, non ce n'è bisogno, anche perché ho bisogno di dimagrire. Bisogna vedere, però, se riesco a berlo amaro.
We/I need to go to the bank. Actually, it was necessary to go yesterday, but yesterday we needed to do lots of other things. We'll also need to go food shopping this afternoon, so what do we need? We need to make a list. I would need coffee, but for that I need to go to different store. Do we need sugar? No, I don't need any, because I need to lose weight. We'll have to see if I'm able to drink it bitter [with no sugar].
Learning suggestion:
See how you can mix and match these ways of needing things, or needing to do things. Just keep in mind the way they work, and which is which.
Now that you know the ins and outs of bisogna and bisogno, do a Yabla search and see for yourself how often these words get used in speech. Bisogna solo fare pratica! (You just need to practice!)
At Yabla Italian, there's been plenty of talk lately about nouns. Daniela has been talking about indefinite articles for both masculine and feminine nouns (see Corso di italiano con Daniela - l'articolo indeterminativo - Part 1 of 3 and Corso di italiano con Daniela - l'articolo indeterminativo - Part 2 of 3). Marika has talked about nouns that remain the same in singular and plural, and nouns that have two different plurals: one masculine and one feminine (see Marika spiega - Il plurale - Part 1 and Marika spiega - Il plurale - Part 2 of 2). It can be quite daunting! And to add to this, Alessio comes along with his rigo musicale, among other musical nouns!
Si tratta ora di fissarle sul rigo musicale,
Now we're concerned with placing them on the staff,
il pentagramma, formato da cinque linee.
the staff, made up of five lines.
Caption 2, A scuola di musica - con Alessio
Play Caption
If you're already familiar with the noun riga (line), you might be wondering if Alessio got his gender wrong. As a matter of fact, the feminine form, la riga (the line), is the word you'll use most of the time. But in music, il rigo is used to refer to a staff made up of five linee (lines), also called il pentagramma, and can also refer to each individual line within the staff. For a detailed explanation of rigo versus riga, see this article. Riga, rigo and linea are only a few of the Italian words that can translate as "line." See this link for many more!
There are other words that have special meanings when it comes to music:
In ordinary usage, la chiave means "the key," but in music, it means "the clef," a special symbol (actually a stylized letter C, G, or F) placed on a staff line in such a way as to indicate what note and pitch the line refers to. From that departure point, all the other notes can be recognized. A proposito, "clef" comes from the French word for key (clef or clé)!
In addition to being the name of a famous opera theater in Milan (La Scala), scala has several meanings, and they mostly have to do with going up and down: a staircase, a ladder, a level, and also a scale in music (a succession of musical notes at fixed degrees).
Di più, questa successione così omogenea,
In addition, this succession, homogeneous as it is,
forma una scala discendente
forms a descending scale
che poi, sempre in scala, risale.
which then goes back up, still as a scale [stepwise].
Captions 9-10, A scuola di musica - con Alessio
Play Caption
Uno scalino or un gradino can be a step in a musical scale, a rung on a ladder, a step up from the street to the curb, or a single step of many scalini, like the ones Marika talks about at the beginning of her latest newscast.
Per arrivare nella scuola più piccola d' Europa
To get to the smallest school in Europe,
bisogna fare trecentocinquanta scalini.
you have to go up three hundred fifty steps.
Caption 3, Anna e Marika - in TG Yabla Italia e Meteo
Play Caption
Learning suggestion:
Become more familiar with the different meanings of some of the above-mentioned nouns by looking them up in the dictionary of your choice, and then, learn their plurals! Daniela's recent classes on definite and indefinite articles and Marika's lessons on plurals will be of help in classifying them, as well as for finding the right indefinite article for each.
Here's a list to help you.
A key to learning these words might be to draw picture flashcards. There may be more than one valid answer for some of them.
Spanish
French
German
Chinese
English
English 
Español
Français
Deutsch
Italiano
