In a recent episode of Commissario Manara, two short words stick out. The first is to’. It appears to be an abbreviation, and is found in the Collins dictionary, but is missing in many other dictionaries. In fact it’s a very informal, colloquial one-word expression.

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

Although hard to find in a dictionary, to’ is a good word to know, as we hear it often enough in informal situations. It sounds like an abbreviation for te lo do (I'm giving it to you), but is considered to be an abbreviation for tieni (“hold [it],” or “take [it]”) or prendi (take [this]). It’s used in the act of handing something to somebody. It’s often used together with the original word tieni. Though there is no actual infinitive to identify the verb, to'  is expressed as a command, as in "take this," and is only used informally.

It’s like saying “Here!”, “Here you go!” or “Here, take it.”
 

To’, tieni.
Here, take [it].

Luca’s friend Sergio uses it twice at the beginning of this week’s segment of Commissario Manara. He’s giving Luca some papers to sign.
 

To', è tutto qui, eh?

Here you go, it's all here. Huh?

Caption 1, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP8 - Morte di un buttero

 Play Caption

Non manca niente. To', servizio a domicilio.

Nothing's missing. Here you go, door to door service.

Captions 3-4, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP8 - Morte di un buttero

 Play Caption

The other short word that we often hear in conversation is boh.
 

Boh is a way of vocally shrugging your shoulders to say, “I don’t know!” or “I have no idea.” It can also be a quick but significant way of saying you don’t know what’s going on, or that something doesn’t make sense or add up.
 

Ma non capisco, dovrebbe essere aperto,

But I don't understand. It should be open,

ma non c'è nessuno! Boh!

but nobody's there! It makes no sense!

Captions 18-19, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP7 - Sogni di Vetro

 Play Caption

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

Pay close attention to how people say to’ and boh, as the o is quite short in duration and finishes quite suddenly. But once you get the hang of this kind of o, you’ll enjoy shrugging your shoulders and saying “Boh!”

In Italian, as in English, there are past participles that are also adjectives.

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

Let's take the example of verbs rompere (to break) and vendere (to sell), which are both transitive verbs (verbs that take a direct object), and take avere as an auxiliary verb.

In the first example, we have the masculine noun il vaso (the vase). The adjective and the past participle are identical: rotto.

Hai rotto il vaso (you broke the vase or, you've broken the vase). 
L'hai rotto (you broke it, or you've broken it).
Ora è rotto (now it's broken).

In the next example, la casa (the house) is feminine, so the ending of venduto/venduta will change when we use a pronoun in place of la casa, and when we use it as an adjective, which has to agree with the noun casa (feminine in this case).

Hai venduto la casa (you sold your house). 
L'hai venduta (you sold it, or you've sold it).
È venduta (it's sold).

The verbs in the above examples take avere (to have) as a helping verb. When we have a verb that takes essere (to be) as a helping verb, like morire (to die), it can cause confusion, because the participle and the adjective look totally identical, including the verb essere (to be), but their function, and consequently their translation, are in fact slightly different.

In this week's episode of Commissario Manara, someone, as usual, has died, and is therefore dead. In English there are two distinct words, but in Italian the word is the same. 

In the first example below, morto (dead) is an adjective:

È morto da almeno tre giorni.

He's been dead at least three days.

Caption 20, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP2 - Vendemmia tardiva

 Play Caption

But morto is also the participio passato (past participle) of the (irregular) verb morire.

E allora come è morto?

So how did he die?

Caption 2, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP7 - Sogni di Vetro

 Play Caption

The context will help you determine which translation to use, but it can be a bit ambiguous.

To add a bit of confusion, morto can also be used as a noun: il morto (the dead man, the dead person). In this case, there will be an article.

Le posso spiegare tutto,

I can explain everything to you,

però non subito perché c'è un morto che ci aspetta.

but not right now because there's a dead man waiting for us.

Caption 5, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP2 - Vendemmia tardiva

 Play Caption

In the case of morto as a noun, it tends to be masculine, but if we know the dead person is a woman, it's correct to say una morta, or if there are multiple dead people, i morti. 

La morte (death) is not a pleasant subject, but it's important to know how to talk about it. Unfortunately, it's a word that's used too often oggigiorno (these days).

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

Further practice:
Do a Yabla search of morto, and try to determine whether it's an adjective, a participle, or a noun.  Let the context help you.