Let's check out this great Italian two-word adverb: a malapena. We rarely, if ever, see malapena without its preposition, so we can almost think of it as one word. Let's look at some examples in context to absorb its meaning, and then we'll unpack it.
In this first example, Imma, the deputy public prosecutor of the city of Matera, is at a dinner party at the home of one of her colleagues, the last place she wanted to be, and in fact, some of the other guests are making disparaging remarks about her.
Pensare che parlava a malapena l'italiano e mò [lucano: ora] è diventata pure PM [Pubblico Ministero].
Just think that she barely spoke Italian and now she has even become a public prosecutor.
Captions 55-56, Imma Tataranni Sostituto procuratore S1 EP2 Come piante fra sassi - Part 10
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In this wonderful film for TV, based on a true story about teaching adults how to read and write on TV, Antonio argues with the school principal criticizing his teaching methods. He defends himself by asking her why his methods work, while hers clearly don't.
Mi sa spiegare perché a malapena sanno leggere e scrivere?
Can you explain to me why they can barely read and write?
Captions 62-63, Non è mai troppo tardi EP 2 - Part 5
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In La tempesta, a comedy set in the Venetian city of Treviso, Paolo, a photographer, knocks at the door of his new neighbor (a woman), wanting a favor. She doesn't want to open the door.
No, io a malapena ti conosco. No. -Va bene, allora facciamo le presentazioni:
No. I hardly know you. No. -All right, then let's introduce ourselves.
Captions 50-51, La Tempesta film - Part 1
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In the next example, the context is a bit different, as we are talking about the number of bottles of wine a new winery has produced.
Cavour impiega almeno una quindicina di anni per riuscire a produrre le prime bottiglie. Sono a malapena cento.
Cavour takes at least fifteen years to succeed in producing the first bottles. There were barely a hundred of them.
Captions 38-40, Meraviglie EP. 5 - Part 2
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If we look up a malapena in the dictionary, we find some synonyms: a stento, a fatica, con fatica. But if we do a little more digging, we see it also means appena. If we look for the etymology, we find that malapena is malo (an adjective meaning "bad" or an adverb meaning "badly") plus pena. While la pena is a noun meaning "suffering," a malapena likely comes from appena, from the Latin "ad paene," meaning "almost." In addition, the verb penare means "to struggle." One translation of a malapena is "with difficulty." The evolution of a word, as we have seen on many occasions, is not a straight line!
So we could say a malapena means "almost" but in the negative sense, in other words, "barely." We can use it when we have gone further than "almost," but just by a hair. You made it, but you almost didn't make it! And it took an effort, a struggle, to make it by that small margin.
So if we take our video examples, one by one, we could give these alternative (though inelegant) translations:
"She almost didn't speak Italian." "She struggled to speak Italian."
"They almost don't know how to read and write." "They struggle to read and write."
"I almost don't know you."
"There were almost less than a hundred bottles." "It was a struggle to reach one hundred bottles."
We could use appena in place of a malapena in our video examples (see above):
Pensare che parlava appena l'italiano...
Mi sa spiegare perché sanno appena leggere e scrivere?
No, io ti conosco appena.
Sono appena cento [bottiglie].
Using a malapena instead of appena gives the idea more weight, more effort to reach a limit. With mal as a sort of prefix (meaning malo), there is also a hint of a negative connotation.
In a previous lesson, we looked at the adverb appena in a different context to mean "as soon as" and "just as." But we also use appena to mean "a small amount." Almost nothing!
In the following example, we can keep to the "almost" meaning by thinking that they almost didn't know each other!
Lui e lei si sono appena conosciuti, ma già si amano.
He and she just met, but they already love each other.
Captions 6-7, Adriano Olivetti La forza di un sogno Ep. 1 - Part 19
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Appena in tempo, translated as "just in time," could also be interpreted as "almost late."
"Basta!" -Appena in tempo.
"Stop!" -Just in time.
Caption 33, Dixiland Coppa di cioccolato
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Here is an example of appena used just like a malapena.
Lo conoscevo proprio appena, perché vivo in Italia da un anno e...
I barely knew him, because I've been living in Italy for a year, and...
Caption 8, Il Commissario Manara S1EP7 - Sogni di Vetro - Part 3
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I almost didn't know him, because...
To round out this lesson about a malapena and appena, let's just add that when you are talking about something very, very slight, it's common to repeat the adverb appena.
Qui ci sono ancora le tracce del colore originario che si riescono appena appena a vedere.
Here, there are still traces of the original color which one can just barely see.
Captions 13-14, In giro per l'Italia Asciano - S. Giuliano Terme: Villa Bosniascki - Part 2
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For sure, appena is used more often than a malapena, but now we see where they cross paths. Do a Yabla search of appena on the videos page and you will see scores of examples. See if you can single out the nuances of meaning.
Have questions or comments? Write to us. We love to hear from you!
The useful expression fare a meno (to do without) comes up in a recent installment of L'Arte della Cucina:
L'armonia non può fare a meno dei contrasti,
Harmony can't do without contrasts,
che possono essere numerosi.
which may be numerous.
Caption 14, L'arte della cucina - La Prima Identitá
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Let's take a look at each separate word.
Fare means "to make" or "to do" (see this lesson about fare).
A is a preposition meaning any number of things, mostly "at," "to," or "in," but not specifically "with," so we need to stretch our imaginations a bit, and accept the fact that prepositions don't always correspond.
Meno has a couple of different meanings, including "minus," which in this case, makes sense.
At the same time, let's not forget that the most common translation for meno is "less," or, when there's an article in front of it, "least":
a meno che (unless)
almeno (at least)
See WordReference, for more about fare a meno.
In a recent episode of Dixiland, there's an interesting expression: tale e quale.
O forse l'autoritratto di Lolalù?
Or maybe the self-portrait by Lolalù?
"Tale e quale, Lolalù."
"Exactly like Lolalù."
Captions 43-44, Dixiland - Coppa di cioccolato
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If we take the expression apart, we have two principal words. Tale has a long list of definitions and translations. It can mean, as a noun, "that person," or as an adjective, "certain," "similar," "aforementioned," and more. Quale (which) has some different sfumature (nuances), but it mostly means "which," or "which one."
In English, we might also say "the spitting image of Lolalù." "To spit" in Italian is sputare, and in fact, sputare is also used to say pretty much the same thing: sputato a Lolalù. Tale e quale is probably easier to remember and easier to say!
Merely connecting these words together with e (and) doesn't make a whole lot of sense, so it's best to think of tale e quale as an idiomatic expression, a compound adjective, you might call it, meaning "exactly the same."
E a noi napoletani ci fa diventare tali e quali ai milanesi.
And she makes us Neapolitans become exactly like Milanese.
Caption 58, Moscati, l'amore che guarisce EP1 - Part 6
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Attenzione! In buying and selling, you might find this (without the conjunction): tale quale, which means "as is."
Just for fun:
Non potevo fare a meno di andare dal parrucchiere. I miei capelli erano troppo disordinati. Appena sono entrata, il parrucchiere m’ha detto: “siediti pure, ho quasi finito.” Poi ha preso in mano un phon per asciugare i capelli di un altro cliente. Devo dire che quell' asciugacapelli era tale e quale al mio. Uguale uguale!... A meno che non fosse proprio il mio, rubato da lui. Sto scherzando... figuriamoci! Avrei fatto a meno della musica che era troppo forte, ma almeno mi ha pettinato molto bene, e in fretta. Dopo, non potevo fare a meno di mangiare un bel gelato.
I couldn't do without going to the hairdresser's. My hair was too messy. As soon as I went in, the hairdresser said, "Go ahead and have a seat. I'm almost finished." Then he took the blow dryer to dry another client's hair. I have to say that that hair dryer was exactly like mine. The same, identical!... Unless it really was mine, stolen by him. I'm kidding... no way! I could have done without the music, which was too loud, but at least he styled my hair nicely, and quickly. Afterwards, I couldn't have done without having a nice ice cream cone.
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