Breathing is essential for life, so it's a pretty important word, we'll all agree. This lesson will explore different ways of talking about the breath and breathing, with some useful modi di dire (expressions) that can come in handy.
So what's the word for "breath" in Italian? There's more than one, so buckle up.
This is the breath that comes out when you breathe. A wind instrument we blow into with our breath to produce a sound is uno strumento a fiato, and when we speak in general, about instruments in an orchestra, for example, we say i fiati (the winds).
La zampogna è uno strumento a fiato
The bagpipe is a wind instrument
fatto con pelle di pecora.
made with sheep hide.
Quindi uno strumento musicale.
So it's a musical instrument.
-Musicale, musicale, musicale, sì.
-Musical, musical, musical, yes.
Captions 53-54, L'Italia a tavola - Interrogazione sulla Calabria
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When someone is stressing you out, they may be breathing down your neck. Don't worry, Italians get stressed out, too, and there is a similar expression in Italian. Instead of using the verb form "to breathe," though, they use the verb stare ("to be," "to stay," "to stand there," and add a preposition).
Mi stai sempre con il fiato sul collo.
You're always breathing down my neck.
Caption 64, Stai lontana da me - Rai Cinema
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Another essential expression to know using fiato for "breath" is riprendere fiato. It usually means "to catch one's breath."
It's interesting to note that in both expressions, there's no possessive pronoun in Italian. It's either assumed or they include the person in a different way. And in riprendere fiato, there is no article, either.
La città riprende fiato
The city catches its breath
Caption 4, Radio Deejay - Lorenzo Jovanotti - Gente della notte
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P.S. Jovanotti's song has a lot of great words and phrases about life in the city — worth checking out, at least the transcript, if not the song itself (for beginners, too!).
If you are a runner, you will know the moment in which you start feeling warmed up, when your breathing settles in, and you finally feel like you can keep going. We could even talk about getting one's second wind.
Dopo 2 kilometri, ho rotto il fiato,
After 2 kilometers, I got warmed up/I got my second wind,
e ho corso altri 5!
and I managed to run 5 more!
What about the verb fiatare? It does exist, but it's usually reserved for whispering, or "breathing a word."
La Titti conosceva De Carolis. Avrebbe pagato
Titti knew De Carolis. He would have paid
senza fiatare, senza...
without breathing a word, without...
senza avvertire la polizia.
without alerting the police.
Captions 48-50, Il Commissario Manara - S2EP12 - La donna senza volto
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Mozzafiato is a great adjective, meaning "breathtaking."
che sembra quasi abbracciarvi
that almost seems to embrace you
con una bellezza mozzafiato.
with breathtaking beauty.
Captions 53-54, Meraviglie - EP. 5
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We'll talk about il respiro (the breath) in part 2.
How do Italians talk about email? Even in English we don't all use the same spelling. Some people write it as one word; some use a hyphen. We also use email as a verb in English, too: "I'll email you." Language doesn't stay the same. It evolves.
In Italian, too, "email" as a word, and as a concept, receives different treatment from different people. Be that as it may, the official name for email is la posta elettronica. It makes sense: the electronic mail.
And if you say la posta elettronica, you won't be wrong. But la posta elettronica actually stands for email in general, or even the inbox itself. One single email is more like unmessaggio di posta elettronica.
Still, more and more frequently, Italians use English words when talking about computers and the internet.
Since saying la posta elettronica every time can get old pretty quickly, the English term emailhas been adopted by many Italians. It's certainly quicker to say than la posta elettronica or unmessaggio di posta elettronica. But there's a basic problem. La posta is a feminine noun, so it makes sense for email to be feminine, too. So it might become la email. But how to pronounce the "E"?
Vowels:
Many Italians don't fully realize that we Americans pronounce the "E" in "email" like the letter "E." We say email, e-book, ezine, e-commerce, etc. In Italian, an "E" is pronounced more like the "A" in make.
Italians learn to pronounce just about every letter they see. There are rules. But when they come upon foreign words, they can have a hard time imagining a pronunciation different from what think it should be by following the rules. As in most languages, people invent a version of a foreign word that sounds good or right to them.
And regarding the word "mail," an average Italian who doesn't know English would pronounce the "mai" in "mail" as something more akin to "my." So it's actually a very difficult word to pronounce.
To pronounce email in a similar way to English, an Italian would write something like ìmeil. Pretty weird, right?
Accent:
In English, we put the accent on the "E," and when the word came into being, there was a hyphen so it was easier to figure this out, but Italians don't necessarily realize that it's the letter "E" as an abbreviation for "electronic." They just read it as they see it and the accent ends up on "mail."
So we get la email or worse, una email, with two vowels juxtaposed: "A" followed by "E," neither of which is accented. It's awkward.
So lots of people just shorten email to mail.
Ti mando una mail.
I'll send you an email.
In the latest episode of La Ladra, someone is sending some files via email. But what they say is via mail. It has become very common to say it this way.
Allora, io Le mando via mail tutti i dati della villa.
So, I will send you all the information about the villa by email.
Caption 52, La Ladra - Ep. 5 - Chi la fa l'aspetti - Part 3
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In the following example, la mail refers to a single email.
L'hai mandata la mail al commercialista?
Did you send the email to the accountant?
Caption 30, Marika spiega - Pettegolezzi in ufficio con Anna
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In the following example, what's meant is the email account.
Se per te privacy è entrar nella mia mail e scrivere a Marco al posto mio...
If privacy for you means going into my email account and writing to Marco in my place...
Caption 55, Stai lontana da me - Rai Cinema - Part 11
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Sometimes you need to provide your email address.
Certo. Qual è l'indirizzo mail?
Sure thing. What's your email address?
Caption 68, Italiano commerciale - Cominciare un nuovo lavoro - Part 2
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Italians have found a darling way to name the @: the "at" sign. They call it a chiocciola (a snail).
Sì, certo. È Arianna chiocciola Phones and More punto it.
Yes, of course. It's Arianna at Phones and More dot it.
Caption 69, Italiano commerciale - Cominciare un nuovo lavoro - Part 2
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Can you provide your email address in Italian? If you can't remember how to say the names of the letters, check out Marika's video. If you have trouble making yourself understood, check out this handy telephone alphabet. Remember that punto (point, period, full stop, dot) is what you say for the dot in "dot com." In Italy, some email addresses end in "com," but many end in it for Italy. Sometimes it gets spelled "I-T" but sometimes it gets pronounced as a word, as in the previous example.
Italians use English words more and more frequently, but they might differ from the original in meaning and in pronunciation, so they might be the hardest words to understand when an Italian is using them in the middle of an Italian sentence.
Marika explains all about the verb mettere (to put) in this video lesson.
As you will see, there are dozens of different ways to use mettere. But what can sometimes be tricky is that in English we don’t generally use “put” without some sort of preposition or adverb. We always think of “put in,” “put on,” or “put up,” but in Italian, at least in casual speech, we might hear:
Metti un po’ di sale.
Put [in] a bit of salt.
In a recent episode of Stai lontana da me, there is a discussion between two guys in a couple. One is criticizing the cooking methods of the other:
No, allora cuciniamo per terra
No, so let's cook on the floor
come nel Medioevo. -Ma che c'entra?
like in the Middle Ages. -But what does that have to do with it?
Metti meno olio, no, scusami. -Sì, nella Preistoria.
Put in less oil, right? Excuse me. -Yes, in prehistoric times.
Captions 88-90, Stai lontana da me - Rai Cinema
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The grammatically correct way to say this would be by attaching an indirect pronoun at the end of the verb to mean “in it”:
Mettici meno olio, no?
Put in less oil, can’t you?
If we look carefully, however, we see that earlier in the discussion, they actually do say things the right way:
Chi cucina? Ah, sì,
Who cooks? Ah, yes,
con tutto l'olio che ci metti
with all that oil that you put in,
me l'incrosti da matti, guarda, ogni volta.
you cake them up like crazy, look, every time.
Captions 86-87, Stai lontana da me - Rai Cinema
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In the previous example ci stands for “into them,” where it represents the baking pans. For more on metterci, see this lesson. The lesson also talks about using mettere to say how long something takes—how much time you “put into something” (Marika will talk about this in part 2 of her lesson on mettere).
Here’s another thing to remember with mettere. In an episode of Commissario Manara, there's a dicey situation, and Luca lifts Lara up to help her. She exclaims:
Aiutami. Ah, ah, ah... mettimi giù!
Help me. Ah, ah, ah... put me down!
Captions 40-41, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP2 - Vendemmia tardiva
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In the example above, a single word is formed from the verb and object pronoun together. In this case Lara is using the informal imperative and she’s using herself as the direct object.
In the following example, however, mettimi looks identical, but means something different. This time mi at the end of mettimi is an indirect object and means in this case, “for me.” The direct object is questo (this).
No, mettimi questo sulla scrivania per favore, io vado con la Rubino.
No, put this on the desk for me please. I'm going with Rubino.
Caption 42, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP8 - Morte di un buttero
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And just to add a little something more to the pot, we have the word smettere. An “s” attached to a verb often shifts its meaning to the opposite.
Mi metto al lavoro alle dieci e smetto alle tre di pomeriggio.
I start working at ten and I quit at three in the afternoon.
So a way to ask someone to stop doing something is smettila (stop it)!
In fact, in a recent episode of La Tempesta, Paolo’s neighbor is telling him off.
Terzo, la devi smettere di parcheggiare la Porsche
Third, you have to stop it with parking the Porsche
davanti al pettine delle bici.
in front of the bike rack.
Captions 72-73, La Tempesta - film - Part 1
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Learn more:
Direct object pronouns
Particelle (little words like mi, ci, ti...)
We can’t always be on time, so let’s look at some of the words you need when you or someone else is late. It’s not as simple as using the Italian word tardi (late).
In a recent episode of Stai Lontana da Me there has been a little car accident. This time nobody got hurt, but Sara is going to be late for work if she’s not careful.
Però è tardi.
But it's late.
Senti, mi dispiace, io prendo la metropolitana.
Listen, I'm sorry, I'll take the metro.
Ho fatto tardi.
I'm running late [or "I've gotten delayed," "It got late," "I'm late."]
Captions 11-13, Stai lontana da me - Rai Cinema
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When she says, “È tardi,” she’s talking about the hour. She has to be at work, say, at nine, and it’s already ten to nine, and she is still far from her office. Objectively speaking, it is late!
When she says “Ho fatto tardi,” she is talking about herself and the fact that she got delayed. She is late.
Telling someone not to be late is important sometimes. Here’s one way to do this:
Ciao, mamma. Io vado da Flavia.
Hi, Mom. I'm going to Flavia's.
-Ciao, amore. -Non fare tardi.
-Bye, love. -Don't be late.
Captions 38-39, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP3 - Rapsodia in Blu
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Another way to say you’re late is to use the phrasal adverb, in ritardo (late). Ritardo is a noun meaning “delay.”
In an episode of Commissario Manara, Manara’s boss is not happy with him per niente (at all).
Lei è in ritardo di ventiquattro ore.
You're twenty-four hours late.
Si può sapere che cosa aveva da fare di così urgente?
Can you let me know what you had to do that was so urgent?
Captions 16-17, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP7 - Sogni di Vetro
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The noun il ritardo is commonly used when we apologize for being late.
Buonsera a tutti.
Good evening everyone.
Scusate il ritardo, ragazzi.
Sorry I'm late, guys.
Ma aspettavate solo me?
Were you just waiting for me?
Captions 8-10, Concorso internazionale di cortometraggio - A corto di idee
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Both the adverb tardi and the noun ritardo also have verb forms: tardare and ritardare.
Non dovrebbe tardare ad arrivare.
It won’t be long before he arrives.
This doesn’t refer to a precise amount of time, and doesn’t necessarily mean someone or something is late. It just means they haven’t arrived yet.
The following is a bit more urgent and refers, most likely, to an agreed-upon hour.
Non ritardare, perché il film comincia puntuale.
Don’t be late, because the film starts punctually.
Here’s how we use comparatives and superlatives with tardi (late).
Vado a letto tardi il sabato sera.
I go to bed late on Saturday nights.
Più tardi means "later."
Ci vediamo più tardi.
We’ll see each other later.
Al più tardi means "at the latest."
Devi spedire questa lettera domani al più tardi.
You have to send this letter by tomorrow at the latest.
The opposite of in ritardo is in anticipo (ahead of schedule, early, in advance).
We can also use the verb form anticipare (to be early, to expect).
La consegna era prevista per domani, ma il pacco è arrivato in anticipo.
Delivery was scheduled for tomorrow, but the package arrived early.Per via del maltempo in arrivo, hanno anticipato il rientro.
Because of approaching bad weather, they came back early.
Just to add a little twist, another opposite of anticipare is posticipare (postpone, to delay).
Per via del maltempo in arrivo, hanno posticipato il rientro.
Because of approaching bad weather, they postponed their return.
Attenzione! Italians do not use anticipare in the sense of “looking forward to something.” See this definition of the verb to anticipate. Definition number 2 doesn’t conform to the Italian. In fact, “looking forward to something” is difficult to say in Italian, and there is no precise translation. We will tackle this conundrum in another lesson.
To sum up
Tardi (late): With the adverb tardi, we use the verb fare when talking about someone being late. When talking about the hour, we use essere (to be).
Tardare (to be late, to run late)
Il Ritardo (the delay)
Essere, arrivare in ritardo (to be late or behind schedule)
Ritardare (to run behind schedule, to be late)
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