Tutorial Transcript

Hello everyone and welcome back to my channel! Today we're going to be talking about 10 colloquial expressions that are widely used in Italian. I'll say that again, I'm going to discuss "colloquial" expression, so be careful with the context in which you use them. Let's get started! (≈ "What a drag!"; "That sucks!") When you're fed up with something, you can use either of these two expressions, "che pizza" or "che palle". The latter is slightly stronger than the former. For example, "che pizza!" can be used by kids, however, if I were a mom, I wouldn't want my child to say "che palle!". Some people consider this expression almost as bad as a curse word. (≈ "I have to"; "I've got no choice (but to...)") You can use this expression when you have to do something that you don't feel like doing, but it is really necessary for you to do that! For example, paying the bills; it's something we don't like doing, but we have to do it, we need to do it. An example with this expression could be: "Today I have to go to the post office to pay the last bill". Therefore, the meaning of the expression "mi tocca" is equivalent to the verb "dovere" ("must", "have to"). (≈ "Please!"; "Make sure..."; "Don't forget...") I've already discussed this expression in a past video, but I figured it would be useful to include it in this list, because it is widely used in the spoken language. When you want to remind something to someone, or you want someone to do something, taking your advice, you can use this expression at the beginning of the sentence. "Make sure / Don't forget to pay the water bill!" "Please, do turn your cell phone off when you go to bed!" Therefore, the speaker considers his advice or suggestion as very important. (≈ "Stop it"!; "Knock it off!") Use this expression when you want someone to stop doing what they're doing, such as talking, crying, arguing, more in general being annoying. As I'm sure you're aware, thus, this expression is mostly used in the context of an argument, of a quarrel. So, whoever uses this expression is probably angry or annoyed at someone, more specifically The fact that the verbs in the expression are conjugated in the imperative mood, explains to us that we're talking about an order, which makes the meaning of the word quite strong. (≈ "Do me a favor!"; "Oh, come on!"; "Get out of here!") This expression is used in response to something we don't believe is true. The context is once again a quarrel or an argument; if someone during an argument tells their side of the story and we don't agree with said side of the story, then we can use this expression. "Get out of here!" We can think of this expression as the short version of the sentence: "Do me a favor and stop talking" or "Do me a favor and be quiet!" Therefore, you're ordering the other person to remain silent. (≈ "Let's hope for the best!"; "Fingers crossed!) Instead, this expression is more positive, because we're hoping for a situation to work out for the best, or we're hoping that something we desire will happen, or that something we don't want to happen will not happen. This expression has the same meaning as "fingers crossed!", which is used to wish that everything turns out well. (≈ "It's not (that) bad!") This expression can be used in many contexts, with reference to food, to a place, to a movie, to a book, to a person. It's an expression that implies an average judgment, which means that you're not going out on a limb. For example, "The movie I watched yesterday wasn't too bad". It wasn't a terrible movie, but I probably wouldn't watch it again. (≈ "No way!") We can used this expression when we hear news that we don't believe to be true. For example: "Beatrice told me that Luca would leave on his own." - "There's no way! Luca won't even go to the grocery store on his own." Therefore, the person replying considers the information as impossible. Because that person, Luca, isn't even capable of going to the grocery store on his own, so it's not likely for him to be leaving on a trip all by himself. No way! (≈ "Dunno") This is your favorite expression, I know that! When you don't know the answer to a question, we can say "boh!", which means "I don't know!". (≈ "Nop!"; "Not a chance!"; "What are you talking about!") This last expression is used as a negation, with the meaning of "not a chance!". Originally there were two separate words, "ma" and "che", which were supposedly the beginning of a question such as "(but) what are you talking about?". Later on, the use of the words generated a single word, derived from the abbreviation of the question: "macché", which is used to negate something said. This is all for today! I hope this video will help you. And I'll see you in the next one! Bye!

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