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Follow It!

This proposal is now in the Commitment phase — example questions are locked!

59 Example Questions (2 closed)

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up vote 1 down vote

added by Marco Leogrande Sep 13 '12 at 7:30

In my opinion, this question is unanswerable without more context; at least it is necessary to clarify what the nature of jobs is. – Carlo_R. Sep 15 '12 at 14:07

@Carlo_R. I don't agree with you on this. Unless I'm mistaken, "being between jobs" means that one has left their job and has not started on the new one yet. I'm not sure whether having left your job or having lost it makes a difference, but certainly it is not important what your job consisted in. – Paola Sep 15 '12 at 23:05

Yes, what @Paola said is what I had in mind. – Marco Leogrande Sep 16 '12 at 4:30

up vote 1 down vote

added by Antonio Bonifati Sep 17 '12 at 16:36

I explain it this way. (You formal) me keep to the current? Corrente means current, but also "current of information", so it means: will you keep me in the know? You can also say "a conoscenza", "in the know": mi tiene a conoscenza? will you keep me posted/informed? Another example: I'm in the know of it, I'm aware of it=ne sono al corrente, ne sono a conoscenza. ne is the Italian shortcut for "of it" or "of them". It is not easy to find out comparative explanations like this. One of the purposes of our site should be explain idioms which may at first appear strange, but often have equivalents – Antonio Bonifati Sep 17 '12 at 16:39

Hi Antonio, I'm so glad you accepted to support this attempt once again; if we get to start a proper IL&U, you'll be a precious member, as you teach Italian. I also appreciate your question (I cannot upvote it because I've finished my votes :-(, I wish we had more than five). It's good of you to share your experience with us, please try to formulate more questions and don't forget to cast your votes. Thank you. – Paola Sep 17 '12 at 21:08

up vote 1 down vote

added by Marco Leogrande Sep 18 '12 at 4:55

E.g. "l'ho detto sia a lui, sia a lei" vs "l'ho detto sia a lui, che a lei". – Marco Leogrande Sep 18 '12 at 4:56

Accademia della Crusca's website has a FAQ about it, this is bound to be answered with a "copy-paste-link" answer. – Alex Sep 18 '12 at 8:17

Nice question. I remember our teacher recommending us to never use the form "sia ... che", but I've seen much controversy about this – Lucius Sep 18 '12 at 8:38

@Alex many non-italians (and many Italians as well, for that matter) do not even know about the existence of Accademia della Crusca – Lucius Sep 18 '12 at 8:42

@Lucius I'm well aware of its not-so-wide audience, the FAQ I pointed out is the first result when googling "sia sia" – Alex Sep 18 '12 at 9:55

up vote 1 down vote

added by radp Sep 18 '12 at 18:02

</3 Italian keyboard layout – radp Sep 18 '12 at 18:02

No native speakers of Italian language would notice this difference, but it is totally understandable that a foreign ask for it; so, the question is fine. – Carlo_R. Sep 19 '12 at 13:05

@Carlo I'm certainly a native speaker who is bothered by "E'" in place of "È" :P There's only one reason to ever do this and it's the italian keyboard layout lacking a way to type È directly. (Oh, but we have the ç! Very useful.) – radp Sep 19 '12 at 13:15

e' also messes up google translate – Midhat Sep 19 '12 at 23:06

@Midhat, good point! never noticed that – Psicomante Sep 20 '12 at 9:51

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up vote 1 down vote

added by Agos Sep 19 '12 at 10:16

Since there is a legend about this fact, the question is perfectly fine. – Carlo_R. Sep 19 '12 at 12:37

I'm a bit uneasy about this question, I feel the answer to it is quite subjective. "Passato remoto" is normally used in some regions whereas it is not, for example, in Lombardy where I live. Still, I happen to use it in spoken language (sometimes I feel it better completes my sentences), but I may get strange looks from my interlocutors... I don't think there is a straight and always valid reply to this question. – Paola Sep 21 '12 at 21:32

up vote 1 down vote

added by astabada Dec 11 '12 at 13:09

up vote 0 down vote

added by ymar Aug 27 '12 at 15:19

Well, I suppose that any question asking about the meaning of an idiomatic expression would fit. – Marco Leogrande Sep 9 '12 at 0:08

up vote 0 down vote

added by Lucius Aug 30 '12 at 10:32

A wordreference lookup can answer this – Alex Sep 17 '12 at 7:46

I guess this site should be an alternative to other online resources such as WR.. correct me if I am wrong. – Lucius Sep 17 '12 at 12:04

Usually, general reference questions are not allowed. blog.stackoverflow.com/2011/02/… We dont have to follow this, but I think this will generate too much noise, 1 words answers and link asnwers on the site – Midhat Sep 17 '12 at 14:03

Wordreference is a precious resource. But in order to answer a question like this an Italian newbie needs to look up the two words. He is then overwhelmed by a lot of information, since there are many different uses. I guess the average person would get confounded and won't really understand how to use the words. As a teacher I would give a simple rule that WR doesn't state explicitly: whenever in English you can add a -self, as in himself, herself, themselves, itself,etc. in Italian it is sé, otherwise it is se (if, a condition). self it is stesso/stessi, but it's often understood in Italian. – Antonio Bonifati Sep 18 '12 at 7:53

<comments removed> Please do not use comments to answer these questions. Comments are here to help improve the questions. This proposal is not part of the Q&A site, and the task at hand is to help define a future site. Thank you. – Robert Cartaino♦ Sep 27 '12 at 12:58

up vote 0 down vote

added by Kostya, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Sep 21 '12 at 18:33

In a way, this question is interesting, because the question itself does not make any sense to an Italian mothertongue. :-) I guess that in the native tongue of the questioner there is a substantial distinction between a reflexive verb and a transitive verb with "oneself" as its object. In Italian this distinction does not apply so clearly, any transitive verb has a reflexive form and any "mi ..." means "a me ...", but a foreign speaker could easily fall into such kind of doubts out of misleading inter-language comparisons. – Mauro Vanetti Nov 20 '12 at 14:13

up vote 0 down vote

added by Alex, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Sep 21 '12 at 18:34

This is more of a "does the language has it?" kind of question, which implies a bit of comparison for reference. This would address expressions like "outranking", "outnumbering" and the sort of. It may happen that an English speaker trying to translate "We're outnumbered" and coming up with "I nostri oppositori sono più numerosi di noi in modo soverchiante" starts to look around for something shorter. – Alex Sep 18 '12 at 12:18

Nice question!! – Lucius Sep 18 '12 at 16:06

up vote 0 down vote

added by Joey Nov 21 '12 at 12:14

up vote 0 down vote

added by Lucius Nov 29 '12 at 9:50

couldn't make the whole question fit in the limited number of characters available.. any suggestion to better express it is welcome. – Lucius Nov 29 '12 at 9:59

up vote 0 down vote

added by astabada Dec 18 '12 at 9:48

up vote -1 down vote

added by lucaghera Oct 4 '12 at 19:29

What's the problem with this question? Why downvote? – lucaghera Nov 14 '12 at 14:51

up vote -1 down vote

added by Midhat Oct 17 '12 at 12:40

why the downvote(s)? – Midhat Nov 20 '12 at 22:08

up vote -2 down vote

added by d11wtq Sep 18 '12 at 2:52

I think that this question might be too subjective; a lot depends on which specific dialects you are talking about, or if both speakers at good at it, and so on... On the other hand, i think that it might be interesting to show how diverse the Italian dialects can be. – Marco Leogrande Sep 18 '12 at 4:44

There is definitely no "correct" answer here, it all depends on personal experience. – Alex Sep 18 '12 at 7:44

this one is quite subjective.. anyway, this made me think that, once the site opens, we could consider a tag for dialects (as long as it doesn't get out of hand) – Lucius Sep 18 '12 at 9:38

@Lucius If it's subjective, it's probably good subjective. I don't even think it's subjective though. – radp Sep 18 '12 at 18:00

@kiamlaluno I am aware of this fact: actually many Italian dialects are considered as languages in their own right (e.g. Piedmontese has even its own ISO code). What I meant is that, since there is little to none chance to ever see a dedicated Q&A site for each of them, we might consider, in the future, reserving a tag-space for them. Given that the thing doesn't get out of control and they end up taking too much space, of course. – Lucius Nov 12 '12 at 14:44

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up vote -3 down vote

added by Midhat, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Sep 21 '12 at 18:34

which past? imperfetto, prossimo or remoto? – Lucius Sep 18 '12 at 16:05

I dont know :) Just proposing this question I have in my mind since the last year. I am not a master of past tense. I have some idea about prossimo and imperfetto, – Midhat Sep 18 '12 at 16:12

taht's ok, I suppose that in the reply one could list all possible cases – Lucius Sep 18 '12 at 17:14

@midhat c'era/c'è stato/ci fu/... (c'è = ci è) – radp Sep 18 '12 at 18:01

In my opinion this question is vague and incomplete. The English "past tense" can be rendered in Italian in a lot of different ways, depending on the time frame. I vote to close. – Carlo_R. Sep 19 '12 at 13:19

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up vote -8 down vote

added by md nth, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Sep 21 '12 at 18:28

closed as not constructive by Paola, kiamlaluno, Carlo_R., Lucius, Midhat Sep 16 '12 at 13:47

This question is not a good fit to our Q&A format. We expect answers to generally involve facts, references, or specific expertise; this question will likely solicit opinion, debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion.

A dictionary can easily tell you that. – Marco Leogrande Sep 9 '12 at 21:26

Sorry, I agree with @Marco Leogrande; I think this question is not constructive. I voted to close. – Carlo_R. Sep 16 '12 at 10:39

up vote -8 down vote

added by Napolux, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Sep 21 '12 at 18:31

closed as not constructive by kiamlaluno, Carlo_R., Midhat, Marco Leogrande, Paolo Moretti Sep 16 '12 at 8:24

too localized.. – Midhat Sep 13 '12 at 15:45

this is the kind of question which should not be asked, firstly because it calls for very subjective replies, secondly because it might even attract spam. – Paola Sep 14 '12 at 19:43

@Paola I completely agree with you on this point; is there a way to delete this question? It is no more than a poll. – Carlo_R. Sep 15 '12 at 9:59

Lets not delete it. Let's keep it as example of an irrelevant question – Midhat Sep 15 '12 at 13:02

Questions asking for "the best" something are generally not constructive. As with the books, there could be new courses, or courses that were before available could be not anymore available. The answers would become a list of Italian language courses that need to be edited over the time. – kiamlaluno Sep 19 '12 at 0:00

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