My last blog, Una Veduta dall mia Finestra was inspired by the landscape that I see from my window. This blog draws inspiration from a rather different source, my accident prone husband Geoff. Within the last three weeks he has managed to fall from a two meter wall and crack his ribs, remove a patch of skin from the top a his head (he is 1 meter 88cm tall so it happens often), and twist his big toe on the stairs. The toe is now impressively swollen, and black and blue, …..Pazienza!

‘Accidenti, mi sono fatto proprio male!’ (Damn, I’ve really hurt myself!) were not the exact words that he used when he tripped on the stairs yesterday and remodeled his toe, but you get the idea. So now we’ll all benefit from Geoff’s infortuni (misfortunes) with a look a what to say when you  have an accident (‘avere un incidente’), but I’m afraid you’ll have to find your parolacce (swearwords) elsewhere!

Farsi male (to hurt oneself).

Many of the expressions we use when talking about personal accidents are in the reflexive and therefore follow the normal reflexive rules: For example, you would say ‘mi sono fatto male’ if you are male, and ‘mi sono fatta male’ if you are female. Likewise, if you want to ask someone else if they have hurt themselves you would say ‘ti sei fatta male?’ to a female friend and ‘ti sei fatto male?’ to a male friend. If you want to use the polite, ‘lei’, form you would say ‘si è fatto(a) male?’

To explain what part of your body you have hurt use farsi male a, e.g.: ‘mi sono fatto(a) male alla schiena’ (I’ve hurt my back). ‘mi sono fatto(a) male al gomito’ (I’ve hurt my elbow)

To tell someone how you hurt yourself, or in what way you are injured, here are a few useful phrases:

‘Sono caduto(a)’ (I fell) or ‘ho fatto una caduta’ (I had a fall), e.g. ‘sono caduto(a) da quel muro’ (I fell from that wall), ‘stamattina ho fatto una brutta caduta da quel muro’ (this morning I had a bad fall from that wall).

‘Sono scivolato(a)’ (I slipped), e.g. ‘sono scivolato(a) sul ghiaccio’ (I slipped on the ice).

‘Mi sono tagliato(a) il dito’ (I’ve cut my finger), n.b. when we talk about parts of the body, we don’t use the possessive adjective ‘my’ or ‘your’. Instead we use the definite article ‘the’, e.g. ‘mi sono tagliato(a) la mano’ (I’ve cut my hand, literally: I’ve cut myself the hand), ‘mi sono fatto(a) male alla mano’ (I’ve hurt my hand, literally: I’ve hurt myself the hand).

‘Ho preso una scossa’ (I got an electric shock).

‘Mi sono bruciato(a) il braccio’ (I’ve burnt my arm).

‘Mi sono scottato(a) la bocca’ (I’ve scalded my mouth).

Farsi un livido (to bruise oneself), e.g. ‘Mi sono fatto(a) un livido sulla gamba’ (I’ve bruised my leg).

Graffiarsi (to scratch/graze oneself), e.g. ‘Mi sono graffiato(a) il ginocchio’ (I’ve grazed my knee).

‘Ho battuto la testa’ (I’ve banged my head).

‘Ho preso una storta’ (I’ve sprained my ankle).

‘È molto doloroso’ (It’s very painful).

‘Mi fa male’ (It hurts), ‘mi fa male il piede’ (my foot hurts).

‘Si è gonfiato’ (It’s swollen).

‘Ho bisogno di un cerotto’ (I need a plaster), ‘Ho bisogno di una benda’ (I need a bandage)

Sanguinare (to bleed), ‘il dito sta sanguinando’ or ‘sanguina il dito’ (my finger is bleeding), ‘sanguina il naso’ (I’ve got a nose bleed).

Va bene, per adesso basta che non voglio pensare più a queste cose. Pensiamo a qualcosa di bello, ecco, sta uscendo il sole!