Comments on: Giorno or Giornata?

By: Serena

Serena — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:58:48 +0000

Salve Ian. Yes, you are right: the same concept applies to “sera” vs “serata”, “mattina” vs “mattinata”, and “notte” vs “nottata”. In fact we say “fare la nottata” to mean that we are doing a night shift or we are looking after somebody ill for the night. Interestingly, we don’t have another word for “pomeriggio”.
Arrivederci!

By: Serena

Serena — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:53:25 +0000

Salve Jane, the correct translation for “beautiful place” is “bel posto”. If you would like to find out more about the use of “bello”, you can read my blog:

http://www.transparent.com/italian/buono-o-bello/

Arrivederci!

By: natasha

natasha — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:24:13 +0000

Great idea, Vince. I will talk to Serena to see what we can come up with.

By: Ian

Ian — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:50:26 +0000

Very insightful.
I guess the same concept applies to la sera (eg buona sera vs buona serata).

By: Vince Mooney

Vince Mooney — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:16:04 +0000

Salve Serena:

What is your policy (or company policy) on using material in your posts to make Byki lists that can be shared on List Central? The more indiums explained in a post, the more I like it. This post is a gold mine of idioms.

A list of the use of the words ‘giornata’ and ‘giorno’ would be very helpful. I’d love to remember everything in your post but I would not be able to do it without frequent reinforcement. I wish I had Byki when I was in college!

Thanks

Vince

By: Marie Hodge

Marie Hodge — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:53:31 +0000

Oh, how I enjoyed “Giorno or Giornata! I’m trying very hard to speak Italian, and reading it comes easily to me. Several of your examples were easily translated, some were not. Nevertheless they all bring back my parents (Papa -Avalino Naples e Mamma - Messina Siclia) conversing.

My Sicilian nonna always used to say as we were leaving her house, “cuando ‘riva scriva” -

Mille grazie!

By: Nathan

Nathan — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:06:06 +0000

Grazie Serena! You’ve really helped me with this one, I just couldn’t see what the difference was. You cleared it up for me.

By: Jane Pittella

Jane Pittella — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:12:48 +0000

Would you be kind enough to let me know which is the correct translation for “beautiful place” — bel posto or bello posto? We would like to name our new home, and are in need of guidance regarding the correct phrase in Italian. Thanks!