Italian Language Blog

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to explain the difference between the words mattina  and mattino, which both mean "morning" in English. The two words are often interchangeable, although mattino (masculine singular) is less common than mattina (feminine singular). Here are a few examples in which either word may be used:

era una mattina chiara e luminosa or era un mattino chiaro e luminoso (it was a clear bright morning);

alle dieci della mattina or alle dieci del mattino (at ten o’clock in the morning);

la mattina presto or il mattino presto (early morning).

However, there are some idiomatic expression and proverbs in which one form is used in preference to the other. Let’s have a look at them:

Mattina:

When we are talking about a specific date we use the feminine form, e.g.: ieri mattina (yesterday morning); questa mattina abbreviated to stamattina (this morning); domani mattina abbreviated to domattina (tomorrow morning); giovedì mattina (Thursday morning), etc.

We also prefer the feminine form when talking about a routine, e.g.: tutte le mattine (every morning); in genere la mattina studio (I usually study in the morning); è difficile trovarmi in casa la mattina  (I’m not often at home in the morning).

There are also a couple of idiomatic expressions that always use mattina. One is ‘dalla sera alla mattina’ (from the evening to the morning) meaning "fairly rapidly", or "overnight", e.g. Giorgio cambia opinione dalla sera alla mattina (Giorgio changes his mind overnight). The second is ‘da mattina a sera’ (from morning till evening) meaning "all day long" e.g. ha piovuto da mattina a sera senza un attimo d’interruzione (it rained all day long without interruption).

Mattino:

The masculine form, mattino, is used in several idiomatic expressions. Here are some of the most common ones:

sul far del mattino (at daybreak); di buon mattino (early in the morning); le ore del mattino (the morning hours); augurare il buon mattino (to wish a good morning); il giornale del mattino (morning newspaper); Venere è la stella del mattino (Venus is the morning star); durare lo spazio di un mattino (to last the length of a morning), meaning "to last a very short time"; il mattino della vita (the morning of life), signifying la fanciullezza (childhood).

There are also two popular proverbs in which the masculine form is used:

il buon giorno si vede dal mattino (lit. one can see the good day from the morning) meaning that from the early signs one can guess the development of events, either good or bad, e.g. ‘one can imagine from the behavior of a child what kind of adult they will become’. This proverb is often used in the following way "se il buon giorno si vede dal mattino…" to mean "judging by how things are going so far…" So you might use this proverb, for example, if your car breaks down as you are setting off on holiday, then it starts raining, etc. etc. which doesn’t bode well for the rest of your break!

il mattino ha l’oro in bocca (lit. the morning has got gold in its mouth) meaning that the most productive time for studying or working are the morning hours (definitely not true in my case!)

Finally, when recounting an event that happened  ‘all’improvviso’ (suddenly) we normally start with: un bel mattino, e.g. erano anni che non vedevo Lucia, ma un bel mattino è squillato il telefono … (I had not seen Lucia for years, but suddenly one morning the phone rang …)

Now, if all of this seems a bit confusing, don’t worry, just stick with mattina and you won’t go wrong!

Every year on the 27th of April Lucca celebrates the life of its most beloved patron saint, Santa Zita, with a spectacular floral tribute. For the occasion, Piazza dell’Anfiteatro (an oval shaped medieval piazza built over the remains of the Roman amphitheatre) hosts a flower market, where azaleas and rhododendrons, with their incredible shades of pinks, reds and oranges, are the queens and kings of the day. A second display takes place in Piazza San Frediano which the gardeners from Lucca’s Botanical Garden transform into a fantastic garden, choosing a different theme each year. After many years one of these gardens still stands out in my mind as the most magical of all. It took the form of an incredible display of orchids from all over the world. That April must have been warmer than it is this year!

La storia di Santa Zita

Santa Zita was born in 1218 in Monsagrati, and at the age of 12 she became a servant in the house of the noble Fatinelli family in the nearby town of Lucca. Her employment allowed her to help the poor and hungry by taking them bread and leftover food from the well-supplied kitchen of the Fatinelli house. Legend has it that one day her master, having had his suspicions raised by another servant, stopped Zita in the street and asked her what she was carrying in her bulging apron. "Fiori e fronde" (flowers and foliage) she replied, and when she opened her apron the bread that she was taking to the poor had miraculously transformed into flowers.

Zita died on the 27th of April 1278. Dearly loved by her fellow citizens, and in particular by the Fatinelli family, she was laid to rest in the Fatinelli chapel inside the beautiful Basilica di San Frediano, where her mummified body is still preserved and visible inside a glass coffin. By the late thirteen / early fourteen century Zita was already venerated as a saint, and her name had become synonymous with the town of Lucca. In fact to describe a magistrato Lucchese (magistrate from Lucca) who he met in hell, Dante wrote: "un de li anzian di Santa Zita" (one of the Elders of Saint Zita – Inferno, canto XXI). Zita was officially pronounced a saint in 1696, being declared the patron saint of housemaids and housewives. She is also the patron saint of Lucca, a role that she shares with San Paolino.

Farcela is a very commonly used idiomatic expression which means ‘to manage’ [to do something], or ‘to succeed’. It is composed of the verb fare (to make/to do) and the pronouns ‘ce’ and ‘la’. It can be used on its own, e.g. ce la fai? (can you manage?), or it can be followed by the preposition ‘a’ and an infinitive, e.g. ce la fai a passarmi quella scatola lassù? (can you manage to pass me that box up there?).

Here are some more examples of how to use it, firstly in the present tense:

ce la fate ad essere pronti per le otto? (can you [plural] manage to be ready by eight o’ clock?)

questo quadro è molto pesante, non so se ce la faccio a portarlo da solo (this picture is very heavy, I don’t know if I can manage to carry it on my own)

se ce la facciamo, passiamo a salutarvi prima di partire (if we can manage it, we’ll come by to say goodbye before we leave)

…now in the future tense:

non so se ce la faremo a venire al cinema stasera (I don’t know if we’ll be able to come to the cinema this evening) 

ce la faranno i nostri eroi a ……? (will our heroes manage to ….?) this was the classic dramatic ending in many of the fumetti (comics) that I read as a child.

ce la farà Giovanni a prendere l’aereo? (will Giovanni manage to catch the plane?)

…and in the past tense (passato prossimo – present perfect):

anche se il treno era in ritardo, ce l’abbiamo fatta ad arrivare in tempo (even though the train was late, we managed to arrive on time)

Cecilia non ce l’ha fatta a superare l’esame di Latino (Cecilia didn’t manage to pass the Latin exam)

è stata dura ma ce l’ho fatta! (it was hard but I managed it!)

N.B. as you can see in the examples given above, the pronoun ‘la’ changes the past participle ‘fatto‘ to ‘fatta‘.

There are a couple of other idiomatic expressions which share the same construction as farcela, and therefore follow the same rules. The first is avercela, which means ‘to be upset with’ or ‘annoyed with’ someone, e.g.:

Perché ce l’hai con Mario, che cosa ti ha fatto? (why are you annoyed with Mario, what has he done?)

The second is mettercela tutta (to do one’s best or to put everything into an enterprise), e.g:

non so come è andato l’esame, ma ce l’ho messa tutta! (I don’t know how the exam went but I did my best!)

Spero che ce l’abbiate fatta a capire tutto.