Whatever! Posted by Serena on Nov 29, 2010 in Grammar, Italian Language
When I lived in Nottingham, England, I worked for a while as a school librarian in one of the city’s most ‘challenging’ schools. Working with teenagers is, of course, a challenge in itself, but when they are teenagers from deprived inner-city backgrounds one needs nerves of steel. Come erano maleducati quei ragazzi! (How rude those boys were!) The most common retort to almost any request would be as follow: Me: "Darren, would you mind putting those books back on the shelf please?" Darren: "Yeah, whatever, Miss".
OK! So, what has all this got to do with my Italian blog? Well, reminiscing over my ‘fond’ memories of those ‘good old days’ (ha ha!) made me think of a group of words which in English end with the suffix ‘-ever’: whatever, whoever, however, wherever, whenever. How do we express these ‘-ever’ words in Italian? To make life relatively easy four out of the five words use the suffix ‘-unque’ which is Latin for mai (ever / never).
| Whatever | Qualunque or qualsiasi Qualunque tempo faccia, domani partiamo (Tomorrow we’ll leave whatever the weather) Qualsiasi cosa facesse, gli andava sempre storta (whatever he did, it would always turn out wrong). Qualunque and qualsiasi also have the meaning of ‘any’ as in the following examples: Farei qualsiasi cosa per uscire di qui (I would do anything to get out of here) To use ‘whatever’ in the non committal manner used by those ‘lovely’ teenagers that I used to work with, we put qualunque / qualsiasi after the noun. This expresses indifference or lack of any particular quality or opinion, e.g.: Michele sta cercando un lavoro qualsiasi, l’importante è poter avere uno stipendio regolare (Michele is looking for whatever job [he can find], the important thing is to have a regular salary) From this particular usage of qualunque comes the word Qualunquista, to describe a person who is completely indifferent and skeptical towards politics and institutions. |
| Whoever | Chiunque Chiunque telefoni, non ci sono (Whoever phones, I’m not here) Non so chi di voi abbia rotto il vetro, ma chiunque sia stato dovrà ripagarlo (I don’t know which one of you broke the window, but whoever it was will have to pay for it). |
| However | Comunque Comunque vadano le cose, dobbiamo rassegnarci (However things turn out, we’ll have to accept it) Non volevo andarci, comunque mi sono divertito un sacco (I didn’t want to go, however I enjoyed myself a lot) |
| Wherever | Dovunque Lo troverò, dovunque si sia nascosto (I’ll find it, wherever it’s hidden) Dovunque lui vada, il cane lo segue (wherever he goes, the dog follows him) Dovunque also has the meaning of ‘everywhere’, e.g.: Ovunque has exactly the same meaning as dovunque, but is more commonly used in literature |
| Whenever | Ogni volta che (equivalent to ‘every time that’)
Ogni volta che vado a Sarzana, passo a trovare mia cugina (Whenever I go to Sarzana, I pay a visit to my cousin) In qualsiasi momento (equivalent to ‘at any time’) Puoi passare a trovarmi in qualsiasi momento ne hai voglia (you can come and visit me whenever you feel like) |
N.B. Words ending with the suffix ‘-unque’ are usually followed by the subjunctive, underlined here in the following phrase: Chiunque abbia una domanda su questo argomento, qualunque essa sia, mi può scrivere in qualsiasi momento! (whoever has a question about this topic, whatever it may be, can write to me whenever they like!)
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Comments:
Wafa:
Ottimo!!! Grazie!!
Paolo:
Another useful post; grazie.
My subjective inclination would be to say, “Farei qualsiasi cosa per uscire ***da*** qui,” instead of “di qui“.
What’s the difference?
Serena:
@Paolo Salve Paolo, scusa per il ritardo.
You are correct in thinking that it should be “da qui” rather than “di qui”, because “da” normally translates as “from”. However the verb “uscire” can be followed by either “da” or “di”, but they are not necessarily interchangeable.
There doesn’t seem to be a fixed rule about this, so here are some examples: we say “uscire dall’ufficio”, but “uscire di fabbrica”, “uscire di casa”, “uscire di qui” or “uscire di lì”; however, both “uscire di chiesa” and “uscire dalla chiesa” are commonly used. There are also some idiomatic expressions such as “uscire di senno” or “uscire di testa” (to loose one’s senses, or to go off one’s head).
Saluti da Serena
andreas:
Salve Serena!
Che blog tanto bello! Proprio ci dà il sentire di come utilizzare queste parole. E ora la mia domanda: Si può anche dire ”Puoi passare a trovarmi in qualsiasi momento ne abbia voglia”?
Andreas
Serena:
@andreas Salve Andreas, grazie per i complimenti. Sì, si può usare il congiuntivo invece dell’indicativo, ma in questo caso è meglio aggiungere il pronome personale “tu” per non creare equivoci, cioè: “Puoi passare a trovarmi in qualsiasi momento tu ne abbia voglia”.
Saluti da Serena
Lauretta Scalzo:
Oh how I remember the ‘whatever’ phase when I lived in London!!
My problem is reflexive verbs.. I just don’t quite get it… I don’t know how to THINK reflexively and the explanations only confuse me more. For example, I’m finding it difficult to know where to attach the verb.. I don’t know WHO’S doing it… so I can’t figure out the gender.. how do I know when the verb is something I’M doing or someone else is doing to me. And when it comes to person A doing something to person B then I’m lost altogether… do you have an easy way of explaining all this? If that’s not too confusing… if it is, then SNAP!
Serena:
@Lauretta Scalzo Salve Lauretta,
Yes reflexive verbs can be very confusing until you get the hang of them! Try this blog and see how you get on: https://blogs.transparent.com/italian/reflexive-verbs/
If you’re still confused let me know and I’ll try and help.
A presto, Serena
andreas:
Grazie
Cinzia:
Serena, lo sai tu come si puo’ tradurre quest’espressioni che usano “quei ragazzi maleducati”? Whatever, miss. C’e’ qualcosa di simile in italiano? Che ne dici di “Se lo dici tu” (?)
oppure “Uffa!” but I’m betting my money on my first translation. Let me know what you think. 🙂
Serena:
@Cinzia Salve Cinzia, scusami tanto per il ritardo, ma ci sono sempre tanti imprevisti.
Ho pensato molto alla traduzione di “whatever, Miss” e devo dire che dipende tutto dall’intonazione della voce. “Se lo dici tu / se lo dice lei” è perfetto, ma potrebbe anche essere, “Come vuole, Prof”, oppure “Vabbè!”, l’importante è usare un tono insolente e annoiato allo stesso tempo. Whatever!
Saluti da Serena
Carol:
Hi, I have a very nice Italian friend. However, he likes to use ‘whatever’ so much in English. As probably you can feel, ‘whatever’ in English is really an annoying word:
http://maristpoll.marist.edu/1214-whatever-retains-title-of-most-annoying-word-or-phrase/
So I would really like to know if ‘whatever’ in Italian could mean something else (probably more pleasent?) Thanks!
Serena:
@Carol Salve Carol, It’s very difficult to answer your question without hearing a typical example of how your friend uses the word ‘whatever’. Also, I’d need to know if he is an Italian who has grown up in an English speaking culture, or if he has recently moved to that culture and is mistranslating ‘qualunque /qualsiasi’, which mean ‘whatever’, but also ‘every’ or ‘any’.
A presto, Serena
Gary:
Grazie tante. In Italia, si dice “Qualunque!” or “Qualsiasi!” come in inglese per dire “Whatever!”
Cinzia:
Gary, lo dici con tanta convinzione. Ma io non sono per niente d’accordo. “Qualunque” o “Qualsiasi” sembrano piu’ una riposta alla domanda “Quale posso prendere/scegliere?”.
Cosa ne dite voi?
Gary:
Cinzia: Grazie tante (di nuova) per la risposta. A proposito, me piace molto la tua blog e spero che tu continui a farlo.
Saluti,
Gary
Serena:
@Gary Gary and Cinzia,
Let’s clear up a bit of confusion!
Gary wrote: “In Italia, si dice “Qualunque!” or “Qualsiasi!” come in inglese per dire “Whatever!”
Gary, here is my original reply to Cinzia: “Ho pensato molto alla traduzione di “whatever, Miss” e devo dire che dipende tutto dall’intonazione della voce. “Se lo dici tu / se lo dice lei” è perfetto, ma potrebbe anche essere, “Come vuole, Prof”, oppure “Vabbè!”, l’importante è usare un tono insolente e annoiato allo stesso tempo. Whatever!”
In other words, there is no single equivalent in Italian of ‘whatever’ as used in the insolent manner which I describe in my blog. Everything depends on the tone of voice.
Cinzia wrote: “Qualunque” o “Qualsiasi” sembrano piu’ una riposta alla domanda “Quale posso prendere/scegliere?”
Cinzia and Gary, neither ‘qualunque’ nor ‘qualsiasi’ can be used on their own because they are both adjectives. The correct reply to the question “quale posso prendere?” would be “quello che vuoi” (whichever you want), “è indifferente” (it doesn’t matter), “è uguale” (it’s all the same), or, if you really want to use qualunque/qualsiasi you would have to say “uno qualunque”/”uno qualsiasi” (whichever one).
Finally, Gary, thanks for the compliment about my blog. I assume it was directed to me even though you wrote it in your reply to Cinzia, who is not the blogger but a reader like yourself.
Cinzia, thanks for your contribution to this topic.
Saluti a tutti e due, Serena
Gary:
Dear Serena:
Sorry to have had you work so hard during the holidays, but I do thank you for clarifying a couple of things, not the least of which is that you are the author of this terrific blog. I’m new to visiting the site, but will continue to do so, now that I know how good a source it is for learning and practicing Italian.
Saluti,
Gary
Serena:
@Gary Ciao Gary, non c’è di che!
A presto, Serena
Susan Pezzino:
Thank you for your very clear and very interesting explanation on this point. How do you feel would be the best way to translate into Italian
Invite whomever you please.
Dance with whomever you see there.
Choose whichever of the books you would like.
Also, in think a bit about more formal language, do you think there is a way to show in Italian the greater emphasis and formality that ‘whosoever’ has compared to ‘whoever’ or ‘howsoever’ has compared to ‘however’.
If we say
Whoever comes to the party will have a great time!’
it seems to have the sense of “all”. But if we say
Whosoever is found in violation of this statute will be persecuted to the full extent of the law
there is the same sense of ‘all who’ but there seems to be emphasis or intensiveness — not just the sense of ‘all who’ but of ‘all, with no possible exceptions’ or ‘all, such as their cases may be’.
Serena:
@Susan Pezzino Salve Susan, I’ll try and answer your questions.
1. “How do you feel would be the best way to translate into Italian?”
‘Invite whomever you please’ = ‘Invita chiunque vuoi’
‘Dance with whomever you see there’ = ‘Balla con chiunque vedi li’ (however this seems an unusual sentence even in English)
‘Choose whichever of the books you would like’ = ‘Scegli qualsiasi/qualunque libro vuoi’
2. “do you think there is a way to show in Italian the greater emphasis and formality that ‘whosoever’ has compared to ‘whoever’ or ‘howsoever’ has compared to ‘however’?”
I understand your point about the subtle difference between ‘whoever’ and ‘whosoever’ (n.b. there is also whomsoever). Even if the English dictionary shows them as having the same meaning they are used in slightly different ways, and whosoever/whomsoever definitely sound more formal, as in a legal proclamation for example.
However, it’s a bit difficult to interpret the sentence “Whoever comes to the party will have a great time!” because it could mean either: “Everyone who comes to the party will have a great time” = “Tutti quelli che verranno alla festa si divertiranno molto” or “Anyone who comes to the party will have a great time” (i.e. it is suitable for all ages, tastes, etc.) = “Chiunque verrà alla festa si divertirà”
As for the more formal sentence: “Whosoever is found in violation of this statute…etc.” you could use either ‘chiunque’ as before, or ‘colui che’ (‘he whom’, or ‘he that’), e.g. “colui che ha rotto il vetro pagherà” = “he that (whosoever) broke the glass will pay!”
As for the distinction between however and howsoever in Italian, well of course it depends on the context, but you would use ‘comunque’ for however, e.g.”comunque vada vengo lo stesso” (“however things turn out I’ll come anyway”), and for ‘howsoever’ you could use ‘in qualsiasi maniera/in qualunque modo’ (‘By whatever means’).
Spero di essere stata di aiuto, Serena
catherina:
I would like to know how to express this “whatever” as an exclamation. You tell me something and I respond with “whatever!”
Serena:
@catherina Salve Catherina, I’m not sure I understand exactly how you want to use ‘whatever!’, I never heard it used like that in England. If you mean something like ‘your kidding!’ then the Italian equivalent would be ‘scherzi!’
If this isn’t what you wanted please let me know.
Saluti da Serena
catherina:
Thanks Serena. That answers half my question.
Now if you mean, Whatever, I don’t care! do what you please, what would be the exclamation thanks. GRAZIE!!!!
Serena:
@catherina Salve Catherina, If you look through the other comments on this post you will see that Cinzia has already asked this question. If you read my reply to Cinzia it should give you the answer you want.
A presto, Serena