… or more to the point, what is mica?

• Mica: a group of sheet silicate minerals
• Multimedia, Information, Communication & Applications
• Multidimensional Independent Component Analysis
• Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance
• Maryland Institute College of Art
• Mica: a word that you hear Italians use a lot but are never quite sure what it means

Mica is, in fact, all of the above, but for our purposes as students of Italian, it’s obviously the last of these that we’re going to look at today.

Mica has two distinct translations:

1. Mica = not, at all, hardly, exactly. In this case mica is used to reinforce a negation. Let’s have a look at some every day examples:

non è mica vero! = it’s not true at all!
non l’ho mica fatto apposta! = I hardly did it on purpose!
ti piace questa gonna? … non è mica brutta! = do you like this skirt? … it’s not bad at all!
non è mica per caso che ho scelto questo prodotto! = I didn’t exactly choose this product by chance!

“ti piace questa gonna?” ……. wtf ….. lolololololol!!!!!

Very commonly, the negative non is dropped completely and replaced by mica

mica è vero! = it’s not true at all!
mica l’ho fatto apposta! = I didn’t do it on purpose!
ti piace questa gonna? … mica è brutta! = do you like this skirt? … it’s not bad!
mica è per caso che ho scelto questo prodotto! = I didn’t choose this product by chance!

Tip: A useful common expression is mica male, meaning ‘not bad’, e.g. mica male questa pasta = this pasta’s not bad

2. Mica = by any chance, perhaps. In this case mica is used in questions such as:

hai mica visto i miei occhiali? = have you by any chance seen my glasses?
avete mica il pane senza sale? = have you got any bread without salt by any chance?
non hai mica visto Elena stamattina? = you haven’t seen Elena this morning by any chance have you?
ci sono mica dei chiodi più grandi per favore? = are there perhaps some bigger nails please?

Here’s an excellent video (in Italian) by Fiorella Atzori explaining the use of mica. I strongly suggest that you try to follow it, and if you like what you hear, subscribe to Fiorella’s channel, sgrammaticando.