As we saw in yesterday’s blog, identifying similarities between English and Italian words can be a very useful way of extending your vocabulary. This strategy should however be used with caution because some words which sound more or less identical in both languages can be misleading:<\/p>\n
\u2018Misleading Word of the Day\u2019: pretendere<\/strong>. The obvious deduction to make would be that pretendere<\/strong> means \u2018to pretend\u2019, however in Italian it has the following meaning:<\/p>\n 1. To want or expect something unreasonably or unjustly, e.g. \u2018pretende quaranta euro per mezz\u2019ora di lavoro!\u2019<\/strong> (he\u00a0wants forty euros for half an hour’s work!)\u00a0or \u2018non puoi pretendere di parlare italiano dopo un mese\u2019<\/strong> (you can\u2019t expect to speak Italian after one month).<\/p>\n 2.To tenaciously assert or sustain something against accredited opinion or in contrast to reality: \u2018Gli avversari di Copernico e di Galilei pretendevano che il Sole girasse intorno alla Terra\u2019<\/strong>. (Copernicus and Galileo’s opponents sustained that the sun orbited around the earth).<\/p>\n 3. To expect one\u2019s rights: \u2018come cittadino che paga le tasse, pretendo che il comune ripari la strada\u2019<\/strong> (as a\u00a0tax paying citizen\u00a0I expect the council to repair the road).<\/p>\n If you are speaking in Italian and you want to say \u2018pretend\u2019 then you need to use the verb fingere<\/strong>:<\/p>\n io fingo<\/strong><\/p>\n tu fingi<\/strong><\/p>\n lui\/lei finge<\/strong><\/p>\n noi fingiamo<\/strong><\/p>\n voi fingete<\/strong><\/p>\n loro fingono<\/strong><\/p>\n You can either use the appropriate form of the verb directly. e.g. lui non dorme, finge soltanto<\/strong> (he\u2019s not sleeping, he\u2019s only pretending), or more commonly you can use the construction \u2018fare finta di\u2019<\/strong> e.g. \u2018da bambina mi piaceva fare finta di essere un gatto\u2019<\/strong> (when I was a girl I used to like pretending to be a cat) or \u2018fai finta di piangere?\u2019<\/strong> (are you pretending to cry?).<\/p>\n There is, however, a situation in which pretendere<\/strong> can mean ‘pretend’: pretendere al trono<\/strong> (to pretend to the throne). This is linked to the word ‘pretension’ (in Italian pretesa<\/strong>) which means, of course, ‘aspiration’ or ‘ambition’. We also have pretenzioso<\/strong> which means as you would guess, correctly this time,\u00a0‘pretentious’ or ‘self-important’.<\/p>\n N.B. These ‘Misleading Words’ are commonly known as ‘Falsi Amici’<\/strong> (‘False Friends’) or ‘False Cognates’.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As we saw in yesterday’s blog, identifying similarities between English and Italian words can be a very useful way of extending your vocabulary. This strategy should however be used with caution because some words which sound more or less identical in both languages can be misleading: \u2018Misleading Word of the Day\u2019: pretendere. The obvious deduction…<\/p>\n