{"id":112,"date":"2009-03-25T14:38:25","date_gmt":"2009-03-25T18:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=112"},"modified":"2015-11-30T11:25:22","modified_gmt":"2015-11-30T10:25:22","slug":"misleading-word-of-the-day-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/misleading-word-of-the-day-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Misleading Word of the Day 3."},"content":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s \u2018Misleading Word of the Day\u2019 is attendere<\/strong>. In Italian, rather than meaning \u2018to attend\u2019, attendere<\/strong> has the following meanings:<\/p>\n

1. \u2018to wait for\u2019, \u2018to await\u2019, e.g. \u2018ho atteso l\u2019autobus per oltre mezz\u2019ora\u2019<\/strong> (I waited for the bus for more than half an hour), or \u2018attendiamo\u00a0 che arriva Anna per mangiare\u2019<\/strong> (let\u2019s wait for Anna to arrive before we eat).<\/p>\n

2. in it\u2019s reflexive form attendersi<\/strong> means \u2018to expect\u2019, e.g. \u2018non mi attendo nulla da lui\u2019<\/strong> (I don\u2019t expect anything from him), or \u2018Laura non si attendeva di sbagliare l\u2019esame di guida\u2019<\/strong> (Laura didn\u2019t expect to fail her driving test).<\/p>\n

3. Rarely used in spoken Italian, \u2018attendere a\u2019<\/strong> has the same meaning as the English \u2018to attend to\u2019, e.g. attendere alla casa<\/strong> (attend to\/take care of\u00a0the house), or attendere ai propri affari<\/strong> (attend to\/take care of one\u2019s business).<\/p>\n

4. the noun attesa<\/strong>, which comes from the past participle of attendere<\/strong>, means \u2018waiting\u2019 as in sala d\u2019attesa<\/strong> (waiting room)<\/p>\n

N.B. You can also use the verb aspettare<\/strong> when you want to say \u2018to wait\u2019, and aspettarsi<\/strong>\u00a0when you want to say \u2018to expect\u2019.<\/p>\n

So, how do you say \u2018attend\u2019 in Italian?<\/p>\n

1. To say \u2018attend\u2019 with the meaning of ‘to be present at a show, sporting event’ etc. as a spectator\u00a0we use \u2018assistere a\u2019<\/strong>, e.g. \u2018ieri abbiamo assistito a un bello spettacolo a teatro\u2019 <\/strong>(yesterday we\u00a0attended a really good show at the theatre), or \u2018Domenica assistero’ a una partita di calcio\u2019<\/strong> (on Sunday I will attend a football match).<\/p>\n

2. To say \u2018attend\u2019 as in \u2018attend a meeting\u2019 as a participant we use partecipare<\/strong>, e.g. \u2018Martedi’ devo partecipare a una riunione di lavoro\u2019<\/strong> (on Tuesday I have to attend a work meeting).<\/p>\n

3. To say ‘attend’ as in \u2018to attend a school, college etc.\u2019 we use frequentare<\/strong>, e.g. \u2018Edoardo frequenta la scuola elementare\u2019<\/strong> (Edoardo attends\/goes to\u00a0primary school).<\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026and yes assistere<\/strong> can be\u00a0another ‘misleading word\u2019 but, contrary to\u00a0that which\u00a0I have seen asserted on some \u2018Learn Italian\u2019 websites,\u00a0it is not a true \u2018false friend\u2019 because it can also mean \u2018to assist\u2019. Remember that if it is followed by \u2018a<\/strong>\u2019 as in the examples above it means \u2018to attend\u2019, whereas without the \u2018a<\/strong>\u2019 it means \u2018to assist\u2019, e.g. \u2018mi ha assistito con i suoi consigli\u2019<\/strong> (he assisted\/helped me with his advise).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s \u2018Misleading Word of the Day\u2019 is attendere. In Italian, rather than meaning \u2018to attend\u2019, attendere has the following meanings: 1. \u2018to wait for\u2019, \u2018to await\u2019, e.g. \u2018ho atteso l\u2019autobus per oltre mezz\u2019ora\u2019 (I waited for the bus for more than half an hour), or \u2018attendiamo\u00a0 che arriva Anna per mangiare\u2019 (let\u2019s wait for Anna…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[619],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-italian-language"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10500,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions\/10500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}