{"id":11372,"date":"2016-04-05T17:12:12","date_gmt":"2016-04-05T15:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=11372"},"modified":"2019-01-28T15:31:13","modified_gmt":"2019-01-28T14:31:13","slug":"for-better-or-for-worse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/for-better-or-for-worse\/","title":{"rendered":"For Better or For Worse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Parli bene l\u2019italiano!<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/strong> (You speak Italian well!)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

You won\u2019t get far in any conversation without needing to use the words good, bad, well, badly, better or worse.
\nNow here\u2019s one of those topics that in theory should be simple but in practice <\/span><\/span>can <\/span><\/span>turn out to be quite confusing.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s try and break it all down, and see how it works in everyday speech.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"DSCN2339-003\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Bene<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/strong> and <\/span><\/span>Male<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

b<\/span><\/span><\/strong>ene<\/span><\/span><\/strong> (well\/good) <\/span><\/span>and <\/span><\/span>male<\/span><\/span><\/strong> (bad\/badly) <\/span><\/span>are <\/span><\/span>adverbs<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> e.g.<\/span><\/span>:\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Lucia suona <\/span><\/span><\/strong>bene<\/span><\/span><\/strong> il violino<\/span><\/span><\/strong> (Lucia plays the violin <\/span><\/span>well<\/span><\/span>).
\n<\/span><\/span>questo lavoro \u00e8 fatto <\/span><\/span><\/strong>male<\/span><\/span><\/strong> (this job is done <\/span><\/span>badly<\/span><\/span>).
\nMim\u00ec La Gatta: “Mamma mia, come dormo bene qui!”<\/strong> (“Ahhh, I sleep really well here!”)
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

bene <\/strong>and male<\/strong> can also be <\/span><\/span>nouns<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>, <\/span><\/span><\/span>e.g.<\/span><\/span>:\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

q<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/strong>uesta regola \u00e8 stata introdotta per il bene di tutti <\/b><\/span><\/span><\/strong>(<\/span><\/span>t<\/span><\/span>his rule has been introduced for the good of everyone)<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/strong>b<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/strong>isogna distinguere il bene dal male<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/strong> (one must distinguish the right from the wrong)
\n\u00e8<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/b> un bene che tu s<\/span><\/span><\/strong>ia<\/span><\/span><\/strong> capitato qui<\/span><\/span><\/strong> perch<\/span><\/span><\/strong>\u00e9<\/span><\/span><\/strong> ho bisogno del tuo aiuto<\/span><\/span><\/strong> (<\/span><\/span>I<\/span><\/span>t\u2019s a good thing that you\u2019ve <\/span><\/span>turned up<\/span><\/span> because I need your help).
\nnon tutto il male vien per nuocere<\/strong> (‘not all evil comes to harm’, or ‘every cloud has a silver lining’)
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Buon<\/b>o<\/b> and Cattivo<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

buono<\/span><\/span><\/strong> (good) <\/span><\/span>and <\/span><\/span>cattivo<\/span><\/span><\/strong> (bad) <\/span><\/span>are <\/span><\/span>adjectives<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> e.g.<\/span><\/span>:
\n<\/span><\/span>Mario ha fatto un buon lavoro<\/span><\/span><\/strong> (Mario did a good job)
\n<\/span><\/span>o<\/b><\/span><\/span>ggi il tempo <\/span><\/span><\/strong>\u00e8<\/span><\/span><\/strong> cattivo <\/span><\/span><\/strong>(today the weather is bad)
\n<\/span><\/span>You may find the following article<\/span><\/span>s<\/span><\/span> useful as they have<\/span><\/span> more detailed explanations of the meaning and uses <\/span><\/span>of <\/span><\/span>buono<\/b><\/span><\/span> and <\/span><\/span>cattivo<\/b><\/span><\/span>: <\/span><\/span>The Good the Bad and the Ugly<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and <\/span><\/span>Buono o Bello<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Migliore<\/b><\/span> and <\/span>Peggiore<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

migliore <\/span><\/span><\/strong>(better, the best)<\/span><\/span> and <\/span><\/span>peggiore<\/span><\/span><\/strong> (worse, the worst)<\/span><\/span> are also <\/span><\/span>adjectives<\/span><\/span><\/span>, in <\/span><\/span>fact<\/span><\/span> they are the comparative and superlative forms of <\/span><\/span>buono<\/b><\/span><\/span> and <\/span><\/span>cattivo <\/b><\/span><\/span>e.g.<\/span><\/span>:\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

q<\/span><\/span><\/strong>ueste scarpe sono\u00a0migliori di quelle\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/strong>(these shoes are\u00a0better than those)
\n<\/span><\/span>questo <\/span><\/span><\/strong>\u00e8<\/span><\/span><\/strong> il libro migliore che abbia mai letto<\/span><\/span><\/strong> (this is the best book I\u2019ve ever read)
\n<\/span><\/span>questo vino <\/span><\/span><\/strong>\u00e8<\/span><\/span><\/strong> peggiore di quello<\/span><\/span><\/strong> (this wine is worse than that one)
\n<\/span><\/span>questo <\/span><\/span><\/strong>\u00e8<\/span><\/span><\/strong> il peggior film che abbia mai visto<\/span><\/span><\/strong> (this is the worst film I\u2019ve ever <\/span><\/span>watched<\/span><\/span>).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Meglio<\/b><\/span> and <\/span>Peggio<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

meglio<\/span><\/span><\/strong> (better) <\/span><\/span>and <\/span><\/span>peggio<\/span><\/span><\/strong> (worse) <\/span><\/span>are <\/span><\/span>adverbs,<\/span><\/span><\/span> in <\/span><\/span>fact<\/span><\/span> they are the comparative forms of <\/span><\/span>bene<\/b><\/span><\/span> and <\/span><\/span>male <\/b><\/span><\/span>e.g.<\/span><\/span><\/em>:\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/em>
\n<\/span><\/span>Lucia suona il violino meglio di Laura<\/span><\/span><\/strong> (Lucia plays the violin better than Laura)
\n<\/span><\/span>Laura suona il violino peggio di Lucia <\/span><\/span><\/strong>(Laura plays the violin worse than Lucia).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

meglio<\/span><\/span><\/strong>\u00a0and <\/span><\/span>peggio<\/span><\/span><\/strong> are commonly used in expressions such as: <\/span><\/span>\u00e8<\/b><\/span><\/span> <\/b>meglio <\/span><\/span><\/strong>(it\u2019s better) \/ <\/span><\/span>\u00e8<\/b><\/span><\/span> <\/b>peggio <\/span><\/span><\/strong>(it\u2019s worse), <\/span><\/span>e.g.<\/span><\/span>:\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e8<\/span><\/span><\/strong> meglio partire domani <\/span><\/span><\/strong>(it\u2019s better to leave tomorrow)
\n<\/span><\/span>\u00e8<\/b><\/span><\/span> peggio\u00a0andare in macchina\u00a0che\u00a0in autobus\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/strong>(it\u2019s worse going in the car than by bus).\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

N.B. <\/b><\/span><\/span>In modern Italian you will often hear\u00a0<\/span><\/span>meglio<\/span><\/span><\/strong>\u00a0 and <\/span><\/span>peggio\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/strong>used in place of the more grammatically correct\u00a0<\/span><\/span>migliore<\/span><\/span><\/strong> and <\/span><\/span>peggiore<\/span><\/span><\/strong>\u00a0 when they follow the verb <\/span><\/span>\u00e8<\/span><\/span><\/strong> e.g.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>il maglione rosso <\/span><\/span><\/strong>\u00e8<\/u><\/span><\/span><\/strong> meglio<\/u><\/span><\/span><\/strong> di quello blu<\/span><\/span><\/strong>, instead of <\/span><\/span>il maglione rosso <\/span><\/span><\/strong>\u00e8<\/u><\/span><\/span><\/strong> migliore<\/u><\/span><\/span><\/strong> di quello blu<\/span><\/span><\/strong>\u00a0(the red jumper is better than the blue\u00a0one), <\/span><\/span>questo vino <\/span><\/span><\/strong>\u00e8<\/u><\/span><\/span><\/strong> peggio<\/u><\/span><\/span><\/strong> di quello<\/span><\/span><\/strong> instead of <\/span><\/span>questo vino <\/span><\/span><\/strong>\u00e8<\/u><\/span><\/span><\/strong> peggiore<\/u><\/span><\/span><\/strong> di quello <\/span><\/span><\/strong>(this wine is worse than that one). <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Finally dear readers, remember the hyperlinks. People often ask us questions about our blogs that have already been answered in the hyperlinks that we have given you. So, if you see a word that looks like this<\/span><\/strong><\/a>, click on it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Parli bene l\u2019italiano! (You speak Italian well!) You won\u2019t get far in any conversation without needing to use the words good, bad, well, badly, better or worse. Now here\u2019s one of those topics that in theory should be simple but in practice can turn out to be quite confusing. Let\u2019s try and break it all…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":11389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[386025,386026,386024,789,840],"class_list":["post-11372","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar","tag-bad-in-italian","tag-buono-e-cattivo","tag-good-in-italian","tag-meglio-o-migliore","tag-peggio-o-peggiore"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11372","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\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11372"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17733,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11372\/revisions\/17733"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}