{"id":135,"date":"2009-05-10T13:53:42","date_gmt":"2009-05-10T17:53:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=135"},"modified":"2009-05-10T13:53:42","modified_gmt":"2009-05-10T17:53:42","slug":"meta%e2%80%99-or-mezza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/meta%e2%80%99-or-mezza\/","title":{"rendered":"Meta\u2019 or Mezza?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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They say that two halves make a whole, but that\u2019s not necessarily true. Let me explain: in Italian we have two words, meta\u2019 <\/strong>and mezza<\/strong>, which both mean \u201chalf\u201d in English. This can be very confusing, and students of Italian often find it difficult to know which of the two to use. Hmm, let\u2019s see if I can clarify it to myself first, because I usually end up in a terrible tangle when I try and explain it to English friends\u00a0who then end up getting more confused than ever! OK, I\u2019m ready to start!<\/span><\/p>\n

Meta\u2019<\/strong> is a feminine noun<\/span>, used to describe one of two equal parts into which a thing is divided (hmm, so much for clarification, you may need to read that several times!). Let\u2019s look at some examples: I can say: la meta\u2019 di 100 e\u2019 50<\/strong> (half of 100 is 50), or Gianni e\u2019 cosi\u2019 goloso che ha mangiato meta\u2019 della torta di mele<\/strong> (Gianni is so greedy that he ate half of the apple cake),\u00a0or non e\u2019 giusto! la tua meta\u2019 e\u2019 piu\u2019 grande della mia!<\/strong> (It\u2019s not fair! Your half is bigger than mine!). The word meta\u2019<\/strong>, like all nouns ending in \u2013ta\u2019, doesn\u2019t change in the plural: i.e. due meta\u2019<\/strong> (two halves). As a husband and wife are meant to \u2018complete\u2019 each other we often say la mia meta\u2019<\/strong> (\u2018my other half\u2019) when talking about our spouse. <\/span><\/p>\n

Mezza<\/strong>, on the other hand, is a regular adjective<\/span>, and therefore it changes according to the noun which it describes, i.e. mezze<\/strong> (feminine plural), mezzo <\/strong>(masculine singular), mezzi<\/strong> (masculine plural): e.g. Gianni ha mangiato mezza mela<\/strong> (Gianni ate half an apple); oggi al mercato ho comprato mezzo chilo di mele<\/strong> (today I bought half a kilo of apples at the market); quanto abbiamo camminato oggi, siamo mezzi morti! <\/strong>(what a distance we\u2019ve\u00a0walked\u00a0today, we\u2019re half dead!). Mezza<\/strong> or mezzo<\/strong> is used in many combined nouns such as mezzogiorno<\/strong> (midday), mezzanotte<\/strong> (midnight), mezzaluna<\/strong> (half moon), mezzosoprano<\/strong> (mezzo-soprano), mezzatinta<\/strong> (mezzotint).<\/span><\/p>\n

OK, up to now it\u2019s all very simple and straightforward (I hope), but we Italians don\u2019t like to make life too easy, otherwise it would get boring!<\/span> Because meta\u2019<\/strong> is a noun it is normally followed by the preposition di<\/strong> (of) i.e. meta\u2019 di<\/strong> (half of). However, in colloquial Italian meta\u2019<\/strong> is often used without<\/span> the preposition di<\/strong>, and therefore it looks like an adjective: e.g. ho comprato questa gonna a meta\u2019 prezzo <\/strong>(I bought this skirt at half-price), instead of the more correct\u00a0a<\/strong> meta\u2019 del<\/span> prezzo<\/strong>,\u00a0or Laura ha detto che mi paghera\u2019 a meta\u2019 mese<\/strong> (Laura said that she will pay me half way through the month), instead of a meta\u2019 del mese<\/strong>. As I said, this use of meta\u2019<\/strong> makes it appear to be an adjective and\u00a0can be\u00a0very confusing as it overlaps with mezza<\/strong>!<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, just to confuse things a little bit more, the adjective mezzo<\/strong> (only in the masculine form) is used as a <\/span>noun<\/span> with the meaning of \u201cmiddle\u201d: e.g. attento! c\u2019e\u2019 un cane in mezzo alla strada! <\/strong>(Watch out! There is a dog in the middle of the road!); in mezzo alla piazza c\u2019era una fontana <\/strong>(in the middle of the square there used to be a fountain); quella di mezzo e\u2019 la finestra <\/strong>della mia camera<\/strong> (the middle one is my bedroom window).<\/span><\/p>\n

I think I\u2019d better stop here, but beware, this is only a small\u00a0selection of the many\u00a0uses of meta\u2019<\/em> and mezza\/o<\/em>. It\u2019s almost impossible to list all the idiomatic expressions, adverbial uses, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ora vado a\u00a0bere un buon caffe\u2019 con la mia dolce meta\u2019 <\/strong>(Now I\u2019m going to drink a nice coffee with my \u2018sweet other half\u2019).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They say that two halves make a whole, but that\u2019s not necessarily true. Let me explain: in Italian we have two words, meta\u2019 and mezza, which both mean \u201chalf\u201d in English. This can be very confusing, and students of Italian often find it difficult to know which of the two to use. Hmm, let\u2019s see…<\/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":[6,619],"tags":[790,791],"class_list":["post-135","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-grammar","category-italian-language","tag-mezza","tag-mezzo"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135","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=135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}