{"id":145,"date":"2009-06-06T08:00:52","date_gmt":"2009-06-06T12:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=145"},"modified":"2009-06-06T08:00:52","modified_gmt":"2009-06-06T12:00:52","slug":"bisogno-or-bisogna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/bisogno-or-bisogna\/","title":{"rendered":"Bisogno or Bisogna?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Here is another example of a verb that does not translate very well from English into Italian: \u201cto need\u201d. In Italian the verb bisognare <\/strong>(to need) has become redundant except in its third person form, but we use two different constructions to express the concept of \u2018need\u2019 that should not be confused with each other, bisogno <\/strong>and bisogna<\/strong>. So what is the difference between the two, and how do we use them?<\/span><\/p>\n

Bisogno<\/strong> is a noun<\/span> meaning \u201cthe need\u201d, and is used with the verb avere <\/strong>(to have) followed by the preposition di<\/strong>, literally meaning \u201cto have need of\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n

Ho bisogno<\/span> di un paio di scarpe nuove <\/strong>(I need a new pair of shoes);<\/span><\/p>\n

tu hai bisogno<\/span> di riposarti <\/strong>(you need to rest);<\/span><\/p>\n

Bruno ha bisogno<\/span> di studiare di piu\u2019 <\/strong>(Bruno needs to study more);<\/span><\/p>\n

Signora, ha bisogno<\/span> di aiuto? <\/strong>(do you need some help, Madam?);<\/span><\/p>\n

abbiamo bisogno<\/span> di una bella vacanza <\/strong>(we need a nice holiday);<\/span><\/p>\n

avete bisogno<\/span> di qualcosa? <\/strong>(do you need something?);<\/span><\/p>\n

i signori Rossi hanno bisogno<\/span> di comprare una casa piu\u2019 grande <\/strong>(Mr and Mrs Rossi need to buy a bigger house).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bisogna<\/strong> is a remnant of the verb<\/span> bisognare<\/strong> which, as I said above, is no longer used except in its impersonal form, having the meaning of \u201cit\u2019s necessary\u201d or \u201cone needs\u201d. It is normally followed directly by an infinitive. For example:<\/span><\/p>\n

Per diventare un bravo musicista bisogna esercitarsi molto <\/strong>(to become a good musician one needs to practice a lot); bisogna comprare il pane <\/strong>(it\u2019s necessary\/we need to buy some bread); bisogna rispettare le opinioni degli altri <\/strong>(it\u2019s necessary to respect other people\u2019s opinions); per andare a Capri bisogna prendere il traghetto <\/strong>(to go to Capri one needs to\/must catch the ferry).<\/span><\/p>\n

In the past tense bisogna <\/strong>is only used in the imperfect form, and not in the passato prossimo <\/strong>(present perfect). For example, to say \u201cit was necessary\u201d we say bisognava<\/strong>: e.g. per andare a Firenze bisognava cambiare treno a Viareggio <\/strong>(to go to Florence it was necessary to change train in Viareggio).<\/span><\/p>\n

Just to add a bit of confusion, we have another impersonal<\/span> construction which uses bisogno,<\/em> but has the same meaning as bisogna<\/em>, and it works in the following way: c\u2019e\u2019 bisogno di \u2026<\/strong> (lit. there is the need of), e.g.: per diventare un bravo musicista c\u2019e\u2019 bisogno di esercitarsi molto<\/strong> (to become a good musician one needs to practice a lot); c\u2019e\u2019 bisogno di comprare il pane<\/strong> (it\u2019s necessary\/we need to buy some bread). Unlike bisogna <\/em>this form can be used in the passato prossimo<\/em>: per andare a Firenze c\u2019e\u2019 stato bisogno di cambiare treno a Viareggio.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Adesso ho bisogno di mangiare un bel piatto di spaghetti!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

Here is another example of a verb that does not translate very well from English into Italian: \u201cto need\u201d. In Italian the verb bisognare (to need) has become redundant except in its third person form, but we use two different constructions to express the concept of \u2018need\u2019 that should not be confused with each other…<\/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],"tags":[639,640],"class_list":["post-145","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-grammar","tag-bisogna","tag-bisogno"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145","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=145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}