{"id":15112,"date":"2017-10-30T17:27:44","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T16:27:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=15112"},"modified":"2017-11-06T13:15:10","modified_gmt":"2017-11-06T12:15:10","slug":"che-culo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/che-culo\/","title":{"rendered":"Che Culo!!!"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s interesting, and rather amusing, that an article about a cultural visit to Parma should generate so much controversy about bottoms! Well, let’s put that controversy to rest shall we?<\/span><\/p>\n

But first, a word of advice dear readers. I’ve said it many times before, and I’ll say it again: don’t get hung up on literal translation, especially when dealing with colloquial expressions, va bene<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

Now, we feel that it’s very important to introduce you to everyday colloquial Italian, in fact we believe that it’s something that makes our blog quite unique. Therefore, when we write articles that contain conversation, such as our recent series Una Gita Culturale<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/span>, we always include a smattering of expressions that we know you won’t hear in language classes or find in standard textbooks.<\/p>\n

Part 2 of our series, Una Gita Culturale \u2013 Part 2.<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/span>, included two such expressions: che culo<\/strong> and che palle<\/strong>. Let’s begin with the former, and take another look at how it appeared in the article.<\/p>\n

\u201cChe culo! E\u2019\u00a0 bravissima questa guida\u201d dice Geoff agli altri<\/strong>.
\n\u201cHow lucky! She\u2019s really good this guide\u201d Geoff says to the others.<\/p>\n

Bottoms … we all have one, they come in all shapes and sizes, and can be very beautiful or quite embarrassing. They can also, according to this common Italian expression, be lucky!<\/p>\n

How to conjugate your bottom:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Infinitive<\/span>
\navere culo<\/strong> = to be lucky<\/p>\n

Present<\/span>
\nio ho culo, tu hai culo, lui\/lei ha culo,<\/strong> ecc. …. = I am lucky, etc, ….<\/p>\n

Present Perfect<\/span>
\nio ho avuto culo, tu hai avuto culo, lui\/lei ha avuto culo,<\/strong> ecc. …. = I was lucky, etc ….<\/p>\n

Imperfect Subjunctive<\/span>
\nse io avessi, se tu avvessi culo, se lui\/lei avvesse culo,<\/strong> ecc. …. = if I were lucky, etc.<\/p>\n

Historical Past<\/span>
\nio ebbi culo, tu avesti culo, lui\/lei ebbe culo,<\/strong> ecc. …. = I was lucky, etc.<\/p>\n

Exclamation<\/span>
\nche culo<\/strong>! = what luck!<\/p>\n

There, now you can talk about backsides in an educated manner!<\/p>\n

But just to convince the sceptics amongst you that non siamo degli scemi<\/strong>, let’s turn to the authorities:<\/p>\n

Vocabolario Treccani<\/span>
\n<\/a><\/span><\/strong>culo s. m. [lat. culus], pop. \u2013 1. La parte posteriore e pi\u00f9 carnosa del corpo umano (ma riferito talora anche ad animali), comunem. indicata con termini eufemistici o pi\u00f9 dotti o comunque meno crudi, come sedere, didietro, deretano.<\/span> Il termine \u00e8 di uso com. in espressioni fig., pi\u00f9 o meno volg.: che c.! = che fortuna!; colpo, botta di c. = colpo di fortuna<\/span><\/strong> …… <\/span><\/em>In espressioni com., con uso fig.: fare il c. a qualcuno = imbrogliarlo; dare via il c. per ottenere qualcosa = essere disposto a tutto pur di raggiungere i propr\u00ee fini; prenderlo in c., nel c. = essere imbrogliato, fregato; mandare uno a fare in c. (o a prenderlo nel c. o a dar via il c.) = mandarlo al diavolo, a quel paese. Come augurio, per antifrasi, a chi affronta una prova difficile o pericolosa: in c. alla balena!<\/span> <\/strong><\/em>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

The Oxford Italian Dictionary
\nculo. vulg<\/em> arse; (fortuna<\/em><\/strong><\/span>) luck.<\/span><\/p>\n

Warning: <\/span><\/strong>those of you who are offended by bottoms should read no further!<\/p>\n

So, apart from not having an interesting colloquial expression at your disposal, what else would you miss out on if you didn’t know that che culo<\/strong> means ‘what luck’? Well you wouldn’t understand the following joke for a start!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Ohhh!!! Look, I’ve found a four leaf clover. What luck!!!! (obviously a play on the double meaning: ‘what luck’\/’what an arse!’)<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

It’s interesting, and rather amusing, that an article about a cultural visit to Parma should generate so much controversy about bottoms! Well, let’s put that controversy to rest shall we? But first, a word of advice dear readers. I’ve said it many times before, and I’ll say it again: don’t get hung up on literal…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":15117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,619],"tags":[474315,668],"class_list":["post-15112","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-italian-language","tag-che-culo-meaning-english","tag-colloquial-italian"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15112","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=15112"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15135,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15112\/revisions\/15135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}