{"id":15691,"date":"2018-02-26T13:18:33","date_gmt":"2018-02-26T12:18:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=15691"},"modified":"2018-03-19T10:05:06","modified_gmt":"2018-03-19T09:05:06","slug":"qualche-problema","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/qualche-problema\/","title":{"rendered":"Qualche Problema"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff\">Indefinite adjectives are used to indicate an undefined number or quality of things or persons. They&#8217;re mostly straightforward, but there&#8217;s an important exception that can easily trip you up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Probably the most frequently used <strong>aggettivo indefinito<\/strong> (indefinite adjective) is <strong>qualche<\/strong>, which means &#8216;some&#8217;, &#8216;any&#8217;, or &#8216;a few&#8217;. The confusing thing about <strong>qualche<\/strong> is that although it expresses the idea of plurality, it&#8217;s always used in the singular. So, what does that actually mean in practice? Let&#8217;s look at a few examples:<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_10595\" style=\"width: 550px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone post-item__attachment\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2010\/08\/Natale-2011-092.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10595\" aria-label=\"Natale 2011 092\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10595\" class=\"wp-image-10595\"  alt=\"Serena - golfo della spezia\" width=\"540\" height=\"405\" \/ src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2010\/08\/Natale-2011-092.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2010\/08\/Natale-2011-092.jpg 640w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2010\/08\/Natale-2011-092-350x263.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-10595\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #808080\"><em><strong>A qualche persona piacerebbe molto abitare vicino al mare.<\/strong> Some people would really like to live near the sea. Photo of Serena by Geoff<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The very strong wind has knocked down <span style=\"color: #800080\">some trees<\/span><br \/>\n<strong>Il vento fortissimo ha abbattuto <span style=\"color: #800080\">qualche albero<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">We went to the Naval Museum <span style=\"color: #800080\">a few weeks<\/span> ago<br \/>\n<strong>Siamo andati al Museo Navale <span style=\"color: #800080\">qualche settimana<\/span> fa<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"color: #800080\">Are there any nice places<\/span> to visit near Parma?<br \/>\n<strong><span style=\"color: #800080\">C&#8217;\u00e8 qualche bel posto<\/span> da visitare vicino a Parma?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Unfortunately <span style=\"color: #800080\">there have been a few problems<\/span> with the documents<br \/>\n<strong>Purtroppo <span style=\"color: #800080\">c&#8217;\u00e8 stato qualche problema<\/span> coi documenti<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">As you can see from the examples above, sentences using <strong>qualche<\/strong> <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">are always constructed in the singular<\/span>. So whereas in English\u00a0we say &#8216;Are there any nice places &#8230;&#8217;, in Italian we say <strong>&#8216;C&#8217;\u00e8 qualche bel posto &#8230;&#8217;<\/strong> which, if you translate it literally, means &#8216;Is there any nice place&#8217;. Yes, it sounds strange and illogical, and will definitely cause you some uncertainty and confusion until you get used to it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Another common indefinite article, which can be interchangeable with <strong>qualche<\/strong>, is <strong>alcuni\/alcune<\/strong>, which, you&#8217;ll be glad to hear, closely resembles its English counterpart in that it is only used in its plural form (<em>apart from in negative constructions &#8211; see below<\/em>). Here are the same example sentences from above, but this time using <strong>alcuni\/e<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The very strong wind has knocked down <span style=\"color: #800080\">some trees<\/span><br \/>\n<strong>Il vento fortissimo ha abbattuto <span style=\"color: #800080\">alcuni alberi<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">We went to the Naval Museum <span style=\"color: #800080\">a few weeks<\/span> ago<br \/>\n<strong>Siamo andati al Museo Navale <span style=\"color: #800080\">alcune settimane<\/span> fa<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"color: #800080\">Are there any nice places<\/span> to visit near Parma?<br \/>\n<strong><span style=\"color: #800080\">Ci sono alcuni bei posti<\/span> da visitare vicino a Parma?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Unfortunately <span style=\"color: #800080\">there have been a few problems<\/span> with the documents<br \/>\n<strong>Purtroppo <span style=\"color: #800080\">ci sono stati alcuni problemi<\/span> coi documenti<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">As you can see from the examples above, sentences using <strong>alcuni\/e<\/strong> are always constructed in the plural.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">N.B. <strong>alcun\/alcuno\/alcuna<\/strong> (the singular forms of <strong>alcuni\/alcune<\/strong>) are only used in negative sentences. As with <strong>qualche<\/strong>, they are also followed by the singular. For example:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">I don&#8217;t know any good restaurants near here<br \/>\n<strong>Non conosco alcun buon ristorante qui vicino<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">I didn&#8217;t buy any plants on the market<br \/>\n<strong>Non ho comprato alcuna pianta al mercato<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">However, in colloquial Italian it&#8217;s far more common to use <strong>nessun\/nessuno\/nessuna <\/strong>(lit. nobody or nothing), For example:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">I don&#8217;t know any good restaurants near here<br \/>\n<strong>Non conosco nessun buon ristorante qui vicino<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">You may also find the following blog useful: <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/how-to-say-any-in-italian\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong><span style=\"color: #333399;text-decoration: underline\">How to say Any in Italian<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"263\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/02\/Natale-2011-092-350x263.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/02\/Natale-2011-092-350x263.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/02\/Natale-2011-092.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>Indefinite adjectives are used to indicate an undefined number or quality of things or persons. They&#8217;re mostly straightforward, but there&#8217;s an important exception that can easily trip you up. Probably the most frequently used aggettivo indefinito (indefinite adjective) is qualche, which means &#8216;some&#8217;, &#8216;any&#8217;, or &#8216;a few&#8217;. The confusing thing about qualche is that although&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/qualche-problema\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":15805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[474362,386000],"class_list":["post-15691","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar","tag-aggettivo-indefinito","tag-italian-indefinite-adjectives"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15691","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=15691"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15925,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15691\/revisions\/15925"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}