{"id":18458,"date":"2019-08-14T04:39:05","date_gmt":"2019-08-14T02:39:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=18458"},"modified":"2019-08-14T07:43:07","modified_gmt":"2019-08-14T05:43:07","slug":"qual-e-and-un-filo-di","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/qual-e-and-un-filo-di\/","title":{"rendered":"Qual \u00e8 and un filo di"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reading over my last blog post \u201cUna ricetta semplicissima,”<\/a>\u00a0I thought I would point out one particular expression and grammatical point.<\/p>\n

The grammatical point I want to focus on and discuss is qual <\/em>\u00e8.<\/em> This one is something that even Italians will often write incorrectly- as qual\u2019<\/em>\u00e8<\/em>, but do not be fooled, even if it is common, it is still a mistake, and therefore one you should avoid!<\/p>\n

When I learned this it was something I simply memorized and accepted blindly, but looking into it, I actually found a reason!<\/p>\n

Naturally, one would think that it was a form of elisione,<\/em> or contraction of the two vowels \u2013 quale<\/strong> and \u00e8<\/strong><\/em>. This is very common in Italian. For example:<\/p>\n

Una amica \u2013 un\u2019amica<\/em><\/p>\n

Cento anni \u2013 cent\u2019anni<\/em><\/p>\n

However, with the case of qual \u00e8<\/em>, it is not elisione<\/em>, but rather a case of troncamento <\/em>or apocope in linguistics.<\/p>\n

Troncamento<\/em> is the loss of a vowel, consonant or syllable at the end of a word. It is obligatory with the masculine adjectives bello, buono, santo<\/em> when referring to nouns that begin with a consonant and introduced with the articles il<\/em> or un<\/em>. For example:<\/p>\n

Il bello cane \u2013 il bel cane<\/em><\/p>\n

Il Santo Raffaele \u2013 il San Raffaele<\/em><\/p>\n

Un buono giro \u2013 un buon giro<\/em><\/p>\n

It is also obligatory with indefinite articles and the derivatives of uno<\/em> – alcuno, ciascuno, nessuno, ognuno.<\/em> For example:<\/p>\n

Ciascuno testimone \u2013 ciascun testimone<\/em><\/p>\n

Uno piatto \u2013 un piatto<\/em><\/p>\n

So back to qual \u00e8<\/em> \u2013 why would it not be a form of elisione <\/em>if there were two vowels; quale<\/strong> and \u00e8<\/strong><\/em>? Because it is not quale<\/em> as one would typically think, but rather qual<\/em>, in its independent form!<\/p>\n

Qual<\/em> is used only in the singular form with essere<\/em>. So you would also say: qual era<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In the plural form, qual <\/em>becomes quali,<\/em> and with that it would be treated as a form of elisione.<\/em> For example:<\/p>\n

Quali erano \u2013 Qual\u2019erano<\/em><\/p>\n

____________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

Secondly, I want to take a look at the expression un filo di. <\/em>This is something used quite often in cooking and other expressions, but when translated literally, it sounds strange.<\/p>\n

Literally, un filo<\/em> is a thread or a string, but we would not say in English a \u201cstring of oil.\u201d Figuratively however, it means a small quantity. So if someone asks you to add a filo di olio, <\/em>they would like you to add a bit of oil, so don\u2019t go searching for oil thread in the cupboard!<\/p>\n

There is something similarly strange that we say in English that cannot be translated literally \u2013 a touch of.<\/em> We know a touch of oil would mean a small amount of oil, and well, not simply the act of touching oil, because that would be weird!<\/p>\n

Some other expressions that could be used in place of un filo di<\/em> would be un giro di olio<\/em> (a bit of oil \u2013 but literally a turn of oil) or un pizzico di sale<\/em> (a pinch of salt).<\/p>\n

You won\u2019t see un filo di<\/em> only used with cooking but also with other expressions:<\/p>\n

Un filo di speranza \u2013 a thread of hope<\/em><\/p>\n

Un filo del discorso \u2013 a topic of discussion<\/em><\/p>\n

Un filo rosso \u2013 a common thread<\/em><\/p>\n

Il filo di Arianna \u2013 guiding light <\/em>(a Greek mythology reference)<\/p>\n

Adesso tocca a te!<\/em> What are some other ways you have seen un filo di<\/em> used? Will you now correct with confidence any Italian who incorrectly says\u00a0qual\u2019<\/em>\u00e8? Spero di s\u00ec!<\/em><\/p>\n

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

Reading over my last blog post \u201cUna ricetta semplicissima,”\u00a0I thought I would point out one particular expression and grammatical point. The grammatical point I want to focus on and discuss is qual \u00e8. This one is something that even Italians will often write incorrectly- as qual\u2019\u00e8, but do not be fooled, even if it is…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6,619],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18458","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-grammar","category-italian-language"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18458","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\/166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18458"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18466,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18458\/revisions\/18466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}