{"id":195,"date":"2009-10-28T08:00:50","date_gmt":"2009-10-28T12:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=195"},"modified":"2018-02-07T11:44:46","modified_gmt":"2018-02-07T10:44:46","slug":"colloquial-italian-1-ecco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/colloquial-italian-1-ecco\/","title":{"rendered":"Colloquial Italian – 1. Ecco"},"content":{"rendered":"

As many students of the Italian language have discovered, there is a big difference between the Italian learnt in a language class and everyday colloquial Italian. In fact many students suffer a serious blow to their confidence when, having diligently studied in their language class, they first set foot in Italia and come face to face with the natives, e non capiscono un cavolo di niente<\/strong> (and they don\u2019t understand \u2018a cabbage of\u2019 anything)! There are various reasons for this phenomenon, but probably one of the main ones is that everyday spoken Italian is peppered with little phrases and expressions which are largely neglected in language classes with\u00a0their tendency to focus much more on grammar and rules.\u00a0Amongst the most difficult colloquial expressions to grasp are those with multiple meanings, such as today’s subject: ecco<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ecco<\/strong>, a little word which we Italians use all\u00a0the time, can often be difficult for foreigners to pin down because it doesn\u2019t have a single equivalent in English. So here are some everyday examples which illustrate its usage:<\/span><\/p>\n

1. with the meaning of \u2018well\u2019 or \u2018well now\u2019 when you are beginning an explanation, or working out what to say:<\/span><\/p>\n

Ecco, io lavoro per il comune<\/strong> (well now, I work for the council)<\/span><\/p>\n

2. used frequently in everyday conversation as an exclamation of agreement meaning \u2018that\u2019s right\u2019 often followed by appunto<\/strong> or esatto<\/strong> (exactly): ecco, appunto!<\/strong> (that\u2019s right, exactly!)<\/span><\/p>\n

3. with the meaning of \u2018here\u2019 or \u2018there\u2019:<\/span><\/p>\n

Eccoci<\/span> arrivati a casa<\/strong> (no satisfactory translation for this into English, but it means something like ‘here we are<\/span>, we’re home’), eccovi<\/span> finalmente!<\/strong> (there you are<\/span>, finally!), dove sei?\u00a0\u2013 eccomi<\/span><\/strong> (where are you?\u00a0\u2013 here I am<\/span>). As you can see, in this case the word ecco<\/strong> is combined with the direct personal pronoun mi, ti, lo, la,\u00a0ci, vi, li<\/strong>, le<\/strong> e.g. ecco<\/strong>\u00a0(here\/there) + vi<\/strong>\u00a0(you [plural])\u00a0becomes eccovi<\/strong> (here\/there\u00a0you are). Obviously the choice of \u2018here\u2019 or \u2018there\u2019 depends on the situation.<\/span><\/p>\n

4. with the meaning of \u2018here is \/ are\u2019 or \u2018there is \/ are\u2019:<\/span><\/p>\n

Ecco<\/span> il libro che mi hai prestato<\/strong>\u00a0(here is<\/span> the book which you lent me), ecco<\/span> lass\u00f9 il castello<\/strong> (there is<\/span> the castle up there), ecco<\/span>\u00a0le tue scarpe<\/strong> (here are<\/span> your shoes).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

5. with the meaning of \u2018this is\u2019 or \u2018that is\u2019:<\/span><\/p>\n

Ecco<\/span> come vanno fatte le cose in Italia!<\/strong> (this is \/\u00a0that is<\/span> how things are done in Italy!), vuoi il mio consiglio? eccolo<\/span><\/strong> (do you want my advice? this is\u00a0\/ that is it<\/span>).<\/span><\/p>\n

6. with the meaning of \u2018that\u2019s why\u2019:<\/span><\/p>\n

Giorgio:<\/em> Sono stato in vacanza per tre settimane<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Lucia:<\/em> ecco perch\u00e9<\/span> non ti ho pi\u00f9 visto!<\/strong> (Giorgio:<\/em> I\u2019ve been on holiday for three weeks\u00a0\u2013 Lucia:<\/em> that\u2019s why<\/span> I haven\u2019t seen you!).<\/span><\/p>\n

7. at the end of a summary or explanation we sometimes say ecco tutto<\/strong>\u00a0(that\u2019s all).<\/span><\/p>\n

8. to say that something is done, or finished we often use ecco fatto<\/strong> (\u2018that\u2019s it\u2019\u00a0or \u2018it\u2019s done \/ finished\u2019)<\/span><\/p>\n

Ecco fatto il blog<\/strong> (that\u2019s the blog finished).<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As many students of the Italian language have discovered, there is a big difference between the Italian learnt in a language class and everyday colloquial Italian. In fact many students suffer a serious blow to their confidence when, having diligently studied in their language class, they first set foot in Italia and come face to…<\/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":[619],"tags":[684],"class_list":["post-195","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-italian-language","tag-ecco"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195","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=195"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15654,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195\/revisions\/15654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}