{"id":2700,"date":"2012-12-12T11:16:22","date_gmt":"2012-12-12T11:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=2700"},"modified":"2018-07-16T10:55:40","modified_gmt":"2018-07-16T08:55:40","slug":"so-many-ways-to-say-many","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/so-many-ways-to-say-many\/","title":{"rendered":"So Many Ways to say Many!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week we looked at the differences between how we use <\/span>molto and tanto<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/span> when we want to say \u2018many\u2019, \u2018a lots of\u2019, \u2018very much\u2019, and so on. Today we are going to look at several colloquial expressions that are commonly used to express this same concept of quantity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Un sacco<\/strong> = literally:<\/em> a sack<\/p>\n

c\u2019era un sacco di roba da mangiare<\/strong> = there was a lot\/loads of stuff to eat<\/p>\n

Luciano ha ricevuto un sacco di telefonate di auguri per il suo compleanno<\/strong> = Luciano has had a lots\/loads of phone calls wishing him happy birthday<\/p>\n

abbiamo camminato un sacco al fine settimana <\/strong>= we walked a lot\/loads at the week end<\/p>\n

mi piace un sacco questo gelato al pistacchio<\/strong> = I really like this pistachio ice cream a lot<\/p>\n

N.B. This expression was very popular in the Eighties due to the influence of a film by the comedian Carlo Verdone, who spoke an exaggerated romanesco <\/strong>(Roman dialect). The title of the film was \u201cUn sacco bello\u201d<\/strong> (a very uneducated way of saying \u2018really great\u2019)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Un mucchio<\/strong> = literally:<\/em> a heap<\/p>\n

c\u2019\u00e8 un mucchio di mele sull\u2019albero<\/strong> = there are a a lot\/loads of apples on the tree<\/p>\n

Mariolino ha fatto un mucchio di storie perch\u00e9 non voleva andare a letto<\/strong> = little Mario made a a lot\/loads of fuss because he didn\u2019t want to go to bed<\/p>\n

ho speso un mucchio per il nuovo schermo al plasma<\/strong> = I spent a a lot\/loads of money on the new plasma screen<\/p>\n

Un casino <\/strong>= literally:<\/em> a chaos. This is a bit more vulgar and is very commonly used by youngsters\/teenagers:<\/p>\n

c\u2019era un casino di gente al concerto<\/strong> = there were loads of people at the concert<\/p>\n

sono successe un casino di cose mentre tu non c\u2019eri <\/strong>= loads of things have happened while you weren\u2019t here<\/p>\n

ci siamo divertiti un casino<\/strong> = we enjoyed ourselves very much<\/p>\n

The followings are pretty common but are only used in as few common expressions:<\/span><\/p>\n

Una marea <\/strong>= literally: <\/em>a tide:<\/p>\n

c\u2019era una marea di gente alla festa<\/strong> = there were loads of people at the party<\/p>\n

stamattina ho una marea di panni da lavare<\/strong> = this morning I have loads of washing to do<\/p>\n

Una barca<\/strong> = literally: <\/em>a boat:<\/p>\n

ho speso una barca di soldi<\/strong> = I spent loads of money<\/p>\n

When we want to express the superlative in a more \u2018colourful\u2019 way, we use the following expressions instead of the more grammatically correct ending in \u2013issimo<\/strong>:<\/span><\/p>\n

troppo<\/strong> = too much, too many, this is used as an adverb, therefore it doesn\u2019t change endings:<\/p>\n

questa torta \u00e8 troppo buona<\/strong> = this cake is really good!<\/p>\n

questi fiori sono troppo belli<\/strong> = these flowers are really beautiful!<\/p>\n

davvero<\/strong> = really, as with troppo<\/strong>, davvero<\/strong> is used as an adverb, therefore it doesn\u2019t change endings:<\/p>\n

questa torta \u00e8 davvero buona<\/strong> = this cake is really good!<\/p>\n

ci siamo davvero divertiti<\/strong> = we really enjoyed ourselves!<\/p>\n

\u00a0Another common form of emphasising something is by using<\/span> repetition<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/span> (click on the link to read a previous blog about repetition):<\/span><\/p>\n

questo pecorino \u00e8 piccante piccante<\/strong> = this pecorino cheese is very hot (lit. hot hot)<\/p>\n

dammi una fettina piccola piccola di quella torta<\/strong> = give me a tiny tiny little slice of that cake<\/p>\n

Finally, one of Geoff\u2019s favourite words which he\u2019s learned from my mother: un<\/strong> tantinino<\/strong>:<\/span><\/p>\n

La vuoi una fetta di torta? S\u00ec, dammene un tantinino cos\u00ec!<\/strong> Do you want a slice of cake? Yes, give me a tiny little bit like this (indicating size with fingers).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week we looked at the differences between how we use molto and tanto when we want to say \u2018many\u2019, \u2018a lots of\u2019, \u2018very much\u2019, and so on. Today we are going to look at several colloquial expressions that are commonly used to express this same concept of quantity. Un sacco = literally: a sack…<\/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":[229220,229224,229223,229221,229222],"class_list":["post-2700","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-italian-language","tag-italian-colloquial-expressions-for-quantity","tag-troppo","tag-un-casino","tag-un-mucchio","tag-un-sacco"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2700","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=2700"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16709,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2700\/revisions\/16709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}