italian
Italian phrase of the day: Com'è andata ieri sera?
Com'è andata ieri sera?
How did it go last night?
Literally: 'How (he/she/it) is gone yesterday evening?'
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I am waiting with bated breath for my friend Oliver to report back from his date with an Italian last night. I hope he had a chance to impress him with some of the Italian phrases I have been posting here over the course of the week.
Dimmi tutto
Tell me everything
Literally: '(You) tell-me all'
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If you want to find out more
The word for 'how' is 'come'. You must all know 'Come stai' (how are you). As usual, when two vowels (a, e, i , o, u) meet, the first one is dropped and replaced by an apostrophe: Come + è = 'Com'è?' = 'How is it?'.
The word for 'night' is 'notte'. However, in expressions like 'tonight', 'tomorrow night' or 'last night' it is translated as 'sera' (= evening). The word 'notte' is very much associated with pitch dark, silence and sleeping.
So if my friend Oliver was Italian, and I asked him 'Com'è andata ieri notte?', he might find it quite offensive because by using 'notte' I would imply that he'd spent the night with the guy on their first date. Which he so obviously would never ever do.
Sunday 20 January 2008 at 11:19 AM
You said this was a family blog, right?
In that case, I'd better save my report until I see you in person.
:-)