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Italian expression of the day: ‘Ora legale’

What is Italy's 'legal time', and when does it start?

Italian expression of the day: 'Ora legale'
Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

If you’re in Italy this weekend, you’ll find yourself running on ‘legal time’.

L’ora legale (‘legal time’), or what we’d call daylight savings time, is what Italy – along with the rest of Europe – switches to in summer.

The phrase is used to differentiate from l’ora solare: ‘solar time’, also known as standard or winter time.

While l’ora solare isn’t true solar time, calculated by the movement of the sun in the sky, it’s closer to it than l’ora legale, when we’re deliberately out of sync by an hour in order to give ourselves an extra hour of daylight in the evening.

Typically l’ora legale lasts for seven months between late March and late October, while l’ora solare is in place throughout the winter.

The clocks go forward (avanti) in spring, while in autumn they go backwards (indietro).

This year the switch falls on Sunday, March 28th, with clocks going forward at 2am and costing us an hour in bed.

Fra poco si passa all’ora legale: dovremo portare le lancette un’ora avanti.
Soon we’ll go back to summer time: we have to put our clocks forward an hour.

Note that ora is the word for both ‘time’ and ‘hour’ in Italian: you can usually tell the difference by whether it’s used with the definite article (l’ora, ‘the time’) or the indefinite (un’ora, ‘an hour’).

Potentially l’ora legale could be on its way out: the EU has said that each member state is free to get rid of the clock changes and stick to either winter or summer time all year long.

Italy hasn’t yet decided which ora it will pick, or indeed whether it will keep them both.

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ITALIAN WORD OF THE DAY

Italian expression of the day: ‘Cambiare registro’

Here's the Italian phrase you'll need if you're looking for a change.

Italian expression of the day: ‘Cambiare registro’

If you live in Italy or have spent a considerable amount of time in the country, you may have overheard an Italian parent telling their child they needed to cambiare registro right after they threw a tantrum. 

If you work or have worked in Italy, you may also have had one of your superiors tell you that a cambio di registro was needed in the office. 

But what do Italians really mean when they tell someone they need to ‘change register’?

Italians use cambiare registro to tell someone that they need to change their behaviour, manners or way to approach a particular task (including work or school assignments), usually because they’re not particularly happy with the way they’re currently handling things. 

It is generally used with the verb dovere (must/have to), which must be conjugated according to the person who could do with a ‘change of register’. For instance:

Non hai passato gli ultimi tre test. Devi cambiare registro se vuoi tenere la tua paghetta settimanale.  

You failed the past three exams. You need to turn things around if you want to keep your weekly allowance.

La tua performance al lavoro e’ stata insoddisfacente questo trimestre. Devi veramente cambiare registro il prossimo mese.

Your performance at work has been unsatisfactory this quarter. You really need to turn things around next month.

You could also say that a situation you’re unhappy with needs ‘a change of register’, without addressing anyone in particular. 

Ci sono cose ovunque. C’e’ bisogno di un cambio di registro in questa casa.

There’s stuff all over the place. Changes are needed in this house.

As you can see from these examples, there’s no single way to translate the phrase into English, though ‘turning things around’ and ‘changing up’ are popular translations.

And if you’re wondering where the expression comes from, it has nothing to do with Italy’s Registry Office (or Anagrafe), nor with any other part of the country’s public administration. 

Cambiare registro was originally a music-related expression as it referred to the act of changing the tone or range (registro in Italian) of some musical instruments, including pipe organs.

But, as in the case of many other Italian phrases and expressions, its usage was later extended to daily life situations to express a need for major changes.

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