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EUROVISION

‘Zitti e buoni’: The Italian vocab you need to understand Italy’s Eurovision winner

Italy's winning Eurovision song might have you rocking out, but do you know what it means? Here's a closer look at the lyrics to "Zitti e buoni" by Måneskin.

'Zitti e buoni': The Italian vocab you need to understand Italy's Eurovision winner
You'll be singing along with Maneskin in no time. Photo: KENZO TRIBOUILLARD / AFP

No doubt you’ve heard Måneskin’s Zitti e buoni a few times by now: viewers of the Eurovision Grand Final were treated to two performances on Saturday night alone after the glam rockers from Rome won the song contest for Italy thanks to a massive public vote.

READ ALSO: Italy wins Eurovision: ‘We just want to say to the whole world, rock’n’roll never dies!’

But even after several listens, non-native Italian speakers probably won’t have caught all the words. That might be to do with the breakneck pace of frontman Damiano David’s singing, or there might be a few words and phrases in there you’re not familiar with yet.

To help you sing along – with feeling – we’ve picked out the most useful Italian vocabulary you can learn from Måneskin’s lyrics.

Zitti e buoni: the lyrics in English

Let’s start with the title: Zitti e buoni means “quiet and good”, but in the context of the song the words are more like a command – “shut up and behave”.

The next thing to know is that there are actually two sets of lyrics to the song – a clean version and one that’s slightly more risqué. The band performed both at the Eurovision final: the family-friendly version first, and the original (ruder) lyrics once they’d won.

The video below shows the original lyrics, which feature some choice words you’re very likely to hear used in Italy. Just be warned, some of them aren’t exactly polite.

Give Zitti e buoni another listen, this time with the Italian lyrics side-by-side with their English translation:

The song is essentially about refusing to conform – and finding other misfits to keep you company. In other words, classic glam rock.

The most useful words and phrases to remember

fra’ – short for fratelli, “brothers”. It’s like saying “bro”.

siga’ – short for sigarette, “cigarettes”. As you’ll have noticed, spoken Italian often drops a few syllables from the ends of words.

scusami – “sorry” or “excuse me”. Find out more about how to apologise in Italian here

ci credo – “I believe (in it)” or “I’m sure”. It’s a phrase that can be said sincerely or sarcastically.

tanto – this word can mean everything from “a lot” to “many” to “very much”, depending on how it’s used. Here it means “so much”. Find out the different ways to use tanto here.

vi conviene – the verb convenire, “to suit” or “be convenient”, can also be used to tell someone what their best (or most advisable) option is, in your opinion. It’s like saying “you’d better” do such and such. In this instance, the band is saying: “you lot had better” behave.

i coglioni – “balls” or “nuts” (and not the edible kind). Touching them, as described here, can be a good-luck gesture in Italy, which is why the line is translated as “you better touch wood”. 

Damiano David of Måneskin not quite touching his “coglioni”, but close. Photo: KENZO TRIBOUILLARD / AFP

zitti – the plural form of zitto, “quiet”. You can also use it as an instruction, in which case it becomes “zip it” or “shut up”. Find a full definition here.

buoni – the plural of buono, “good”. Just like in English, the word can be used in different contexts to mean everything from “nice” to “kind” to “tasty” to “capable”. Here it means “well-behaved” – just like you’d tell someone to “be good” when you want them to follow the rules.

tipo – this word can mean either “guy” or, as it does here, “like”. Find out the difference here. 

mo – “now”, or simply “well”. It’s a dialect word that’s pure Roman, just like Måneskin themselves. Read a full explanation here. 

‘sti – spoken Italian doesn’t just chop off the end of words, sometimes it gets rid of the beginning. ‘Sti is short for questi, “these”. 

quindi – “so” or “then”. This word comes up all the time in conversation: find a full definition here

fuori (di testa) – by itself, fuori means “out(side)”, like in the line sto sempre fuori (“I’m always out”). But fuori di testa means “out of your mind” or “crazy”. Find out more here.

diverso/a/i – “different”. One aspect that’s tricky to translate from Italian to English is how the ending of an adjective tells you who it describes: in the chorus, this adjective starts off applied to the singer himself (sono diverso), then to a woman (sei diversa), then to a whole group of people (siamo diversi). 

READ ALSO: 

lacrime – “tears”. You’ll hear this lovely, tragic word more than you might expect in Italy: find out why here

l’ebrezza – “intoxication”, both in the sense of being under the influence, and euphoria. A negative drug test proved that Måneskin’s lead singer was high on only the latter the night of the Eurovision final.

purtroppo – “unfortunately”. Find out exactly how to use it here.

a galla – “afloat” or “on the surface (of water)”. Stare a galla can have a figurative sense too, like “keeping your head above water”.

mi manca l’aria – “I can’t breathe”. Literally translated, it means “I’m lacking air”. 

cazzo – this is one of the words that was edited out for the band’s first Eurovision performances: it means literally “dick”, but is frequently used as an interjection more like “fuck”. The line (la gente… non sa di che cazzo parla) means “people don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about”. A family-friendly alternative you can use instead is cavolo (literally, “cabbage”). 

… and the Danish word you need to know too

The band’s name is not Italian but Danish: it means “moonlight” and was picked at the suggestion of their half-Danish bassist, Victoria De Angelis. We’re reliably informed by our colleagues at The Local Denmark that the correct pronunciation is “morn-eh-skin”.

Måneskin with the Italian and Danish flags. Photo: Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD / AFP

In Italy you’ll hear the band referred to as i Måneskin, or “the Måneskins”. 

Discover more Italian vocab in The Local’s language section.

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ITALIAN LANGUAGE

7 things you should know about the Italian language

With its musicality and large vocabulary, Italian is one of the most fascinating languages on the planet. But do you know everything about it?

7 things you should know about the Italian language

Italian is frequently considered as one of the most beautiful languages in the world. Its musicality, intonations and smoothness make it one of the most poetic languages out there. 

This Romance language is spoken by 67 million native speakers across the globe and it’s the official language of Italy, San Marino, The Vatican (along with Latin) and Switzerland (along with German, French, and Romansh). While the Italian language, like all Romance languages, derives from Vulgar Latin, Italy’s standard form is based on the Florentine dialect from hundreds of years ago.

Though standard Italian existed prior to the Unification of Italy in 1861, Italians themselves identified more strongly with their regional dialects, a lot of which are still in existence today.

Television played a crucial role in Italians learning the language: in the 1960s, national broadcaster RAI aired Non è mai troppo tardi (‘It’s never too late’), a TV programme where Italian teacher Alberto Manzi taught Italian to his audience.

Let’s take a look at some more interesting facts about Italian.

It became Italy’s official language in 2007

Yes, you read that correctly. Exactly 146 years after the country’s unification, Italian was formally written into the constitution as being Italy’s official language. 

There is a 500-year-old institution dedicated to researching Italian

The Accademia della Crusca (literally, ‘Bran Academy’) is a Florence-based institution which focuses on Italian linguistics. Founded by five Florentine men in 1582, the institute claims it wrote the first Italian dictionary (Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca), which was first published in 1612.

The longest Italian word has 30 letters

The word in question is (get ready for it) Psiconeuroendocrinoimmunologia. It’s a medical term that studies behaviours in response to external stimuli so it is rarely used in everyday speaking. 

Another long word is precipitevolissimevolmente.

READ ALSO: The Italian version of 11 famous English sayings

It’s a superlative of the adverb ‘hastily’, or precipitevolmente in Italian. There’s even a proverb with this word: chi troppo in alto sal, cade sovente precipitevolissimevolmente (‘those who climb too high, often fall very hastily’).

Italian is not the majority language in some areas of the country

The northern region of South Tyrol has approximately 520,000 inhabitants. Of those 520,000, around 69 percent use the German language more frequently than the Italian language. Even road signs in some of the areas bordering Austria are in German. 

Another northern region, Aosta Valley, recognises French as an official language. While the ratio of French speakers to Italian speakers is not quite as high as the ratio of German speakers to Italian speakers in South Tyrol, many of the region’s signposts are in both Italian and French.

South Tyrol

A German-Italian sign reading ‘private property’ at the entrance of a vineyard in the small village of St. Michael Eppan, South Tyrol. Photo by Christof STACHE / AFP

The name of a continent comes from Italy

It is generally accepted that the name ‘America’ derives from Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci, who claimed that the lands fellow explorer Christopher Columbus set sail to in 1492 were in fact part of a separate continent.

A map created in 1507 by Martin Waldseemüller was the first to depict this continent with the name America.

The word ‘volt’ was created by an Italian

Speaking of nouns named after people, Alessandro Volta was an Italian scientist who made a breakthrough in the late 18th century when he created his ‘voltaic pile’ – the first-ever device to provide a steady supply of electricity. His last name is where ‘volt’ (and ‘voltage’) originates from.

READ ALSO: 15 Italian words that change their entire meaning with one letter

There are only 21 letters in the Italian alphabet

The Italian alphabet, which derives from the Latin one, only contains 21 letters. Letters j, k, w, x, and y are not formally included in it, though they can often be found in words of foreign origin.

The above list is non-exhaustive. If you know any other interesting facts about the Italian language, let us know in the comments below.

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