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ITALIAN WORD OF THE DAY

Italian expression of the day: ‘Mandare a quel paese’

There's one place you never want an Italian to send you.

Published: 9 November 2022 14:54 CET
Updated: 27 March 2024 10:57 CET
Italian expression of the day mandare a quel paese
Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

If someone tells you they’ve been mandato a quel paese – literally ‘sent to that land/town’ – don’t imagine they’re packing for a nice holiday.

It means they were told to get lost, go to hell, or worse – in this case the Italian phrase is much less vulgar than its range of possible English counterparts.

Le ho chiesto se qualcosa non andasse e mi ha mandato a quel paese!
I asked her if something was up and she told me to go to hell!

Avrei dovuto mandarlo a quel paese.
I should have told him to get lost.

The euphemistic substitution of ‘that place’ for ‘hell’ is thought to have arisen because it was once considered bad luck to name the latter, carrying with it the risk of summoning evil spirits.

These days you can, however, send someone to the devil (mandare al diavolo), which has basically the same meaning as mandare a quel paese.

Hai appena mandato al diavolo l’unica persona che poteva aiutarti.
You just told the one person who could have helped you to go to hell.

If you want to tell someone to get lost in person, you can order them to ‘andare a quel paese’ – to go to hell.

It’s important to remember to conjugate andare so it agrees with whoever you’re telling to get lost – vai for one person, andate for more than one, and you can technically even use the formal vada to ‘politely’ send someone to hell.

– Quel maglione sembra un po’ trasandato.
– Era un regalo di mia nonna. E vai a quel paese!
– That jumper looks a bit past it.
– It was a gift from my gran. And you can go to hell!

Tu e papà non capite nulla di me, andate a quel paese!
You and dad don’t understand anything about me, get lost!

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There’s a small Italian town in the province of Matera in Basilicata that for many years was referred to as quel paese, based on a superstition that the village was cursed.

The legend goes that at a local councillors meeting in Matera the 1940s, the mayor of the town of Colobraro called for the chandelier in the room to fall in his head if he had told any lies. A couple of days later the chandelier did fall, causing several injuries and possibly (it’s a little unclear) death.

From that point on, Colobraro was feared by its neighbours, who refused to say its name, referring to it only as quel paese.

When the Italian anthropologist Ernesto de Martino paid a couple of visits to the village in the 1950s, he was warned off entering it by inhabitants of nearby towns.

He later suffered severe engine damage to his car and wrote that the local who had been due to welcome his team died in a road accident shortly before the meeting.

These days, Colobraro makes the most of its spooky reputation, putting on a series of events in August and September named Sogno di una notte a QUEL Paese (‘Dream of a night in THAT town’) in which visitors are invited to attend various theatrical and musical performances and sample the local produce.

Maybe on reflection it’s not always such a bad thing to be mandato a quel paese.

Do you have an Italian word you’d like us to feature? If so, please email us with your suggestion.

Don’t miss any of our Italian words and expressions of the day by downloading our new app (available on Apple and Android) and then selecting the Italian Word of the Day in your Notification options via the User button.

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ITALIAN WORD OF THE DAY

Italian word of the day: Metà vs mezzo

These Italian words are both used to talk about 'half' of something, so what exactly is the difference and when should you use them?

Published: 23 April 2024 10:48 CEST
Updated: 23 April 2024 11:49 CEST
Italian word of the day: Metà vs mezzo

It’s often the case in Italy that you’ll find several words that mean something very similar, and it’s not always easy to know which one is appropriate. Our new mini series looks at some of the most common word pairs, and sorts out which should be used and when.

Why do I need to know the difference between metà and mezzo?

Because you’ll need to use both of them in daily conversation if you live in Italy, but the difference in meaning isn’t always clear.

What’s the difference?

When you want to talk about ‘half’ of something in Italian, it may seem as though you have two choices.

Depending on what you’re talking about, you could reach for either metà or mezzo (or mezza, which we’ll come to later) but many language learners say they’re not always sure which one to use in certain situations.

Put simply, the difference between metà and mezzo is much the same as the difference between ‘half’ and ‘middle’ in English.

Metà: a half, as in one of two equal parts of something.

Mezzo: the middle, as in equally distant from two points.

For example:

Ha mangiato metà torta

He ate half of the cake

Facciamo a metà

Let’s split it (in half)

E’ sdraiato in mezzo alla strada

He’s lying in the middle of the street

Non penso che ti dovrebbe mettere in mezzo

I don’t think she should be putting you in the middle of this

READ ALSO: Come stai vs come va

But is anything in Italian ever really that simple?

There are some specific situations where the two words seem to be used interchangeably, or where it’s not clear why one is typically used and not the other.

Confusion arises particularly around telling the time in Italian, as you could say:

Sono le undici e mezzo

It’s half past eleven

Il mio treno arriva alle 5.40: vediamoci dieci minuti prima, alla mezza.

My train arrives at 5.40: let’s meet ten minutes before, at half past.

Why in this case aren’t we using metà for ‘half’? And why is it sometimes mezza rather than mezzo?

The English ‘half past’ doesn’t translate literally into Italian. Mezzo is used here instead, since we’re talking about the ‘middle of’ the hour, the point equally distant between two hours.

This might take some getting used to for English native speakers, but it is pretty logical.

As for why it’s mezza in the second example, this isn’t because it needs to agree with the gender of the noun in the sentence.

In fact, dictionaries tell us it’s always more correct to use mezzo regardless (although many Italians themselves find this rule confusing.)

But, in this case, as the language guardians at Italy’s Accademia della Crusca explain, mezza may (if you prefer) be used instead of mezzo when we already know the time, or at least the hour, being talked about.

So if you had earlier told someone an event would start at 8pm, but it’s now been delayed by half an hour, you could then say:

Comincerà alle otto e mezza

But if you’re inviting someone for the first time, you’d probably stick to:

Alle otto e mezzo

This can be a lot to remember when you’re in the middle of a conversation, but with practice you’ll soon get a feel for which word sounds right in which context. 

Do you have an Italian word you’d like us to feature? If so, please email us with your suggestion.

Make sure you don’t miss any of our Italian words and expressions of the day: download our new app (available on Apple and Android) and then selecting the Italian Word of the Day in your Notification options via the User button.

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