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Italian expression of the day: ‘A bruciapelo’

We're going to give it to you point blank.

Published: 27 January 2022 15:45 CET

Italian expression of the day a bruciapelo

Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

If you regularly read the cronache sections of your newspaper or watch Italian murder mystery shows, before long you’ll encounter the phrase a bruciapelo: ‘at point blank range’.

Literally, a bruciapelo means ‘to burn the body hair/fur’, referring to hunters shooting animals at such close range that the gunshot scorched their hide.

You’ll often hear the phrase used in descriptions of crime scenes:

L’autista e il passeggero sono stati colpiti a bruciapelo.
The driver and the passenger were shot at point blank range.

Gli ha sparato a bruciapelo con una pistola nascosta nell’armadio.
She shot him at point blank range with a gun hidden in the wardrobe.

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Gli ho chiesto a bruciapelo se qualcosa non andava.
I asked him point blank if something was wrong.

Il mio capo mi ha chiesto a bruciapelo se avessi fatto domanda per un lavoro altrove.
My boss asked me outright if I’d applied for a job somewhere else.

A little beyond the capabilities of ‘point-blank’, a bruciapelo can also mean something more like ‘out of the blue’ or ‘all of a sudden’.

La domanda a bruciapelo mi ha preso alla sprovvista.
The unexpected question caught me off guard.

Mi ha dato la notizia a bruciapelo senza nemmeno avvertirmi di sedermi prima
She broke the news to me out of the blue without even warning me to sit down first.

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Hopefully the next time you find yourself in an encounter a bruciapelo, you manage to dodge the bullet.

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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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