Ciao a tutti!

We’re continuing this week with our series of phrases from Il Commissario Manara: Un morto di troppo on Yabla.

Luca’s sister has come to visit him (è venuta a trovare) and now Lara, Luca’s on-again off-again girlfriend and fellow detective has just appeared. When Teresa hears who she is she says:

Ma sai che ho sentito tanto parlare di te!
But you know I have heard so much about you!

More literally this might be:

Ho sentito tanto parlare di te!
I’ve heard so much talk of you!

And if you want to use the formal you:

Ho sentito tanto parlare di Lei!
I’ve heard so much about you!

You can also say:

…di loro
…di lui
…di voi
…del NJILE…

The tricky part comes when you want to drop …di (qualcuno/qualcosa). Here you need to use the infamous ne.

I’m not going to go too deeply into this. I think it’s best just to learn via phrase. However, for those of you struggling to understand the difference between ne and ci, here is a tiny bit of grammar.

Whenever you use the preposition di, you will replace it with ne.
Everything else, mainly a, but also su and in, will be replaced with ci.

So…

Ne ho sentito tanto parlare.
I’ve heard a lot of talk about it.

or what if I haven’t?

Non ne ho mai sentito parlare.
I have never heard of it.

Now for those of you who are more advanced, what about this? Suppose you heard someone else talking about something?

I heard him talking about it.
L‘ho sentito mentre ne parlava.

or more literally:

L‘ho sentito mentre ne parlava.
I heard him while he was talking about it.

Here are some examples from Reverso:

Sa, ho sentito parlare di persone come lei.
You know, I’ve heard of people like you.

Davvero non ne hai mai sentito parlare?
You have really never heard of it?

Probabilmente non ne hai mai sentito parlare.
You have probably never heard of it.

E ho sentito parlare di tutti.
And I’ve heard of everybody.

E poi… ho sentito parlare del Dragone.
And then… I heard about the Dragon.

Stavo giusto dicendo che ho sentito parlare di cibo quadrato.
I was just saying that I’ve heard of a square meal.

Come mai non ne ho sentito parlare dall’altro chirurgo?
How come I’ve never heard of the other surgeon?

Appena ho sentito parlare di quella scialuppa carbonizzata, ho voluto vederla.
As soon as I heard about that charred lifeboat, I wanted to see it.

Del reattore in Cina ne ho sentito parlare, ma dell’aumento dei futures della soia…
The reactor in China, I heard about, but the spike in soy futures…

La sorella di Dave ha sentito lui mentre ne parlava.
Dave’s sister heard him while he was talking about it.

How do you search for examples on Reverso?

You can see my search terms in the above sentences in blue. When you are unsure about how to say something, give it a try. Put your attempt in the search bar and see if you get any exact hits. One hit doesn’t tell you much, but if you get a lot of them, you’re on to something. But don’t stop there. Read the sentences to be sure that what you think you’re saying is actually what you’re saying!

You can also try putting the English phrase into the search bar and see what comes back. You may have to try a few times before you get a phrase that works. If you find Reverso keeps changing your text to something else, it could mean that your attempt is completely wrong, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that. Try adding or removing words from the phrase. Read the sentences and you will get the gist!

How will you use today’s phrase to express YOUR OWN THOUGHTS? The sooner you express your own thoughts, the sooner you will remember the phrase, so give it a try. Have you just been introduced to your daughter’s new boyfriend? Or a new colleague at work?

Ho sentito tanto parlare di Lei!

Or is a friend of yours talking about a new film?

Sì, ho sentito parlare di questo film.

Let us know how you used this phrase on Facebook.

That’s it for this week!

Alla prossima!

If you feel your Italian is good enough to watch without Italian (or English) subtitles, this episode of Il Commissario Manara is also available for free from RAI. You will need to fast forward to exactly 48 minutes for the start of Un morto di troppo.

Ciao a tutti!

Those of you who have studied with Pimsleur will recognize this week’s phrase as we continue to study our episode of Il Commissario Manara as it appears on Yabla. In fact, this phrase appears relatively early in the Pimsleur lessons. Here it is:

venire a trovare (or andare a trovare)
to come to visit (to go to visit)

or more literally:

venire a trovare
to come to find

Last week Luca was surprised by Teresa, who has come to visit him. He says:

Teresa, ma che ci fai qua? Ma che sei pazza?
Teresa, but what are you doing here? But what are you crazy?

to which Teresa replies:

Allora, mi sono fatta dodici ore di treno per venirti a trovare e questa è l’accoglienza?
So, I did twelve hours on the train to come to visit you and this is the welcome?

So, what about this phrase is going to give you trouble? Well, the pronoun of course! When there are two infinitives like this, is it:

venirti a trovare

or

venire a trovarti?

Well, it depends on who you talk to! Both are used in spoken language, and are more or less common depending on the region of Italy you are visiting. My advice is to pick one and just stick with it. The native Italians I’ve spoken to tend to prefer venire a trovarti, with the pronoun attached to the last infinitive. It sounds better to their ears. So, I’ve personally chosen to stick with that.

You will also sometimes hear the pronoun placed in front of both verbs, like this:

La famiglia ti viene a trovare.
The family is coming to visit you.

Don’t worry about learning every different way of saying it. Pick one. Just be aware of the others so that when you hear them, you’ll understand.

Here are some more examples in context:

Vedi che bravo figlio, che viene a trovare la mamma.
Look what a good son, that comes to visit his mother.

Tua madre viene a trovarti domani?
Is your mother coming to visit you tomorrow?

Ti spiace se vengo a trovarti?
Do you mind if I visit you?

Ecco perché nessuno viene a trovarla.
That’s why nobody comes to visit her/you (formal)

Lei è l’unica che viene a trovarlo.
She is the only one that comes to visit him.

Non vieni mai a trovarci.
You never come to visit us.

Of course, you are not limited to coming to visit, you can also go to visit.

E a volte mi rendo conto che le persone mi stanno pensando, per cui vado a trovarle.
And sometimes I realize that people are thinking of me, so I go visit them.

Sono solo andata a trovarlo all’ospedale poche volte.
I only went to visit him in the hospital a few times.

Now, to learn, you really need to express your own thoughts. I can’t stress this enough. Once you have used a phrase to express your own thoughts a few times it becomes much easier to remember. So, how can you take what you’ve learned here and express your own thoughts?

Do you have a trip planned? Who are you visiting? How would you tell this to a friend? How could you greet your friend when you got there? Or maybe you’re visiting someone in the hospital? Or you want to see a friend that you haven’t seen in a while? How do you tell them you’re coming?

Let us know on Facebook how you used this phrase in context!

If you feel your Italian is good enough to watch without Italian (or English) subtitles, this episode of Il Commissario Manara is also available for free from RAI. You will need to fast forward to exactly 48 minutes for the start of Un morto di troppo.

Ciao a tutti! We’re still studying phrases from the first 3 minutes of an episode of Il Commissario Manara, un poliziesco on RAI.tv with our new series La Frase Della Settimana. We are studying with Yabla, an excellent learning tool that shows you verbatim subtitles in both Italian and English AND allows you to slow down or stop the video when needed. This is an excellent way to develop your ear for spoken Italian, but it also allows you to take note of idiomatic phrases. And there are plenty!

So, last week we learned how to say:

Che ci fai qui?
What are you doing here?

This is what Luca (il commissario) says to his sister, Teresa, when she surprises him by coming to visit. Now we’re going to focus on what he says right after that:

Teresa, ma che ci fai qua? Ma che sei pazza?
Teresa, but what are you doing here? But what are you nuts?

I feel pretty confident you are all going to find a good use for this one. 🙂

The only thing you’ll need to remember here is to change the ending of the word pazzo which means crazy, to match the gender of the crazy person. Not too difficult. So, for example if Teresa was the one asking Luca, she would say:

Ma che sei pazzo?
But what are you nuts?

Of course, you can call people nuts in a variety of ways. Instead of asking you can just be direct.

Sei pazzo!
You’re nuts!

Here are some more examples:

Delilah ha ragione, sei pazzo.
Delilah is right, you’re crazy.

La gente penserà che sei pazzo.
People will think you’re crazy.

Lo so già che sei pazza.
I already know that you’re crazy.

If you’re talking about someone else you might say something like this:

Non ascoltare nulla di ciò che dice Ben perché è pazzo.
Don’t listen to anything Ben says because he’s crazy.

Madre Natura è pazza.
Mother Nature is crazy.

Questi hippies sono pazzi.
Those hippies are crazy.

Or perhaps you are talking to yourself?

Ma che cosa faccio? Sono pazza?
But what am I doing? Am I crazy?

So, who will be your target for this week’s phrase? Post your examples to our Facebook page.

!!! Remember to use your new phrase about THREE TIMES this week to express your own PERSONAL THOUGHTS. And you won’t forget it.

Alla prossima volta!

If you feel your Italian is good enough to watch without Italian (or English) subtitles, this episode of Il Commissario Manara is also available for free from RAI. You will need to fast forward to exactly 48 minutes for the start of Un morto di troppo.