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matteo tironi.
User deleted
Andare.
Hi guys and welcome back to Easy Peasy Italian.
Well, if you were wondering why I haven't been posting for a while, well, that's because I was quite swamped with uni stuff, and because I was thinking about what topic to cover next.
At first, I considered banal stuff like historical past, articles and their weird behaviour with prepositions, reflexive verbs and so on (what? Do you think I should talk about them as well? Fine then
) but then I came up with andare.
Yeah, the easy easy version of to go in Italian, andare.
Let's cover the basic grammar first. Just like pretty much every verb in Italian you'll ever come across, andare is irregular, rejoice
io vado
tu vai
lui/lei va
noi andiamo
voi andate
loro vanno
well, it kind of resembles the French aller (which I studied ages ago and I'd rather not talk about, French makes me feel like a middle-schooler XP)
as for the past participle, it is andato, and the auxiliary is essere, because it is a intransitive verb (without a direct object, can you go something???).
Moreover, if you think about it, you'll notice that it kind of makes sense, because English uses structures with to be (although not as an auxiliary verb but still) with this kind of verb.
eg.
I'm gone
I've gone
both these two translate as
sono andato,
and roughly mean the same in English as well.
Yeah, you could object that in the first sentence I'm talking about a state of being while in the second about a fact that happened in the past, still, the result is the very same.
This goes for all these verbs, such as to die and to be , but also for others like to come, to survive and such. Anyway, I'll talk about essere vs avere as auxiliary in a devoted article.
Anyhow, let's not digress.
Ok, so andare means to go.
So, if it is that easy, why should I spend time on it? Well, because I realized it differs a bit from its English relative, well, it is way broader.
Basically, instead of simply meaning that someone moves elsewhere, it means that something follows a certain way.
The way you are!
WHAT? Well, of course the sentence
io vado a casa
means I go home, but what about
la macchina non va
lit. the car doesn't go
does it meaning that the car won't go somewhere, out of its on will?
Like “hey man you always use me to go eating at restaurants it is about time you lost some weight fatso?”
well, somewhat. It means that the car won't go. But not because it decided so,.
Just think to the “follow a certain way” path. A car is supposed to go somewhere, so if it doesn't go it is not following the way it is supposed to any longer.
This weird phrasing, in human English, would translate as “to work”
la macchina non va
the car doesn't work
this doesn't apply to vehicles only, but to all instruments that may stop working. Yeah, even the computer you haven't been using for ages can “go”, in Italian, even if it is covered with dust and will never see the daylight again
actually, this “follow the path it is supposed to” thing is wider than to work.
It can be used to express any case in which something should be a certain way, often expressing duty or expectations.
questo pezzo va (messo) qui?
Is this piece supposed to be placed here?
Questo non andrebbe fatto
This shouldn't be done
va detto che tu ti sei impegnato
it must be said that you did your best
queste cose vanno consegnate per le 7
this things are to be delivered by 7 o'clock.
So, if andare comes with a verb, which is sometime even understood, like in the first sentence, it expresses the way something should be, and therefore can replace almost all the English ways to express duty, but the verb has to be in the PASSIVE voice.
I have to go there
can't be translated using andare. Well, at least not the “have to” part Only if the verb is passive you can use it, and if you think about the “follow the way it is supposed to” it is kind of obvious why.
Bene, non va bene (lit. well, it doesn't go well)
another very important function of andare is when it comes with bene.
Let's leave the title out for a sec and focus on this example.
qualsiasi cosa andrà (future of andare, first person) bene.
Lit. anything will go well.
Nope, it doesn't mean that there is something bad about to happen and I'm trying to reassure someone. Think about the “follow a certain way” concept. As I added bene to the mix, the meaning now becomes “follow the good (i.e. right) way”
if something follows the right path, it means that it will be fine.
So that's what andare bene means, to be fine/to do.
Anything will be fine/will do.
And this phrasing is quite wide (yeah, again, we “go” father than the others ahah). In general, it means “to be right for a certain thing”
Secondo te, va bene la torta?
Do you think the cake tastes good/ is ok?
Questo libro va bene per i bambini?
Is this book suitable for kids?
Vado bene in matematica
I'm good at maths.
Va tutto bene?
Is everything all right?
Comprerò un vestito che ti va bene.
This sentence can either mean
I'll buy a dress that suits you or
I'll buy a dress you're ok with.
Either ways, it means that the dress fits the way it is supposed to.
Only the context can clear this out, although the first meaning is faaaar more common and I would always understand this sentence that way.
Anyway, if the andare bene phrase appears along with a “third case” (indirect object, man, German jargon is contagious), it always means:
X non va bene a Y
Y is not ok/fine with X
ah, and for records, this paragraph's title meant, well, we're not doing well
a moving weird phrasing
another fairly common phrase with andare is certainly andarne+ feeling adjective.
As andare doesn't just mean to go, but also to follow a certain path, you could take paths other than the bene (good) one (who doesn't).
in this case, andare kind of overlaps with essere, but they have a slightly different meaning.
Sono fiero di mio figlio and
vado fiero di mio figlio.
both mean
I'm proud of my son.
But there is a little difference: while the essere form is rather plain, the latter implies a stronger feeling and it HAS TO come with the “di” complement (of+something) or ne (which is kind of the same in disguise, read pronouns3).
Furthermore, the andare version implies that this state is not a momentary feeling, but something habitual, or anyway something that prolongs over time.
therefore, only a few adjectives can make this structure, because they have to have a specific complement and must not have a counterpart (there is not other verb to say “to be proud of”)
so a sentence like
vado felice di questo nuova piazza WRONG
lit. I go happy “about” this new square
is wrong, because essere felice already has a counterpart in “felicitarsi” (which is veeeery uncommon though)
you could use andare lieto though, which roughly mean the same, but has not real counterpart (allietarsi means something else)
vado lieto del tuo successo
I rejoice for your success. (kind of)
as far as I can remember, these adjectives can come with andare:
fiero (the moooost common one)
lieto
tranqullo
and maybe some more. Anyway, don't think too hard about this rule. It is seldom used and you could as well never come across any of these phrases for ages.
“Mommy, I wanna be my way” “stop listing to Lady Gaga, you're a man”
The last main meaning of andare is a tricky one. Let's have a look at this sentence
non mi va di andare a casa
lit. it doesn't go to me to go home.
Weird, very weird. I admit that, if I were a native English speaker, I would hardly understand this unless I had studied it beforehand.
But, if you think about the “follow a certain way” pattern, it may be a little clearer.
Now, what way are we talking about here? In the previous cases it was kind of understandable, the intrinsic one something is supposed to, the right one or the one conveyed by the adjective.
But has this phrase always comes with a self-reference, it means to follow one's way.
So let's rephrase that grammar monster I wrote before:
it doesn't follow my way to go home.
Hmmmmm.... still pretty weird, but somewhat clearer if you ask me.
If it doesn't follow my way, it means that I don't want to do that, or better, that I don't feel like doing that, and that's what it means
I don't feel like going home.
Of course andare appears in a gazillion phrases too, so I'll list the main ones to wrap this part up.
Random phrases yay
Andare a male (lit. to go bad).= to rot
If something goes bad, it is no longer good for something. Well, this “something” in Italian is “mangiare (to eat)”. So if something is no longer good to eat, it is rotten.
Nevertheless, you can't use it about something other than food though.
Yeah, pretty much like English, but for food ONLY.
La mela è andata a male
the apple rotted/ is rotten (can you see why essere is the auxiliary now?)
Andare via/ andarsene= to go away
well, the former is the simple translation, while the latter may be troublesome.
Well, think of it as made up of three parts:
andar(to go)+se(reflexive, one's way with andare)+ne (of it, from it)
so, if I go my way from it, it is clear that I'm going away
io me ne vado da qui!
I'm going away from here!
Andare con= to go with
this can refer to people
Carla va con I ragazzi bruni
Carla dates brown-haired guys
or to stuff that has to match:
il rosso non va mai col nero!
Red never goes with black (clothes)
ok, this is all.
ah, before I call it a day, let me remind that andare is not used to express the future like the English “to be going to”. Really, it doesn't work.
So something like
andare a pescare= go fishing, not to be going to fish.
Likewise, most of the other English phrases with go (to go for something) (to go without) and so forth DO NOT work in Italian.
and, as we're at the end of this wonderful Italian verb, let's recap everything briefly:
1)andare is the Italian verb for to go. it is used to express movement, it is a bit wider than to go and its undelying pattern is "to follow a certain way"
2) when it is referred to an object, it means that it is doing what it is supposed to (i.e. it works)
3)when it comes with a passive verb, it means that something is expected to be a certain way
4) when it comes with bene, it means that something is just like it should. (i.e. fine/ok)
5)when it comes with certain feelings-related adjectives, it refers to a feeling that prolongs in time that strogly felt by the speaker.
6) when it comes with a personal reference word, (3rd case personal pronouns), it means to feel like
7) it is used in other idioms often similar to English, but almost all the English idioms containing to go do not do the same in Italian (most notably, to be going to to express future).
Yup, that's it. As always, feel free to comment or pm me (via lang-8) to ask for more info in case you are doubtful about something.
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andare. level3you gotta go Italian. |
