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matteo tironi.
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Sapere
Hi guys and welcome to another article of the Easy Peasy Italian blog
this will be our second stop in the marvelous realm of verbi servili (modal verbs, basically), and today we are to meet one that I am quite sure could be a little tricky to beginners: sapere.
Today, as my etymology hunt skills have improved, I will start this article by talking a little about this verb's history.
Sapere derives from an ancient language, guess which..... “Hindi?”nope. “ancient maya?” guess not.
“dwarfs' language?” yup! Nah, just kidding, it's the good ol'back Latin sapio, which in turn derives from a very-super-mega ancient proto-indoeuropean verb, sap.
Back in those ancient times, sap used to mean try out/taste, and in time sap, keeping tasting food here and there, became fat and lazy.
But he was so well-known for its experience and good taste that his Latin son, sapio, become more and more geared toward expressing knowledge and skills, rather than just trying them out.
In time, its various Romance sons gave up on their father's job as tasters, and decided to focus on expressing knowledge and skills only, using the knowledge they had been passed down throughout all their family's history.
Nowadays, most of them (savoir in French, and sapere in Italian), have lost the try out meaning, and basically boil down to two mere concepts:
1)to be able to: if your read my article about potere, then you know that it can't be used to express abilities (lest you fancy using contrived and rusty phrasings), because that's up to our expertise, sapere
I can swim
so nuotare
when I was a child, I was able to dive like a seal.
Quando ero piccolo, sapevo tuffarmi come una foca.
Of course, just like all the other “modal verbs” in Italian, sapere isn't as stiff as its English counterpart, because it has its own set of conjugations, for the sake of learners' joy
however, sapere, in certain cases, has to compete for the limelight with another phrase, essere in grado di.
Do they mean the same? Hhhhmmmm....... I'm afraid not. I mean, they are similar, but in certain situations I would use one over the other and vice versa. When?
Well, in undefined tenses, or better, the ones with an indefinite time frame (present, imperfect(when the time frame is not given)), sapere sounds better:
so suonare > sono in grado di suonare (I can play (an instrument))
sapevo suonare> ero in grado di suonare
beware because the preference in the imperfect tense varies depending on how well defined the time frame is: the more defined, the worse sapere is in comparison to essere in grado.
Note that in these cases essere in grado is not wrong, but it sounds more preposterous, like saying “I can play” vs. “I CAN play”(as if someone was doubting that)
On the other hand, when the ability is referred to a momentary time frame in the past, sapere almost sounds wrong:
quando venne il momento, non seppi farmi coraggio
quando venne il momento, non fui in grado di farmi coraggio.
Both mean
When the time came, I couldn't steady/brace myself.
But the latter sounds better to me, and if we added further time reference, the former would have been completely wrong.
Cinque anni fa non seppi scegliere
Five years ago I couldn't choose
Sounds wrongish if not wrong altogether.
2)ok, so far we have explored the first part of the now-grown-up-sap-that-has-gone-free-lance-advice-giver, the part in which it is used to express skills.
But let's not forget about the enormous amount of knowledge it has stacked over time!
Actually, sap was quite the natterbox, so he wasn't that much into knowing notions, in turn he knew everybody's facts.
Therefore, sapere is translated as to know, but only as far as FACTS are concerned, a bit like the German wissen or the French savoir.
So che sei andato a casa di Maria!
I know you've been to Maria's place!
As you may have noticed, while to know requires not helping word (you just introduce the fact you know), Italian requires che, followed by the indicative mood.
Lo so che ci sei andato!
I know you've been there!
Moreover, sapere can show an apparently nonsense redundancy, take a look to my last sentence: sapere has two objects, lo (it, object form) and che.....(basically the rest).
Why? Does this redundancy change the meaning? Nope, but it strengthens it. For instance, the last sentence could be used by a girlfriend blaming her partner for having cheated on her by going to another chick's place. The “lo” stresses the fact the she DOES know it, game over XP.
One other thing: sapere, because of its nature, has to be a continuous verb (you can't know a fact for just a sec and then forget it, unless you suffer from a super-mega-turbo amnesia), however, sentences like
ho saputo che ci sei andato.
Are a thing. But what do they mean?
No, it doesn't mean I knew you have been there, that would be sapevo che.....
so what could they mean? Well, do you remember when I told you about sapere being a gossip-loving natterbox? Well, he believes that facts are to be conveyed, not just to be known, therefore, as saying something is a defined action (unless you keep saying it like slo-mo), sapere came to mean “come to know”
so the previous sentence is translated as
I was informed/I came to know that you have been there.
A fact was conveyed, so that now someone else knows it.
Ok, this is almost all.
before we wave goodbye, let me just say that sapere's career as food taster isn't really over. It IS still used in this context, but not always.
I taste the cake.
The cake tastes like dirty socks.
In these two sentences, taste does not mean the same (unless a cake can bite you XD). In the first sentence, it means that I “try” the cake, while the latter tells me how the cake is (disgusting like dirty socks).
So, sapere really isn't in the taster field any longer, but he wants to judge stuff as he used to in the past.
Therefore, the first taste is NOT sapere, while the other is.
Assaggio la torta
la torta sa di calzini sporchi.
And beware because in this case sapere has to be followed by di, so it can't be followed by an adjective.
Simply put, you can say that something tastes like something else, but not that something tastes good/bad etc. that doesn't work.
However, as sapere is quite the smartypants and likes comparing stuff using its huge knowledge, it is not limited to food only. Sure, making comparison about stuff's taste is its main job here, but ic an refer to other contexts:
Mi sa tanto di una truffa bella e buona
It tastes like a plain and simple rip off to me.
Ok, taste doesn't really fit this sentence, but it doesn't take much to realize that once you swap it with sound/look, you're done.
Basically, whenever something gives you a feeling, that it is similar to something else, sapere di+noun could work.
It is simple because the English version always come with “like”.
However, this to have a feeling thing can be pushed even further, like in this sentence:
Mi sa tanto che non ce la faremo.
It feels a lot to me like we won't make it (kind of lit., basing on what I've said so far)
that with a little magic becomes the more sensible:
I have a feeling we won't make it.
So, sapere+che, can also refer to feelings someone has. However, please do note that this structure HAS to come with a dati..... indirect-object pronoun. It wouldn't make sense otherwise, and no one would understand. I wouldn't.
So something like
sa che non verrò.
CAN'T mean I have a feeling I won't come or better, I don't feel like coming/I'm afraid I won't be able to come, it means
she/he knows I wouldn't. So no one would understand if you don't use it.
It has to be
mi sa che non verrò.
Someone maybe be wondering “but hey man, wasn't to feel like andare+3rd case pronoun?” yes, both can mean to feel like, but the feeling they give is utterly different.
andare+3rd c.pron feels like you don't want to do it because you decided so. You could do it, but you are too lazy/tired/whatever to do it.
Refusing a proposal using this phrase would sound very impolite.
On the other hadn, sapere+3rd c.pron. Feels like you can't do it, because of external obligations, but you are uncertain about whether you will actually do that or not. It does not by any mean, however, mean that you are ACTUALLY busy, so it is a polite way to say someone that you don't feel like following his proposal.
e.g.
Ti va di venire a casa mia?
Mi sa che non posso (I'm afraid I can't) OK WAY to refuse.
Non mi va. (I don't feel like it) you pussy XP
so remember, sapere in this case can mean two things
1) you don't feel like coming, but you want to refuse in a polite way.
2)you are actually afraid that something may prevent you from coming.
So, it is about time we called it a day and went for the megggggggga recap:
1)sapere comes from an old PIE verb that meant to try out/taste, but now it has shifted its meaning toward expressing skills or knowledge of facts.
2)as for skills, it overlaps with can/could, but it has to compete with essere in grado di, which is preferred in emphatic situations and whenever the time frame is given (recent past, historical past etc.)
3)as for the knowledge of facts, in the indefined tenses (present, imperfect), it stands for to know a fact, while in the defined ones (pasts), it stands for get informed/get to know.
4) as for its old meaning as to taste, it has retained a bit of it, but it can be used to make comparison about food's taste, but also other kind of sense-related comparison.
5)lastly but not least, when it tag-teams with a third case pronoun and che, it stands for to have a feeling/to be afraid/ to feel like.
Phew, this ended up much longer than expected, and I feel like I could have explained the last part better, so I will be waiting for your feedbacks, in case you didn't understand
.
the modals2: sapere level3after having had a ride with the mighty potere, here's the know-'em-all sapere :) |
