Page 14 - Italian American Herald - August 2021

14 ITALIANAMERICANHERALD.COM | AUGUST2021 ITALIAN-AMERICANHERALD ITALIAN MADE FUN & SIMPLE
Here are some situations where choosing between "avere" and "tenere" might be tricky.
Physical Possession
1.) To have/keep an item
• Ho una mela, ma voglio mangiare un’arancia.
I have an apple, but I want to eat an orange.
• Non ho una borsa che si abbina a/con questo vestito.
I don’t have a purse that matches this dress.
• Ho il nuovo iPhone.
I have a new iPhone.
In the situation above, you couldn't use "tenere" as a substitute for "avere."
• Tengo questo iPhone fino all'uscita di quello nuovo.
I'm keeping this iPhone until the new one comes out.
2.) To not have any money
• Non ho una lira.
I don't have any money.
Here, you can use "tenere," but "avere" is still preferred.
• Non tengo una lira.
I don't have any money.
"Non avere/tenere una lira" is an expression that literally means, "I don't have one lira."
To Maintain a Situation
1.) Keep/have a secret
• È un segreto che tengo per Silvia,
quindi non posso dirtelo.
It's a secret that I'm keeping for
Silvia, so I can't tell it to you. However, if you have a secret and you're
not keeping a secret for anybody, you can just use "avere."
• Ho un segreto. Ho un amante! I have a secret. I have a lover!
2.) Have/keep in pockets
• Ha le mani in tasca.
He has his hands in his pockets. In this situation, both "avere" and "tenere"
can be used.
• Tiene le mani in tasca.
He has (keeps) his hands in his
pockets.
3.) Have/keep In mind
• Ti spiegherò quello che ho in
mente.
I'll explain to you what I have
in mind.
In this context, "avere" and "tenere" can
both be used although the sentence structure will change.
• Tieni in mente quello che ti ho detto ieri.
Keep in mind what I told you yesterday.
To Hold Something
1.) Hold/have a baby in your arms
• Tiene in braccio un bimbo. Il bebé ha sei mesi.
She is holding a baby in her arm. The baby is six months.
In this situation, you can use "avere" interchangeably.
• Ha in braccio un bimbo. Il bebé ha sei mesi.
She is holding a baby in her arm. The baby is six months.
2.) Have a bouquet of flowers
• Perché hai un mazzo di fiori? Hai molti spasimanti?
Why do you have a bouquet of flowers? Do you have a lot of admirers?
• Non posso rispondere perchè ho un mazzo di fiori in mano.
I can’t answer the phone because I’m holding a bouquet of flowers.
Then, the person you're talking to might respond to you using the verb "tenere."
• Rispondi, che te lo tengo io.
Answer, and I’ll hold it for you.
3.) Hold a bouquet with style
• La sposa tiene il bouquet con classe. – The bride holds the bouquet in her hands with style.
In the example above, "tenere" is used to stress the way she holds the bouquet.
To help make this easier, use "tenere" whenever you have something that you're physically holding "in mano – in your hands" or "in braccio – in your arms."
It can also be used in figurative expressions, as you saw "tenere in mente," but since we would be likely to translate that as "keep in mind," it's easier to distinguish from "avere."
"Avere," on the other hand, is used to talk about something you possess, either literally or figuratively.
If you find yourself in conversation, and you can't think of which one is right to use, it's best to ask yourself what the simplest meaning is. For example, instead of saying, "He had a change of heart," you can say, "He changed his mind" or “Ha cambiato idea.”
A reader recently asked, “Do all Italian surnames end in a vowel, and what is the most common Italian surname?”
The idea that all Italian words end in vowels is an age-old misconception, as Dante himself would probably concur. There are even some people with a knowledge of Italian or an ex-pat that moves to Italy for a long period who often believe this to be true. There are actually many Italian words that end in consonants. In reality, they are not that common if you compare Italian to its sister languages, French or Spanish. This also applies to surnames.
To answer the reader's question, the most common surname in Italy is Rossi. When we get to the letter R, we'll cover its origins.
Now, let's move on to Italian surnames ending in consonants. Before we cover the first one, keep in mind that Italy, particularly the south from Naples on, was perhaps the most invaded area in Europe, occupied for centuries by conquerors who left their mark behind.
SARAGAT – This surname owes its fame to Giuseppe Saragat, an Italian politician who served as the fifth president of the Republic of Italy. He was born in Turin. The surname itself is only registered in the vital statistics of Lazio and Sardinia. The surname is probably Sardinian in origin.
DE ANGELIS – The surname appears in the vital statistics in 15 regions. These
families live predominantly in the north, but smaller numbers are found in the southern regions.
Moving ahead, readers must keep in mind that southern Italy was occupied by Spain
for about 500 years. So, it should come as no shock when you see the following surnames.
VASQUES – This surname is as Sicilian as it is Iberian. Altogether, it appears in the vital statistics in 11 regions. These families live largely in Sicily, but smaller numbers are found in 10 other regions.
LOPES – Once again, this surname can be considered Sicilian. These families live largely in Sicily, but smaller numbers are found in 17 other regions. The exceptions are Val d’Aosta and Umbria.
RODRIQUEZ – This surname shares its Sicilian presence with Campania. Both regions have about equal numbers of families with that surname. Ten other regions have families with this surname, albeit in small numbers.
PEREZ – This surname popularity shares its Sicilian presence with Lombardia. It is also present in the other 18 regions. Sicily has the greatest number of families with that surname, followed by Lombardia.
There are other surnames that don’t end in vowels, such as DeSantis and Cavour, which maybe we’ll cover at another time, but for now we hope that this feature clears up the misconception that all Italian surnames and words must end in a vowel.
You can research your surname on these two websites:
• surnames.behindthename.com/names/usage/italian/ • cognomix.it/mappe-dei-cognomi-italiani.
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Vol. 8 / No. 7
By Jeanne Outlaw-Cannavo
to make Tuscan the official language of the country. When “standard Italian” was adopted as the only official language, several adaptations had to be made in grammar, lexicon and pronunciation. It was also compulsory in all acts of public administration and taught in schools, when no “standard Italian” existed, although it had been somewhat used prior to the unification in official acts, in schools and in universities.
However, this in no way changed the
fact that outside of schools and government agencies the people of Italy continued to speak a variety of dialects across the regions as well as from province to province.
As a non-Italian by birth and a retired teacher of Italian, I have often been asked
if Italian dialects were just a subset of the official language or separate languages derived from Latin. Research and personal views of linguists often differ on this question.From my own personal experience, having both traveled throughout Italy and lived in Lazio and Sicily, I believe that no local language or dialect of Italy can be considered a dialect of “standard Italian.” Moreover, having to learn the local jargon of these two regions and other areas where I traveled, proved to me that the various dialects were being used as living languages.
Just imagine how absurd it would be
to consider the Florentine dialect, from which standard Italian derives, a dialect of standard Italian, when it was spoken before standard Italian even existed. One might even argue that standard Italian is a dialect of Florentine. While I studied the “standard”
“That’s not real Italian!” and “My nonna doesn’t say it like that” are protests that Italian teachers have heard from students studying the “official” language of Italy. Personally,
I never disputed their claims but simply explained there was a difference between standard Italian and what they heard at
home from their Italian-American relatives. For centuries, Italy was divided into many states, usually under foreign rule which led to a great diversity of languages spoken on the peninsula. When the country unified in 1861, the new government leaders decided
ollege, it wasn’t long
THE CHEF'S PERSPECTIVE Summertime, and the grilling is easy
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after I first visited Italy that I was learning a whole different language. In fact, the first two Sicilian words I learned were iddu and idda, (lui and lei), meaning he and she in standard Italian. It wasn’t long before I began a whole
JULY 2021
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