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Slow Traveler
Posted
Hi.
I have some questions concerning very well-known italian songs.
The first song is called "Io che amo solo te".
It says somewhere...C'e gente che ha avuto mille cose...The present perfect here refers to the past or to the present?It seems to me it refers to the present,because it says afterwards...Io ho avuto solo te E non ti perdero,non ti lascero per cercare nuove aventure...
Do you know the reason for such a grammatical phenomenon?-if of course there is one...
Another question...Is there a special meaning to the phrase ...per le strade del mondo...?
I have the impression,it means the ways of life or something like this.
From the same song...Io mi fermero e ti regalero
quel che resta della mia gioventu...The problems is mi fermero...It means exactly what?
And a last question from the italian national anthem...Can someone explain to me this line...
Le porga la chioma(I mean what is porga-from porgere?-and what is la chioma?)
I know these are too many questions.I will appreciate any kind of help.
Antonis,
Athens,
Greece.
 
Posts: 108 | Location: Athens,Greece. | Registered: 29 January 2006Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post

Slow Traveler
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We don't have a present perfect. That is a passato prossimo, which is as the word says a past. Present perfect is typical of English, but in Italian past is past, except for historical present but this is not the case.

In this case the past extends to the present, but the only reason why you interpret it as such is because then he talks about his intentions for the future. Since he says I will not loose you you are allowed to infer that he still has her.

If you had io ho avuto solo te, one could be left wandering whether it is a fished story or not because it says something about the past.

Io mi fermerò means I will stop or I will stay, it is ambiguous between the two readings. One could interpret it as I will stop experimenting, or I will stay and therefore I will not wander in the roads of the world.

As for Fratelli d'Italia, la chioma is one's hair, in this case a metonymy for Victory's head. It is an allegory. The Goddess Victory offers herself to new Italy and to Rome. She had been made slave of the latter by God.

DOn't ask...
 
Posts: 3147 | Location: Upper Maremma; Tuscany; Italy | Registered: 19 October 2003Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
Slow Traveler
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I have a book in English explaining Italian grammar which says passato prossimo is equivalent to present perfect in English and trapassato prossimo is equivalent to past perfect in English. This means next to nothing to me because I don't know the names of special tenses in English, as a native speaker it comes "naturally."
Example (questionable)!
ho mangiato -- I ate or I have eaten

(To other English speakers learning Italian -- it is kind of a waste of money getting a grammar book in English it really doesn't help a lot, at least not me)
avevo mangiato -- I had eaten

Not even getting into imperfetto

Or passato remoto or trapassato remoto which I prefer not to think about.

Maybe if one learns several languages as a young child it is all easy.
 
Posts: 356 | Registered: 25 November 2003Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
Traveler
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If this helps ...

In English,

I have eaten - is present perfect
I had eaten - is past perfect
I will have eaten - is future perfect
 
Posts: 62 | Location: San Francisco Bay Area | Registered: 04 November 2007Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post

Slow Traveler
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For you it's probably easier to pass from the present perfect to the passato prossimo, because some uses of the present perfect are covered by our passato prossimo. But there is no way that they are the same thing as all ESL students know very well... Frown

Persent perfect is essentially a present, with roots in the past. It bears relevance for the moment you utter it.
And as a matter of fact you cannot say "yesterday, I have gone to the cinema", which in italian is in the passato prossimo, "ieri sono andata al cinema".
 
Posts: 3147 | Location: Upper Maremma; Tuscany; Italy | Registered: 19 October 2003Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
Traveler
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I know English grammar pretty well, but I'm just a beginner in Italian. Your example is call the "simple past" in English. I think both the simple past and the past perfect in English are translated into the passato prossimo in Italian, but I'm not sure. Is that the case?
 
Posts: 62 | Location: San Francisco Bay Area | Registered: 04 November 2007Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
Traveler
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Sorry, I meant "present perfect" not past perfect.
 
Posts: 62 | Location: San Francisco Bay Area | Registered: 04 November 2007Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
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