WTI Magazine #55    2015 March, 6
Author : Manuela Bianchi for learnitalygroup.com      Translation by:

Let's do "alla Romana"! Some Italian idioms and phrases always awaken the curiosity of our LearnItaly students: some for their history, others for their irony or because they simply reflect the Italian culture. Let's see some examples. When we want to talk about how something gets done, we can use certain specific phrases: for instance, "facciamolo alla carlona" means "let's do it carelessly", or in a hurry, or without care and precision, even if the word "carlona" does not mean anything when it is alone.

But where does this expression come from? "Carlona" comes from the Old French "Charlon" literary name of Charlemagne who, in the poems of chivalry, was represented as a simple, good-natured man, with rough habits.

When you do something in such an approximate way, you can also use two very common expressions in our spoken language: "alla bell'e meglio" or "alla buona". In other situations you can say that you can act "alla garibaldina" (literally, Garibaldi style), as to say in a messy, reckless, impulsive way. This expression is a clear reference to the temperament of Giuseppe Garibaldi, whose importance in our history is not a mystery, and actually refers to his methods of combat.

Another expression is to do things "alla bersagliera", which means quickly, with lots of enthusiasm and determination. This phrase refers to how the Bersaglieri (the rifle regiment in the Italian army set up in 1836 as Infantry Italian special forces) act: these soldiers are in fact trained to do things fast.

If we mean that an action was performed in an excellent way, we can say that it was made "alla grande". In other contexts, if we are having dinner at a restaurant with friends, we can decide to split the bill "alla Romana" (like Romans do), and that is to divide the total expenditure equally between all participants, regardless of what had been ordered and eaten by every single person.

Reflexive verbs

Among the many topics related to the Italian grammar verbal system, today we talk about reflexive verbs. First of all, what are they? They are those verbs that are accompanied by an unstressed personal pronoun ("mi", "ti", "si", "ci", "vi") and whose action relates to the subject. In particular, in the direct reflexive form the action taken by the subject is reflected on the subject itself, like in the phrase "Maria si pettina" (Maria combs). Remember that in compound tenses these verbs are always accompanied by the auxiliary verb "essere" (to be) and therefore the preceding sentence will become "Maria si è pettinata" (Maria has combed).

In other cases, the reflexive form is called indirect because the action taken by the subject regards something that belongs to or is part of the subject itself. An example would be "Valeria si lava i capelli" (Valeria washes her hair), where the hair is the indirect object and an integral part of valeria, the subject of the sentence. Then we have a reflexive form called "reciproca" (mutual) in which two or more parties exchange an action one to each other, like with the verb "salutarsi" (to greet): for example "Marco e Luca si salutano" (Marco and Luca say goodbye one each other). The latter form is only possible with more subjects or with a plural subject and is expressed by pronouns "si", "ci", "vi".

We also have a category of reflexive verbs called "pronominali" (pronominal). These are intransitive verbs that have only the reflexive form and in which the reflexive particle pronoun has no value but is simply part of the verb. If In fact we say that "Sara si ammala" (Sara gets sick) we do not mean that Sara voluntary causes her illness. These pronominal reflexive verbs are numerous, here are a few of them: "accorgersi" (to notice), "arrabbiarsi" (to get angry), "ammalarsi" (to get sick), "avvalersi" (to avail oneself of), "congratularsi" (to congratulate), "dolersi" (to be sorry for), "imbattersi" (to bump into), "impadronirsi" (to take possession of), "incamminarsi" (to head for), "lagnarsi" (to complain), "pentirsi" (to regret), "ribellarsi" (to rebel), "vergognarsi" (to be ashamed of).

However, just remember that, together with theory, the use of these verbs is very simple: just remember to conjugate the verb in the adequate grammar mood and tense, enter the correct unstressed personal pronouns ("mi", "ti", "si", "ci", "vi"), and you're done!