indiebird

My friend sent me a text message today in italian and there is a word I don't know 'semmai' Any ideas?? The context is 'Semmai ci sentiamo.'

davehornet6

hi, i dont speak italian but google translate came back with 'if anything (or 'rather'), we feel'
dont know if that sounds right but i was browsing posts and like a challenge.

Lorna at Vicenza

It's one of those compound words or conjugated words or whatever we call them.

It comes from se mai which usually means - if ever.

In the case of your text message I don't think your friend is saying that she'll never get in touch with you again - more likely in this case it means .. in any case we'll be in touch.

silvietta

I think the translation could be "At least"...we may use "semmai" when there is a uncertain situation: ex. "At what time tonight?" "No lo so ancora, semmai ci sentiamo piu' tardi (così ci accordiamo)" = I still don't know, at least (?) I contact you later on, to agree about this. Could it sound correct in English?

Lorna at Vicenza

"At least" doesn't work very well in your example Silvietta.

lindaf

The other night on Affari Tuoi, someone won 1 kg of Farro. I couldn't find any translation apart from 'spelled' which doesn't make any sense. What is Farro - what did she actually win?

indiebird

Thanks Lorna, I did use google translate but it came up with 'rather' and I tried bablefish which confused me even more. I know that sometimes these things don't translate so well literally and it wasn't in any of my dictionaries....

Is farro, spelt by the way? which is a type of grain. I think it is a different type of wheat...

lindaf

The closest word to Farro I know was farina, so if it is wheat or grain I wasn't too far off

I'm not sure what you mean by 'spelt by the way' - I meant that the only translation I could get from Google Translate was 'il farro' = 'spelled'.

37100

Farro = Spelt. Type of grain. You can get zuppa di farro and bread made from farro flour.

lindaf

Thanks both of you - she (the Affari Tuoi woman) turned down €18,000 in order to win that 1 kg of grain

I'm getting my english fix at the minute - listening to Jeremy Vine on Radio 2 while I'm doing the ironing.

indiebird

Sorry Linaf, it was me writing in a rush!! It should have said 'is Farro spelt by the way?' as in 'on another subject, I think spelt is farro'. I think my italian might only improve when my english does!!

PAT M

My four candles/fork 'andles moment at the ferramenta
I went in for a setaccio to sieve the pellets for our stove (the dust causes blockages) after several unsuccessful attempts at other shops, I was really pleased when he asked "what size?", "the largest you have", I said. He came out with half a dozen segacci (handsaws). It caused a bit of a chuckle in the shop.

Lorna at Vicenza

Hope he didn't think you were about to start chopping your own pellets up - or even worse - bodies

lindaf

Lorna - I want to offer some homemade (sweet) mince pies to my neighbour.

I don't think they have mince pies here so you can translate this for me so I can try and explain what they are to her?

37100

There is no translation for 'mince pie'. All you can say is that they are 'tortine di pasta frolla ripiene di frutta secca'. And don't forget to leave one out for father christmas.