philat98

I'd go for "tocca a te"
Have you looked at wordreference?

Lorna at Vicenza

Or, "sta a te ora."

heritagestanley

Ta a te!

O_trapper

a couple more option for "over to you":

• prosegui tu
• continua tu

heritagestanley

"Me la cavo". I've come across one definition that suggests a meaning on the lines of "I get by" or "I manage more or less oK". And another that suggest something more successful, more like " I'm good at". Which more accurately captures the way that the expression is used in everyday speech? If I said "me la cavo" meaning the former, I wouldn't want to think that the person I was talking to thought that I was boasting!

philat98

A good explanation of these verbs.

Lorna at Vicenza

Me la cavo where I live is mostly used in two ways.
Can you speak French? Me la cavo. I'm not brilliant or fluent but yeah, I manage to get by. To be fairly capable at something.

Do you want some help putting that shelf up? No grazie, me la cavo. No thanks. I can manage.

Neither of these would be seen as boasting or even as being really good at something unless you add extra words like ...... me la cavo davvero/molto bene con la lingua francese.

heritagestanley

Tante grazie. (I've learned that "grazie tanto" means something else i.e. thanks for nothing!)

heritagestanley

Another question please. What's the Italian equivalent of "swings and roundabouts" i.e.what you gain on the swings you lose on the roundabouts?

scrubbedexpat077

I don't really use "swings and roundabouts" in English that much as it sounds a bit too stilted, but I would say "i pro e i contro". But it also depends on the context. Maybe you can quote the whole sentence and we'll take it from there.

heritagestanley

Oh, I use "swings and roundabouts" a lot! Typical sentence: I can't decide which of A or B is better - it's swings and roundabouts

eddie_bee

The literal translation would be: Ciò che guadagni sulle altalene lo perdi sulle giostre

You could use the phrase: E' una situazione senza vincitori nè vinti.

scrubbedexpat077

I would just say: "Ci sono pro e contro".

https://books.google.com/ngrams/grap...contro%3B%2Cc0

https://books.google.com/ngrams/grap...0vinti%3B%2Cc0

The first seems more frequent.

eddie_bee

I agree, it's a good choice and more commonly used.

heritagestanley

Is there a good colloquial Italian expression for "the common touch" - as in, for example, he's certainly intelligent but he lacks the common touch. Presumably there are ways of getting the idea across, for example by saying something like "he lacks the ability to get on easily with ordinary people and to get them to talk freely". But is there some colourful or idiomatic shortcut?