Giulia85

you don't actually use "anticipare" at all to say "to expect sth in the future"; instead, you'll use "prevedere"....."Non prevedo brutto tempo per il picnic" (or more naturally "Non credo ci sarà brutto tempo....". As for anticipare meaning in advance, here are some examples:
1) Mi anticipi 5 euro? (friendly context)
2) la banca mi ha anticipato la somma di .... (banking field)
3) Mi ha anticipato! (meaning "sb has said/done extactly what I wanted to say/do, but before I could do so")
4) hanno anticipato la riunione (they have bring the meeting forward).

Hope I've been useful

Lorna at Vicenza

You do realise that the original question was asked well over 6 months ago don't you?

Giulia85

Yes Lorna, I do. I just thought it could be useful.

Lorna at Vicenza

Fair enough.

lindaf

Hi & thanks, all this information (and indeed entire thread) is useful to me.

Lorna at Vicenza

Did the note to postie work Testarossa?

lynnxa

how is it pronounced by Italians?

ris-oh-toe - as in OH MY GOD

or

ris-o-toe - as in HOT



or something completely different

casalottian

There are two Ts so you need to pronounce both of them:
ris OT toe

Patty

I've been speaking italian for 30 years and I STILL cant say the doppi
(my kids now take the mickey out of me.......but I dont care )

lynnxa

thank you - I completely forgot I had asked this

so the OT in the middle is as in hOT - not as in tOe

Lorna at Vicenza

It's definitely an OT and not toe.

Bugs me like crazy when I hear chefs on Tv say "riz-oat-oh."

lynnxa

that's what prompted the question

we were watching Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmare (US version)

all the chefs seem to say riz-oat-oh - even one English guy

it was really driving me mad cos I thought it was wrong - so I thought I'd just check...............

ballerina

LOL riz-oh-doh is what I say when I am doing my American impressions which my OH LOVES to hear (plaza del poh-poh-low etc)

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone can help me with the verb 'servire'.. in my 501Italian verbs book, it just says 'to serve', which I could have guessed, but I've heard it used for 'help' and 'need' type phrases; for example, 'do you need any help/can I help you' and 'do you need to use the bathroom' but with the verb servire.

I'm not sure how or when to use this verb in place of others. If I want to offer help, I usually say 'posso aiutare?' but is this incorrect?

Thanks very much in advance for any help. I'm finally getting down to some Italian study (really I'm only procrastinating though because I have my final tourguide exams in less than 2 weeks and have not looked at any of that work for a good couple of months!)

Lorna at Vicenza

Hi Ballerina.

Servire is another one of those verbs that has several meanings. It's used a lot to mean "to need" so it can happily be used instead of 'bisogno' so instead of saying "ho bisogno di aiuto - ho bisogno del bagno - ho bisogno di soldi" you can substitute for:

mi serve aiuto - mi serve il bagno - mi servono dei soldi - ci serve più riso - cosa ci serve per la festa? Che cosa ti serve adesso?

It's also used in the sense of being useful, helpful, necessary, be any good.

Non serve mettere olio nella pentola. It's no use putting oil in the pan. It's no good putting oil in the pan. It's not necessary to put oil in the pan.

Non serve a nulla. It's good for nothing. It's of no use at all.

And of course it means "to serve" in the traditional sense of the verb.

Posso aiutare is perfectly okay to offer help... or you can also ask "serve aiuto?"

Hope that helps.

Lorna at Vicenza

I forgot one ..........

When used as an expression "ma che serve?" or "a che serve?" is like saying,

What for? or What's the point?