Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: "Who is this?"

Detto al telefono, equivale al nostro "Pronto, chi parla?"
?

 ?
If my home phone or cell phone rings, I pick it up and say "Hello?".
If my personal  phone at work rings, I would pick up the phone and say
simply "Joe Lastname!", since only people looking for me would be
calling that number. After normal work hours, a bell rings throughout
the building when the main number for the company rings, so if I were
to answer I would say "X company!", since I know that the caller is
not calling a particular individual or Department, and I am not
representing a particular department. If I am in the Drafting
department, and the phone rings, and there is no member of the
Drafting department to answer it, I would answer "X company, Drafting
Department, Joe Lastname speaking!", even though I might not belong to
the Drafting Department. If I were alone in the Customer Service
department, and the phone were to ring, I would answer "X Company,
Customer Service, Joe speaking!", even though I might not be part of
the Customer Service Department. If I were in another person's office
when he was not there, and his personal phone were to ring, I would
pick it up and say "John Doe's office!", so that the caller expecting
to speak to John Doe will know immediately that he is not in his
office.
Joe from Massachusetts

Detto al telefono, equivale al nostro "Pronto, chi parla?"
Beh... non proprio.
Io direi che equivale al nostro "chi e'"?.  Hai mai alzato il ricevitore e
invece di "pronto" iniziato la conversazione con "chi e'?"  Io no e mi
sembrerebbe un po' una maleducazione.  E' lo stesso in inglese.  Certo si puo'
dire, ma non e' comune e non suona tanto bene.  L'unica situazione in cui mi
pare si possa usare e' in certi casi in cui per esempio il telefono suona
ripetutamente e nessuno risponde dall'altra parte.  
bye

 If my home phone or cell phone rings, I pick it up and say "Hello?".
Ok, as first thing, and that stands for the Italian "Pronto", in this 
context, doesn't it? 
Then let's say you hear a voice you are not familiar with, at the other 
end of the line. What would you say then? In Italian that would be "Chi 
parla?".
-- 
Enrico C using MyNewsGate.net
Private replies to: enrico DOT c AT people  DOT 
it
Inviato da 
www.mynewsgate.net

 sembrerebbe un po' una maleducazione.
Io dico "Sì?". Sembra strano a tutti, ma sono abituato così. Quindi, se
telefoni in Italia e qualcuno ti risponde "Sì?", sappi che sono io. Se
invece telefoni lì negli Stati Uniti e ti si risponde "Joe Lastname", sappi
che quello è Joscurtin.
Ciao, FB
-- 
Conversation like television set on honeymoon: unnecessary.
(Murder by Death)

 ?
In personal settings, the usual greeting on the phone is "Hello?" I would
only ask "who's calling?" if the caller went on about something and didn't
identify him/herself.
In office settings there are other protocols established by the companies.
-- 
In case you're new to this NG, haven't been paying attention, have very
limited knowledge of English, or have Alzheimer's, let me state that the
foregoing is my opinion of modern, colloquial, American English. (With
apologies to the regular readers and the healthy, for the repetition.) I
point this out to avoid confusing the reader; references to British English
may appear to contradict the foregoing.
(And if you can read and comprehend the immediate foregoing message, your
level of English is not all that bad. :)
If you feel the need to e-mail me, un-not my address first.

parla?".
Informally you can say "who's that?" or formally "who am I speaking
to?".



What about "to whom am I speaking?"? Can you hear it nowadays in formal
contexts?
Bye, FB
-- 
Mrs. Palmer, in her way, was equally angry. 'She was determined to drop his
acquaintance immediately, and she was very thankful that she had never been
acquainted with him at all'. (Jane Austen)

 parla?".
If the other person started talking without identifying himself, and I
didn't recognize the voice, I would interrupt and say "Who IS thïs?".
I might get an answer like "It's me, John".
And I would reply with "Oh, John, sorry, I didn't recognize your
voice.", "John Who?", or "I'm sorry, but I don't know any John".
Joe from Massachusetts

 Informally you can say "who's that?" 
"That" e non "this"? Potrebbe essere una differenza BrE / US pero'...


contexts?
I can Imagine the upper classes saying that, It's very formal.


You might, but it would sound very stuffy to me.
Lily Tomlin, the comedienne, who starred on the "Laugh-In" TV show in
the early 1970s, played a character named "Ernestine" on that show.
Ernestine was a dizzy telephone operator with a strange voice, and
even stranger mannerisms, who made life miserable for everyone who
spoke to her on the phone. She never successfully completed a
telephone call.
The line which Ernestine always used when she talked on the phone was:
"Have I reached the party to whom I am speaking?".
Joe from Massachusetts

 telefoni in Italia e qualcuno ti risponde "Sì?", sappi che sono io. 
I don't think that's so uncommon, is it?

 -  ffffff What fffffff I can't ffffffffffff I can't hear you fffff
you forgot:
tu tu tu tu tu tu tu..... :-)

 or "I'm sorry, but I don't know any John".
"I don't know any John"? 
Hardly believable! ;)

 I don't think that's so uncommon, is it?
it's not that common.
-- 
Yeah, whatever...

 and the telephone rings all the day.
Try with "No?". It might work...
Bye, FB
-- 
Nasalization is just a part of life.
(Joey DoWop Dee on it.cultura.linguistica.inglese)

 
Io da anni dico "Toronto" invece di "pronto" e nessuno sembra accorgersene.
Max

"That" e non "this"? Potrebbe essere una differenza BrE / US pero'...
*Potete dire anche "who's this" se *desiderate, probabilmente sia un
po' meno formale di "that".
* Posso usare qui "voi"?
Anche ho un'altra domanda; Qual è la differenza tra "qui" e "qua"?
I hope you don't mind me picking your brains.
Grazie :)

probabilmente sia un po' meno formale di "that".
Intendevo dire che probabilmente sia un po' meno INformale.
Sono stanco.

 Instead I always say it when I answer a mobile phone call.
Let's set up a club of ours, the "Si' Answerers" :)
Any English speaker answering "Yes" instead of Hello! out there?


Ok, replace that with "I'm sorry, but I don't know any Turriddu".
Joe from Massachusetts

 Yes, almost everyone says "hello?" (UK) when answering the telephone.
Really? I thought it always went something along the lines of:
The BooQUET residence; The Lady of The House speaking!  :)


 "That" e non "this"? Potrebbe essere una differenza BrE / US pero'...
Yes, I've noted that difference: in the US we say "who's this?" "is this
<name>?" and in the UK (at least in films, etc.) I always hear "that"
instead.


 Any English speaker answering "Yes" instead of Hello! out there?
Only if, with caller-ID, I know who's calling beforehand.


 Max
LOL! When I worked in the Admitting Office at Beth Israel Hospital, the
usual way to answer the phone was: "Admitting, <your name>. May I help
you?"
I created an "exclusive" club that only certain people could belong to. 
In order to belong, you had to anwswer the phone, at least once (with other
co-workers witnessing it), by saying "Vo-MIT-ing, <name>. May I help you?"
We all did it sooner or later, and no one on the other end seemed to
notice.


 Only if, with caller-ID, I know who's calling beforehand.
if a friend of mine (let's take Gianni) calls me and I read his number
beforehand I answer saying "Ehi Gianni, dimmi".
Instead if I'm in a hurry I just say "dimmi" 
-- 
Yeah, whatever...

 Try with "No?". It might work...
I'll let you know as soon as I get the next call
-- 
Yeah, whatever...

 Let's set up a club of ours, the "Si' Answerers" :)
Nice idea, people will join automatically our club after answering with
"si?" to our *random* calls.
-- 
Yeah, whatever...


Yes, I sometimes do at work, but rarely at home.


That's what "Mrs. Bucket" says, isn't it, as she attempst to climb the
social ladder?
Joe from Massachusetts


wrote:

You guys see "Keeping up appearances!", brilliant. I'm sure that every
English person knows a "Mrs. Bucket"  (my next door neighbour's one).

On Sun, 17 Oct 2004 00:56:16 +0100, jonny <j...@jj.jj> wrote:

Any one?
I was wondering, although I was speaking to Enrico, when I used the
"you plural" is it accepted that I am speaking in general, and not
only to Enrico.

Any one?
Anyone?... oh dear.

 "hello" is the most common.
Scusate, non c'era la differenza nello spelling:
hallo-hello
?
A proposito delle telefonate, si considera più educato che 
chi chiama si presenti per nome a chi risponde, mi pare.
-- 
Today no, tomorrow yes.

  I hope you don't mind me picking your brains
You're welcome  :-)
HTH
--
Gnomo
...any way the wind blows...

 been some significant difference though!
Hmmm, there's a very far memory coming up from the fogs of grammar
school reminding me about a very hazy distinction between the groups
qui/qua, lì/là: qui/lì should pertain to a very precise location,
while qua/là would be used to refer to a less specified area.
At least that's what primary school teachers used to tell (but they
LIED even about "ma però", frustrating or even destroying future
writers' careers with their blue pens, so they're not a reliable
source) :)
I should check out, but I tend to believe that "qua" is perceived as
less correct - and thus associated with the "regional Italian" -
because of the omophone onomatopeic duck's verse...

 e non a una persona in particolare.
I'd say "Si può anche dire... ". "Potete dire anche... " sounds like Johnny
is sort of allowing us to use it.
P.S. "Posso usare <<voi>> qui?". The same as in English.
Bye, FB
-- 
In any case, if you say 'I gotta go' at an important job interview you're
contributing to being allowed just that privilege.
(Tony the ice man on it.cultura.linguistica.inglese)

 >>> Informally you can say "who's that?"
I would say "Who's this?", if I recognized that the person on the
phone was someone I should know, but couldn't recognize.
If I had no idea who the person on the phone was, I woud probably say,
"(Excuse me,) Who is this?".
If, while talking to the person at the other end, I should hear
another voice yelling my name in the background, I would say "Who's
that (talking in the background)?"
Joe from Massachusetts


My old Liceo grammar textbook (Sensini) says:
____
L'avverbio di luogo <qui> si usa di preferenza con i verbi di quiete: "Sono
qui"; Mi piace vivere qui". L'avverbio <qua>, invece, si usa con i verbi di
moto: "Vieni qua", "I nostri vicini arriveranno qua lunedì prossimo".
____
I don't quite agree with this. I think "Sono qua" is much more common than
"sono qui", for example as a reply to somebody's call.
Devoto-Oli Italian dictionary says:
_____
"qua avv. 'In questo luogo': indica vicinanza a chi parla, ma è meno preciso
di <qui> ("vieni qua"=vieni nei miei pressi; "vieni qui"=vieni in questo
punto preciso)"
"qui avv. Indica vicinanza a chi parla, ma con molta meno precisione di
<qua> ('qui c'è freddo'=in questo punto preciso c'è freddo; 'qua c'è
freddo'=nei miei pressi c'è freddo).
____
This is much more reasonable but I would say the difference between "qui"
and "qua" is a matter of usage rather than of meaning; I'd say "qua" is more
colloquial (and much more common in everyday language) than "qui". The
spatial precision/imprecision thing might be considered as true but in most
cases it's not at all crucial. I have read all the sentences about "qui" and
"qua" on the Picchi dictionary and I'd say you can replace 'qui' with 'qua'
in nearly every case and obtain a perfectly fine sentence with the same
meaning and a slighly more informal tone. For example:
era qui [qua] un minuto fa - he was here a minute ago
passa di qui [qua] e farai prima - come through here and you'll be quicker
qui [qua] ci vuole un esperto - we need an expert here
non finisce qui [qua] - this is not the end of it/of the matter
qui [qua] dietro c'è un giardino - behind here there's a garden
Note that, on the contrary, in many cases it wouldn't be desirable to
replace 'qua' with 'qui' (it wouldn't be really *wrong* but...). For
example, here are some colloquial sentences (again, taken from Picchi) in
which I think 'qui' wouldn't fit very well:
qua la mano! - let' s shake hands!
che vuole questo qua? - what does this character want?
guarda qua che pasticcio! - look at this mess here!
questo libro qua - this book
The last construction is a very common informal intensive form, parallel to
the French use ("ce livre-ci")
The last example from Picchi made me smile (do you agree with the English
translation?)
Ugo qua, Ugo là, devo fare tutto io! - "Ugo do this", "Ugo do that", am I
the only sucker here?
The bottom line of it all could be: don't worry; use 'qui' if you are in
rather formal context, otherwise feel free to use 'qua'. You can hardly go
wrong anyway.
I hope this helps...
Lorenzo


 "Di qua del Piave c'č una bella osteria".
Is this sentence correct grammatically?
Does this mean, in English, "There is a nice pub between here and the
Piave", or "There is a nice pub (just) this side of the Piave",
neither, or both?
Could you use "qui" in this context?
When I was in Italy, I knew many people in the area where I was living
who were temporary residents of the area (students, military, etc.),
and it seems to me that "Non sono di qua" (Non sono di queste parti),
was used to say "I'm not from around here" (I'm not from this
[province] [part of the country]). Maybe my memory is incorrect?
Joe from Massachusetts

 rather formal context, otherwise feel free to use 'qua'.
Again... perché "qua" dovrebbe essere colloquiale?
Diresti che anche "là" e "costà" sono colloquiali mentre "lì" e
"costì" sono la forma standard?
E come è possibile che due parole che hanno una formazione parallela
- (ec)cu(m) hi(c) -> qui / (ec)cu(m) ha(c) -> qua - abbiano preso
due registri diversi?
Ripeto, secondo me è colpa dell'omofonia con la paperella se il
povero "qua" s'è trovato a essere percepito come registro basso :)
Ma qui diventa una roba da ICLI, so my bottom line would be:
feel free to use any of them in most cases (except some idiomatic
forms) since not even most Italians - count me among them - can
perceive the difference anymore!

HTH
Sě, grazie ancora.

because of the omophone onomatopeic duck's verse...
because of the <what>? ;)
Thank you Paola.

P.S. "Posso usare <<voi>> qui?". The same as in English.
Thanks.

I hope this helps...
It does, thank you. I thought that the difference in usage between
the two was an obvious one. I suppose it's similar to fra/tra.

 was used to say "I'm not from around here"
Exactly - that's a case where "qui" and "qua"
mean "here", so they could be interchangeable:
you might have heard "non sono di qui" as well.
Hope that's not too confusing...


 because of the <what>? ;)
Wow: tre errori in cinque parole! I guess I shouldn't even try to
use another language after 7 pm...
Rewind: "because of the homophonous duck noise". Hopingly it makes
more sense... (and 'homophone', and 'onomatopOEic' - but this is for
the next Spelling Bee competition!) ;)

the next Spelling Bee competition!) ;)
.. :)

 wrote in message
news:2tk513F...@uni-berlin.de...

Not confusing at all. Thanks.
I have another question.
Let's assume I am a student who just arrived in Padova from Naples, to
start studying at the University. If someone were to come up to me on
the street to ask for directions, I would probably be tempted to say
"Non sono di qua", which I would take to mean that I'm a complete
outsider, and that I'm not from anywhere around here, so I don't know
anything at all about the city or the local scene, or even how people
talk..
If I had just arrived from the neighboring city of Vicenza to study at
the University of Padova, and someone asked for directions, I would be
tempted to say "Non sono di qui", meaning that I am not from this
city, so I couldn't give detailed directions, but I am not a total
stranger to the area.
Is this an incorrect interpretation on my part? Would an Italian infer
from the use of "qua" or "qui", the subtle difference which I imagine
might be associated with the use of these words in this example?
Joe from Massachusetts

 might be associated with the use of these words in this example?
I'd say "Non sono di qui" in either case. "Non sono di qua" just doesn't
sound usual to me. 
Bye, FB
-- 
"What meaning of this, Mitter Twain?". "I will tell you, Mr Wang, if you
can tell me why a man who possesses one of the most brilliant minds of this
century can't say his prepositions or articles".
(Murder by Death)

 Anche ho un'altra domanda; Qual è la differenza tra "qui" e "qua"?
teoricamente "Qui" esprime una precisione maggiore rispetto a "Qua"
praticamente non ci sono differenze.
-- 
Yeah, whatever...


I think it's all a part of a vast conspiracy to demean and replace
anything which might be associated with the dialects.
In the Northeast, teachers warn children with "Batete bene le dopie!"
I can't imagine the song which ends, at least in one version, " 'N
altro merlo mi me  troverò" ending any other way.
But, just when a voice of reason extolling the dialects speaks out,
along comes someone like "Il neodo di Istud", to give dialects a bad
name.   :>)
(I hope he's asleep and doesn't see this).
Joe from Massachusetts

 might be associated with the use of these words in this example?
I'd be interested in the answer to this. I had thought that the slight 
difference in connotation between 'qui' and 'qua' was that 'qua' was used 
for the immediate 'here', that is, it was subtley closer than 'qui'. 


Ora capisco. Osavo troppo quagliare.  :>)
Joe from Massachusetts

 perceive the difference anymore!
aggiudicato! :-)
bye, Lorenzo