Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: informazioni su about

Volevo alcune informazioni sull'utilizzo della parola about:
1) so che con l'espressione "what about + question" e "how about + question" 
si intende "che ne pensi di.."; è corretto?
2) se una persona sta dicendo qualcosa e viene interrotta da un'altra che 
gli chiede "what is it about", cosa si intende?
3) "what are you talking about" cosa significa?


You're asking things that any dictionary can tell you.
Look for "about" and read ALL the examples.
Kiuhnm


I've already read my dictionary but it doesn't say anything about questions 
which contains questions 


Corrige:
I've already read my dictionary but it doesn't say anything about questions 
which contains about word


quindi
what is it about?
significa "cosa č"
mentre
what are you talking about?
significa "cosa č quello di cui state parlando"?
Chiedo conferma 

 which contains about word
A bit of "lateral thinking" wouldn't hurt.
I'm also referring to other posts of yours.
Asking is good, but, sometimes, asking too much hinders your growth.
Ok, maybe it's just that that piece of code is driving me up the wall.
Kiuhnm

 Asking is good, but, sometimes, asking too much hinders your growth.
I agree with you but I haven't got teacher, I study English by myself, so if 
I didn't ask to you how Can I learn English?
I know, I'm a bit heavy (perhaps a little) with my questions..stand me 
please.
The dictionary has a little problem: it doesn't have brain!
It can help me by all means but sometimes it doesn't able to help me so I 
ask you 


Another thing: sometimes occur that you study an topic but you don't catch 
all on about that, so just compare my opinion with all of you I can grow! 

> I agree with you but I haven't got teacher, I study English by myself, so 
Can this generation do anything without a teacher? :-)
Kiuhnm


I'm too old to go at school:-)
I'm studying English 'cause I need it for work and it's too much better 
listen film in original language.
I attended an English course on my last work by a mother language teacher 
but I was too inexperienced to understand all of her words.
I'm studying it by a DVD course; in this way I can stop it if I don't 
understand new words and meaning of sentence.
Can you imagine if during a course, each person would stop the teacher, each 
lesson would last one whole day:-) 


Non credo ci voglia il verbo...

 which contains about word
Francesco... never heard about 
wordreference.com
? It is an on-line
dictionary, completely free and with many many examples.
I understand you, asking is so much easier than search, and maybe in
this way you think that you can understand more, but I think that is
so much better to search before, and then ask if something is not
clear. Maybe you can learn more and more in this way.
I am learning too by myself and I use this method, alike you, listen
to tv-series and films in original language without subtitles, look
for words I do not understand in 
wordreference.com
, then ask to
urbandictionary (but sometimes it is not good at all), then ask here
or in other groups if I really do not understand something :-)

 or in other groups if I really do not understand something :-)
Near to my keyboard there are both the dictionary English-Italian and 
Italian-English.
In fact I'm never heard about 
wordreference.com
Good to know it:-)
Hovewer I think one can learn much more with interaction between people who 
knows better the language and grammatical rules
I see many films every week, I catch on at most ten, fifteen per cent but I 
think is very important to listen when people talk.
I'm improving every day also with your help
Thanks to you and to all 

 I think is very important to listen when people talk.
talkS
this "S":-) 

 talkS
no, "people" è plurale. Non confoderti con l'italiano "gente".
Ciao,
Enrico il Pentolaio.
-- 
Che c'è peggio di un flauto? Due flauti all'unisono.


Thank Enrico for your suggestions. 

> significa?
"Di cosa stai parlando?"
-- 
Massy
Day by day and night by night we were together
all else has long been forgotten by me
Walt Whitman 

 Thank Enrico for your suggestions. 
Thank *you* Enrico... otherwise you'd be suggesting that I should thank 
some other Enrico (Enrico C, I guess!) for what I wrote in my post.
:-)


 Thank Enrico for your suggestions. 
also "thanks, Enrico".
Ok, I'll stop being a pain right now.
:-)
Ciao,
Enrico il Pentolaio.
-- 
Che c'č peggio di un flauto? Due flauti all'unisono.

 :-)
Ok:-) 

 :-)
Don't worry Enrico, you're not a pain. If you do to notice me my mistakes, I 
can learn by my own errors 

 Ok:-) 
OK, I GOT IT!
:-D


 OK, I GOT IT!
What the hell, I thought you erroneously sent four identical messages, 
but on google I can only see one. Oh, Thunderbird...
:-/


 what is about to have a drink?
Oh, voi due siete pericolosi assieme. Si dice:
how/what about + verbo in forma -ing
"how about having drink?"
"how about shutting the hell up, Michael?"
"oh ok, sorry."


 Senza articolo?
M'è scappato, scusa. Ho cancellato un po' di volte la frase perché 
volevo fare un esempio diverso e deve essere saltata via la "a".
:-)



Do not worry about that, just keep watching. At a certain point you
will suddenly catch 80-90% and your face will be like "?" (how&when
did it happen?) ...  Oh well, that's what I have experienced, I do not
know if it is common or not.
Can anybody here confirm this? :-)

 :-D
Perchè hai scritto anche I got it?
Rifacendomi al modo di rispondere alle domande "Do you....?"
"Yes, I do" oppure "No, I don't" non trovo una correlazione tra ok e I got 
it.


What does what the hell mean? 


In my case, I think I have to learn more English because my vocabulary, i.e. 
my brain, it is too much empty; I want only to be come familiary with 
English spoken now.
P.S:
you said: "Oh well, that's what I have experienced, I do not know if it is 
common or not."
When you use "if CASE or not" it's better to use "whether CASE or not"


Perfetto Enrico; lo ricorderò!
Grazie mille


Mi confermi quindi che in inglese non si dice "bere una bevanda" (to drink a 
drink) ma "to have a drink"? 

 Can anybody here confirm this? :-)
The problem is the gap from 90 to 100. Watching TV is not enough, IMHO.
I'm going to listen to audiobooks and write down what I hear, sentence 
by sentence.
Dictations are boring, but I don't think there is anything better: you 
learn to listen more carefully and polish your grammar. Moreover, you 
find out which sounds or group of words you should work on to improve 
your listening comprehension.
Kiuhnm

 drink) ma "to have a drink"? 
"to have a drink" DOES mean "bere una bevanda/bibita/ecc...".
Kiuhnm

> The problem is the gap from 90 to 100.
Are you at 100 in Italian? I'm not there in English. I don't catch
every
single word in an episode of Doctor Who or E.R.


Yes, I believe I usually understand every single word. Of course there 
are actors with a strong accent and there my comprehension drops to 50% :-)
But, as you know, Italian doesn't rely on stress and reductions as much 
as English does. It's not at all unusual to see two different 
transcriptions of the same English dialog which differ in minor details 
regarding articles, auxiliaries (do, for instance), etc...
Anyway, my 100% stands for perfect comprehension of the idea conveyed.
I'm sure that when an 'a' is important in English, that 'a' is stressed.
Kiuhnm

 are actors with a strong accent and there my comprehension drops to 50% :-)
Even if people are talking about medcical procedures, chemicals,
animals, plants,
religious rituals etc. you've never heard of? Or when two people speak
at the same
time (as happens in ER quite a lot).
And, as you say, there's "The Wire" with its incomprehensible black
Baltimore criminals.

 Baltimore criminals.
I've watched the first three episodes. Now I'm seriously considering the 
use of subtitles.
Kiuhnm

Un'altra domanda:
How about you?
è da interpretare come
che ne dici tu?

 che ne dici tu?
Dipende ovviamente dal contesto.
"[...] I mean, that's what I think. How about you? what's your opinion?"
"Hey, you see,I have just had my head removed. What about you? Oh, what 
on earth did they do to you?"


 What does what the hell mean? 
"e che cacchio..."


 Perchč hai scritto anche I got it?
Per dire: "OK, HO CAPITO". Ora i messaggi doppi (quadrupli, cioč) sono 
spariti. Era proprio Thunderbird a dare in numeri.
Ciao,
Enrico il Pentolaio.
-- 
Che c'č peggio di un flauto? Due flauti all'unisono.

 When you use "if CASE or not" it's better to use "whether CASE or not"
Diciamo che è preferibile. Sbagliato no.
Ciao,
Enrico il Pentolaio.
-- 
Che c'è peggio di un flauto? Due flauti all'unisono.


Finally I got it!

 che ne dici tu?
Secondo me (da solo) significa piů qualcosa del tipo "e tu come stai?"
Attendo smentite... :-)
-- 
Massy
Day by day and night by night we were together
all else has long been forgotten by me
Walt Whitman 


Ok. Grazie mille

 Secondo me (da solo) significa piů qualcosa del tipo "e tu come stai?"
ripensandoci, ancora meglio: "e tu come te la passi? cosa combini nella 
vita?" & simili.
p.s.: o forse in questi casi sarebbe "What about you?" :-P



alla voce "What about.." sul dizionario è scritto "che ne pensi di.."
Se volessi chiedere ad una persona "che ne pensi tu di come sono io", come 
potrei formulare questa domanda?
Andrebbe bene "what about you?" 

 vita?" & simili.
Massy, non ti ci mettere anche tu!
:-D
Come ho detto prima, dipende esclusivamente dal contesto. Può voler dire 
quello che dici tu, ma può voler dire anche altro (vedi il mio post 
precedente).
- Hey, Mike! I haven't seen much of you lately. How are you?
- Just hanging in there. How about you?
Una traduzione più sintetica  e versatile sarebbe semplicemente:"e tu?".


 Andrebbe bene "what about you?" 
Bingo!
:-D



Quindi avevo capito bene.
Grazie
Francesco 

 Quindi avevo capito bene.
No... ma che c'azzecca "what about you?" con "cosa ne pensi tu *di come 
sono io*"? l'hai letto l'altro mio post?


 sono io*"? l'hai letto l'altro mio post?
Forse sto facendo un pò di confusione...
io ho sempre visto la domanda
"what about you"
come
"cosa ne pensi tu"
Il fatto che prima ti ho aggiunto anche le parole "di come sono io" è per 
assodare che la frase "what about you" può sottointendere anche altre 
parole.

 capito una mazza del discorso e farsi ripetere tutto)
Aggiungo
I don't understand, can you repeat that please?

 parole.
Non andare troppo di fantasia, please.
Ciao,
Enrico il Pentolaio.

 I don't understand, please can you repeat? 
[questa "regola" l'ho stilata andando puramente ad orecchio, quindi
prendila con le pinze]
Il "please" va in genere alla fine della domanda o, in presenza di
complementi o subordinate, subito dopo il soggetto oppure (credo in
maniera enfatica) all'inizio.
Could you please do as I said?
Can you repeat, please?
Michael, PLEASE, give me your phone! I really need to call 911.
Ciao,
Enrico il Pentolaio.