appunto!

A

alius

Member
italian
in italian conversations sometimes people use appunto as a reply to confirm what the other participant to the conversation just said...

S1 :"non potevamo scaldarci senza legna.."
S2 :"appunto! come facevate a scaldarvi?"

S1 :"we couldn't warm up without wood"
S2 :" ...! how would u manage to warm up?"
 
    • G

    GavinW

    Senior Member
    Italy
    British English
    alius said:
    S1 :"we couldn't warm up without wood"
    S2 :" Right! how would u manage to warm up?"

    Also: "Exactly!...." and "Quite!..." (These are often better than "right", actually.)
    Click to expand...

    Good question! I was surprised this did not already have a thread of its own...
    NB: I've only translated appunto, I haven't corrected the mistake(s) in the English translation of the rest of the sentence(s).
     
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    Yulan

    Yulan

    Senior Member
    Lombardia
    Italian
    Hello Alius ;-)

    I would say:

    S2: Precisely! How could you warm yourselves then?

    But let's wait for natives ... ;-)
     
    Yulan

    Yulan

    Senior Member
    Lombardia
    Italian
    Yulan said:
    Hello Alius ;-)

    I would say:

    S2: Precisely! How could you warm yourselves then?

    But let's wait for natives ... ;-)
    Click to expand...



    Hello again, :)

    I was also thinking:

    S2: That's the point/question!

    But again, I am not sure: natives are needed on this subject! :)
     
    G

    GavinW

    Senior Member
    Italy
    British English
    Yulan said:
    S2: That's the point/question!
    Click to expand...

    This won't always work. It can only be used in some contexts, ie when this is the point that the speaker has already been building up to over the course of a preceding conversation. If "Appunto!" is used out of the blue, so to speak, almost like an interjection, then your phrase "That's the point" will not work.
    HTH
     
    Yulan

    Yulan

    Senior Member
    Lombardia
    Italian
    GavinW said:
    This won't always work. It can only be used in some contexts, ie when this is the point that the speaker has already been building up to over the course of a preceding conversation. If "Appunto!" is used out of the blue, so to speak, almost like an interjection, then your phrase "That's the point" will not work.
    HTH
    Click to expand...


    Thanks for informing me!
    That's clear! ;-)
     
    A

    Alxmrphi

    Senior Member
    NW England
    UK English
    I think the safest and most normal translation is "Exactly" as GavinW pointed out before.
    The others could work in some situations, but most are context-dependent.
     
    TimLA

    TimLA

    Member Emeritus
    Los Angeles
    English - US
    I can understand 90% of BE, and speak 1% of the language of Monty Python.
    I'm pretty good at AE.
    I use "You got it!" with exactly the same meaning as "appunto" as described here in many different contexts.
    Got it?
     
    A

    Alxmrphi

    Senior Member
    NW England
    UK English
    No no, what I meant was I stand by what GavinW said (I agree with him).
    Probably because we're both BE speakers, I just understood what he said and agreed with it.

    I personally think "You got it!" implies that the other person was explaining something (that the other didn't know before), and at the end of it they have 'learned' it so the other person produces the exclamation which means "yes, you know it now!" which is only a fraction of what appunto! means in Italian. The vast majority of the time it's an agreement exclamation that I'd use "Exactly!" for in English.

    A: Odio i politici in Italia.
    B: Anch'io, non mi fido di loro, non ci si puo' mai fidare di un politico.
    A: Appunto.

         A: I hate the politicians in Italy.
    B: So do I, I don't trust them, you just can't trust a politician.
    A: You got it!

    I just think it sounds wrong there, I'd say "Exactly!".
     
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