- Forum >
- Topic: Italian >
- "Fate una colazione leggera!"
28 Comments
In italian fare colazione means to eat breakfast, not prepare it. I know, doesn't make much sense. .
1180
"Preparare la colazione" . . . This is odd in English too, - you "have" breakfast when in fact you eat it.
...Thing is a couple of questions ago with "Fate una bella cena con la mamma" I was marked incorrect when I translated "Have a nice," etc instead of "Make a nice", etc. Here it is the other way round. Most strange!
I answered: "Prepare a light breakfast!". Or does an Italian then say: "Mi fate una colazione leggere!", when he/she wants the other to make him/her breakfast?
Apparently that isn't the colloquial meaning, though it would be for dinner and probably lunch.
Not quite on topic here, but is it also possible to say "farsi una colazione" for making oneself breakfast? That way pulling togheter fare and si? And, as an imperative, "faiti una colazione"? Grazie
It would not be correct. "To have breakfast" = "fare colazione". The imperative is "fai colazione!"
- 421
I think 'Take a light breakfast' is as valid as 'have a light breakfast', and should be accepted.
I guess that's a valid translation, but this is the Imperative. When we give commands to others we skip the pronoun You and it's understood
Sorry, but "fare" also means to make. I've lived with real, red-blooded Italians (my family) way too long all my life to be convinced otherwise.
I don't know where you live but if someone tells me "fai colazione!" I understand "have breakfast!". Otherwise you should use "prepara"
Nobody is saying that fare doesn't mean that normally, but apparently this is an idiom specific to breakfast.
Does anyone have a list of instances where "fare" does not mean "make"?
Make (have/eat) breakfast Make (the weather is) hot Make (be) late
I've encountered several instances like this where "fare" is translated outside of its definition, and where I would expect other words to take its place.
Just curious here. Instead of saying Buongjorno to my children when getting on the school bus, could I also say "Fate un buon Giorno" as "Have a good day"?
A better translation would be "Buona giornata!". https://en.bab.la/dictionary/italian-english/buona-giornata
When you meet someone you say 'buongiorno', when you leave someone you can say 'buona giornata', shor version of 'le auguro una buona giornata" = 'i wish you a good day'
In another answer it is suggested that colazione can mean 'lunch' as well. I thought 'la prima colazione' was breakfast . Bit like the hobbit idea of a 'second breakfast'!
