54 Comments
I suggest "that's the way it is" as a more natural and less formal translation.
That's very idiomatic. "It is so" is a perfectly fine translation, I think - it's certainly understandable.
As a native (British) English is speaker I don't think I'd ever say "It is so", but maybe "So it is". Neither feels 100% natural or an ideal translation of E' cosi though.
I suppose "So it is" shows you now understand for eg.
1+1 = 2
You answer "so it is"
"It is so" you would use when some answers or says a correct statement for eg.
"It seems like she is upset"
You answer "It is so"
Both of the orders can be used to in both of your examples and be equally correct.
'So it is' infers aknowledgement to my mind, not a statement. It could be used with children, to express pleasant surprise, or as a sarcastic comment to an adult. 'That's the way it is' is far more neutral.
COSÌ can be
- LIKE THIS
- SO,TOO
•Perché tu sei così? Why are you like this?
•Il pollo è così caro oggi! The chicken is so/too expensive today!
"Is evolution really true?" Yes, it is so / No, it isn't .... It is so!" Context is often very important.
"It is so" is a phrase that is rarely used... But if you are going to use "So it is", the correct way to say it in Italian is "quindi è" and not "è così"
In the US (in Texas where I grew up anyway) I would be more likely to say "it is true" if the context was "Do she really do that? Yes, it is true" I might also use "Yes, it is so" to mean it truly happened. Sometimes someone would say "it is so", with increasing emphasis on the latter part of the sentence as a rebuttal to something like "That cannot be true" I have never heard the phrase used in any other way, i.e., so = true.
There is an accent mark above the letter E in my answer, yet it was marked as incorrect. Why?
695
È cosi ! But it still said I need to pay attention to the accent. I can't see what's wrong with it?
'Like so', or 'like this', or 'this is the way" , and even "this is how" is correct. We don't really know the context. They are all acceptable in a situation when someone shows how to do something. There is another possibility: a reference to how the world (life) is: this is how things are. Maybe that's what they mean. And yes, it can be a set expression of idiomatic nature except they don't explain it, or any of our theories. On top of it, what they shouldn't do is to stop us from doing the next exercise. After all, this is not about English, especially when there are no explanations but just guesses on the part of students. This is all about Italian.
this is very confusing. I would never answer: It is so. maybe, so, it is.
