"Let's think hard!"
Translation:Pensiamoci bene!
24 Comments
Is the "ci" really necessary here, it seems to me that in this case (with the "ci"), it means "let's think about it hard"... Thanks for any help.
Perhaps it's like the "y" in "honi soit qui mal y pense" (the Order of the Garter motto).
"hard" here is an adverb, but "duro" is an adjective. I actually tried "duramente" but it was not accepted.
I thought that some adverbs have a short form which is the same with the adjective. Like velocemente - veloce (veloce can be translated as an adverb "rapidly" and as an adjective "rapid"); or solamente - solo ( solo can be translated as "only" and as "alone"). Isn't the same thing with duramente - duro? At least my dictionary (ABBYY lingvo) says it is.
The obvious translation of the Italian is "We think well of us/it" (although that might be "Ci pensiamo bene" or "Pensiamo bene di noi stessi.") Don't know why the attached pronoun makes that much difference. It apparently does.
I have seen an adverbial use of "duro" in "tenere duro," so I would have expected "Pensiamo duro!" Or perhaps "Pensiamo vigorosamente!" Why "bene," with its conflicting usages?
I am not comfortable with the "imperative" translated as "LET him/us/them/etc." Logically, it ought to be "He/we/they/etc. MUST" something. Maybe because in English there is only a second person imperative, or maybe because it's a purely idiomatic mood in Italian that isn't truly imperative. (Neither are the English "Let us pray," "Let's go," "Let's do it." Those are actually requests, not commands.)
I would appreciate any enlightenment to help me wend my way out of this tangle.
I agree, "Must" isn't so suitable for this case (but not excluded, though). The matter is that Imperative is the form that expresses any sort of an exhortation: not only a command, but also it could be a request, an advice, a permission etc.
Thanks for reminding me that it's Italian we're talking about. The "imperative" forms are a relic of the Latin hortative and iussic moods, etc., as well as the imperative. By late Latin, some of that work was taken over by the subjunctive, as it seems to be in modern Italian. But the formal markers remain in the language. They do not in English, except in a few idiomatic usages, and those various moods are now mainly conceptual, although there have been a few recent efforts to categorize them in detail. Almost a branch of logic. Our modal and compound verbs now do most of the work. Thanks again for the comment.
You're welcome! Di nulla! :) That's interesting! For me it wasn't a big problem to understand and accept this because in my native language the imperative mood carries out all those functions as well (also together with the "help" of subjunctive).
It's only metaphorically that we use hard in English to describe thinking a lot. I put "per bene", but they didn't accept that...
Even metaphorically is strange to think hard = bene, DL should check specially this kind of controversies
The problem is in the translation offered. The phrase 'think hard' is actually improper, though accepted, English. It's improper due to the definitions of 'hard' because thought has no solidity and has no physical obstructions. The phrase is used in the same contexts as both 'think well' and 'think carefully' which is why you get 'bene' here.
There is nothing wrong with the use of "bene" in the translation. This is how you say "think hard" also in other latin languages, like portuguese. However, I do not get the use of "ci". Wouldn't the translation be "we think well of ourselves" in this case?
I think it could be both "let's think of it..." and "let's think of us..." depending on the context.
Because thinking hard pretty much means thinking well(bene) so in italian it's correct to use "bene" (even in bulgarian it's like that despite how it's a lot more closely related to russian)
The pronunciation of "pensiamoci" is completely off here. Should have the intonation "pensiAMoci". I thought they used native speakers?
this is a poorly spoken English sentence and it seems to be translated poorly as well. When one thinks hard, its meaning is to concentrate.
