52 Comments
When I was learning Spanish, the explanation that was given is you can either express ones life's work as a vocation/avvocation, or as a profession/job. To express it as a vocation/avvocation, you use the construction "Mio padre fa (does) l'avvocato", which would literally translate as something like "My father, he does the lawyering". To express is as a profession/job, you use the construction "Mio padre è un'avvocato." This is more like what we do in English, and translates very literally as "my father is a lawyer". I find when constructing these sentences, it helps to think of the "to do" definition of "fare" instead of the "to make".
It seems that in the Romance languages (well, at least for Spanish and Italian) you can express any profession using the "fare" method, whereas in English we tend to only use this construction for professions like teaching, nursing, serving, etc. Basically, the professions where what one "does" is also what they "are".
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Where's the 'un'?? I can only see 'l'avvocato' which I thought meant 'the lawyer' not 'a lawyer' (or attorney in this case).
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There are a couple of ways to talk about professions in Italian. You can either use 'fare' (to do/make) or 'essere' (to be). When you use 'fare', this is the equation: fare + (definite article) + (job) = 'to be a + job". When you use 'essere', this is the equation: essere + (job) = "to be a + job". When using 'essere', you don't use the indefinite article like you do in English. So, you can either say "Mio padre fa l'avvocato" or "Mio padre è avvocato". They both mean "My father is a lawyer".
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Maybe this has already been answered here and I didn't understand it, but can someone please explain why the use of 'fa' turns l' into a?
fare + (definite article) + (job) = 'to be a + job". EXAMPLE: faccio l'avvocato = I am an attorney
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There are a couple of ways to talk about professions in Italian. You can either use 'fare' (to do/make) or 'essere' (to be). When you use 'fare', this is the equation: fare + (definite article) + (job) = 'to be a + job". When you use 'essere', this is the equation: essere + (job) = "to be a + job". When using 'essere', you don't use the indefinite article like you do in English. So, you can either say "Mio padre fa l'avvocato" or "Mio padre è avvocato". They both mean "My father is a lawyer".
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It's most likely wrong because l'avvocato = the lawyer. When you're referring to an advocate in relation to the law, I believe it is "l'avvocato difensore".
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For your reading pleasure, my university textbook "Da Capo" says this:
The indefinite article is omitted after the verbs ESSERE and DIVENTARE before unmodified nouns including profession, nationality, religion, political affiliation, titles, and marital status.
Giancarlo vuole diventare medico = Giancarlo wants to become a doctor.
Enrico era avvocato; era un bravo avvocato = Henry was a lawyer; he was a good lawyer.
Lei era cattolica e lui era protestante = She was a Catholic and he was a Protestant.
È sposato o è scapolo? = Is he married or is he a bachelor?
Note: FARE + definite article + profession is an alternative to ESSERE + profession.
Enrico era avvocato. Enrico faceva l'avvocato.
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How would you say "My father IS the lawyer" - If i'm not trying to tell someone what my father does, but rather that the guy over there, the lawyer, well that's my father - my father IS the lawyer.
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I would think it would be: "Mio padre è l'avvocato" (as opposed to: "...è un avvocato" which would be "...is A lawyer").
--Mio padre è l'avvocato (là) = My father is the lawyer (overthere)
--Mio padre è un avvocato/Mio padre fa l'avvocato = My father is a lawyer.
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I believe solicitor, barrister, and attorney are all synonyms for "lawyer".
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I think I might have already asked this before...... But why is it not "the attorney", does it have to do with the verb "fa"??
- EDIT Looks like it becomes an "a"; sort of answered my own question.
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"Mio padre fa l'avvocato" o "Mio padre è un avvocato" those are two sentence constructions that I know of for professions. They both translate to "My father is an attorney."
Just remember it as two possibilities:
- fare + definite article + profession (Lui fa il dottore.)
- essere + indefinite article + profession (Lui è un dottore.)
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Am I getting this right? I may not be understanding the below comments, as well.. but is the use of 'fare' or 'fa,' in this case, used to indicate that he is A lawyer just as the alternative 'Mio padre è un avvocato'? Are they both meaning the exact same thing and are interchangeable? Are they both acceptable in the Italian language? (as, I believe, dnovinc stated).
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Yes, using 'fare' is an idiomatic way to talk about professions but it's still valid and common. There are a couple of ways to talk about professions in Italian. You can either use 'fare' (to do/make) or 'essere' (to be). When you use 'fare', this is the equation: fare + (definite article) + (job) = 'to be a + job". When you use 'essere', this is the equation: essere + (job) = "to be a + job". When using 'essere', you don't use the indefinite article like you do in English. So, you can either say "Mio padre fa l'avvocato" or "Mio padre è avvocato". They both mean "My father is a lawyer".
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i didn't get it.... is anyone native speaker here??? please explain it...
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You don't understand why the sentence is structured like that? If so, I hope this helps. There are a couple of ways to talk about professions in Italian. You can either use 'fare' (to do/make) or 'essere' (to be). When you use 'fare', this is the equation: fare + (definite article) + (job) = 'to be a + job". When you use 'essere', this is the equation: essere + (job) = "to be a + job". When using 'essere', you don't use the indefinite article like you do in English. So, you can either say "Mio padre fa l'avvocato" or "Mio padre è avvocato". They both mean "My father is a lawyer".
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why do we say : "mio padre" and not "il mio padre" ? Is there a rule for that ? Thank you
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It's special for Family.
In Italian, we don't need to put the definite article again only before the singular family noun. You don't need to say "il mio padre" but "mio padre". And also,
mia madre/mamma
mio fratello -- i miei fratelli
mia sorella -- le mie sorelle
mio marito
mia zia --> le mie zie
...etc
I still don't understand why they put "fa" in it. Can someone please explain this?
fare + (definite article) + (job) = 'to be a + job". EXAMPLE: faccio l'avvocato = I am an attorney
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In this sentence l'avvocato is given and in Italian La is used for "The" before feminine words but in translation it is showing "an advocate" as a right answer, the converted into an how?
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As far as I know, and correct me if I'm wrong natives, but l'avvocato means attorney, solicitor, barrister, and lawyer.
This makes no sense. L'avvocato should mean "the lawyer" yet this crazy program says it is a lawyer. Aaarrggh.
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This "crazy program" is actually correct. There are a couple of ways to talk about professions in Italian. You can either use 'fare' (to do/make) or 'essere' (to be). When you use 'fare', this is the equation: fare + (definite article) + (job) = 'to be a + job". When you use 'essere', this is the equation: essere + (job) = "to be a + job". When using 'essere', you don't use the indefinite article like you do in English. So, you can either say "Mio padre fa l'avvocato" or "Mio padre è avvocato". They both mean "My father is a lawyer".
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Yes, that is correct, but only if you translate literally. There are a couple of ways to talk about professions in Italian. You can either use 'fare' (to do/make) or 'essere' (to be). When you use 'fare', this is the equation: fare + (definite article) + (job) = 'to be a + job". When you use 'essere', this is the equation: essere + (job) = "to be a + job". When using 'essere', you don't use the indefinite article like you do in English. So, you can either say "Mio padre fa l'avvocato" or "Mio padre è avvocato". They both mean "My father is a lawyer".
I wrote my father is a lawyer and got it wrong??? Why isn’t it un’ instead of l’?
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Because the way they express this in Italian literally means “My father does the (work of a) lawyer”. It’s not a literal translation from English.
