Italian word of the day: ‘Parecchio’
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When you begin studying Italian, you’ll quickly learn a few quantifying adverbs such as molto, tanto, and poco. And you’ll use these often, right from the moment you start stringing sentences together.
But when you’re speaking to Italians there’s another word you’re likely to hear used just as often: parecchio.
Depending on context, parecchio can be used in place of all the words and phrases we might use to quantify things in English: “lots of”, “loads of”, “plenty of”, “a good/great deal of”, “much”, “quite a lot of”, “some”, or “a fair bit of”.
Like these phrases, parecchio is usually added before a noun to quantify it.
– Sto seguendo questo dibattito da parecchio tempo
– I’ve been following this discussion for quite some time.
– Carlo ha viaggiato parecchio nella sua vita.
– Carlo has travelled a great deal in his life.
– Avrò bisogno di parecchio aiuto
– I’m going to need a lot of help
If you use it with a feminine noun, it takes a feminine form:
– C’e parecchia gente
– There are a lot of people
READ ALSO: The top ten Italian words that just don’t translate into English
As it’s a quantifying adverb – also called an adverb of intensity – parecchio can also be used with adjectives to increase their intensity: for example instead of saying “really”, or very”.
It doesn’t work with all adjectives, but here are some examples:
– Forse anche lui è parecchio sveglio
– He’s probably also very smart
– Sono persone parecchio infelici
– They’re very unhappy people
With an adjective, you might also use it at the end of the sentence for a different emphasis, for example:
– Il tuo comportamento mi sorprende parecchio
– I’m really surprised at the way you’re behaving.
Similar words you’ll hear a lot in Italian conversation include abbastanza, appena and più.
Once you’ve got these words memorised, hopefully your Italian teacher will say:
– Mi pare che tu abbia migliorato parecchio
– I think you’ve improved a great deal
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