# hai poco da prendere per il culo



## nbkc4d8

Would !!"hai poco da prendere per il culo"!! be another way to say "cazzeggiare"...to mess around?
Sorry if this is very vulgar, I'm trying to understand the meaning and usage of the expression.

Thanks


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## Paulfromitaly

Nope.
The correct meaning depends upon the context you should provide.


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## nbkc4d8

This is the context.
"Hai poco da prendere per il culo, tu che sei migrato negli States...fedifrago!!"


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## Marco3

nbkc4d8 said:


> This is the context.
> "Hai poco da prendere per il culo, tu che sei migrato negli States...fedifrago!!"


"Prendere per il culo" is a really common *I*talian idiom meaning "to screw around with.s.b, to f.uck around with s.b, to take the piss out of s.o,to fu.ck s.b over" etc. Or (like in that context) means to tease s.b, to fuck with s.b.....Hope it helped...Take care!! Or (like in that context) means to tease s.b...


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## nbkc4d8

So Marco, in my example, it's like saying "are you fucking kidding me?" I'm sorry *I* don't quite understand from your examples how it would be used.


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## winegrower

nbkc4d8 said:


> So Marco, in my example, it's like saying "are you fucking kidding me?" I'm sorry *I* don't quite understand from your examples how it would be used.


 
 I think it is similar to "hai poco da ridere/prendere in giro", that is, you are not entitled to tease s.b or to laugh with a situation, because of your position.
Actually "prendere per il culo" means  to tease, to laugh at s.b


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## Paulfromitaly

Something like "no way you can mock me seeing as you emigrated in the US".


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## Marco3

nbkc4d8 said:


> So Marco, in my example, it's like saying "are you fucking kidding me?" I'm sorry *I* don't quite understand from your examples how it would be used.


In that case means "You don't have make fun of me just because....."


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## pescara

Paulfromitaly said:


> Something like "no way you can mock me seeing as you emigrated in *to* the US".


 
Una piccola correzione. 
Ciao.


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## nbkc4d8

Paulfromitaly said:


> Something like "no way you can mock me seeing as you emigrated in the US".



Oh yes I understand now. I was understanding it meant to tease but couldn't understand how that made sense in the sentence. In English we would just say F YOU! 

Thanks everyone!


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## rafanadal

nbkc4d8 said:


> Oh yes I understand now. I was understanding it meant to tease but couldn't understand how that made sense in the sentence. In English we would just say F YOU!
> 
> Thanks everyone!


 
So how would the whole sentence might be reformulated using nbkc4d8's
F YOU?

"No way you can F ME just because you moved to US?

Is this correct?

Isn't "take the piss out of someone" the equivalent of Prendere per il culo though?


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## You little ripper!

Paulfromitaly said:


> Something like "no way you can mock me seeing as you emigrated in the US".


Most of us would probably say, "You've got nothing to laugh about ...................." or "You're hardly in a postion to ridicule me ..............."


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## rrose17

rafanadal said:


> So how would the whole sentence might be reformulated using nbkc4d8's
> F YOU?
> 
> "No way you can F ME just because you moved to US?
> 
> Is this correct?
> 
> Isn't "take the piss out of someone" the equivalent of Prendere per il culo though?


 I think you can't really translate expressions like this directly and I can't think of any similar way we'd say this other than
"What thefuck are you going on about, you're living in the States now ..."


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## rafanadal

Thanks rrose17.


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## rafanadal

Just a couple more for pondering
"no need to f sneer"  or "no need to burn our ass".


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## rrose17

The second one I think is more often rendered with 
"You don't have to bust my ass!"
But this means something like "Why are you giving me such a hard time!?" I don't think it really fits with the original thread. 
That being said, one thing more.
"No need to tell me again." is a more elegant way to say "You don't have to tell me again."
SO to say "No need to bust my ass." is almost funny, putting an elegant beginning to a more rough conclusion.


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## GavinW

Charles Costante said:


> Most of us would probably say, "You've got nothing to laugh about ...................." or "You're hardly in a postion to ridicule me ..............."


 
These are easily the most accurate suggestions so far. To be brutal, I think some people still haven't really understood/pondered the exact meaning of the Italian idiom, and/or of the other suggested English translations (and the register thereof).


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## Ceithre

In Ireland we'd have said "Get off slaggin me! - For wan who made off to the states...."
And that's probably incomprehensible to most!!

So I'd say it's probably a "cut me some slack - you left for the states" Or in tidier language "you've no right to tease as you left for the states"


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## Azazel81

Well, I think we need to do a little recap and explanation here:

First of all, the expression "hai poco da prendere per il culo, tu che..." means that the person to whom we are saying this, has just made fun of us, or mocked, or whateverwewannacallit...

Then comes the expression "hai poco da prendere per il culo..."
Which is definitely like saying... "look who's talking"...

It's like: A is making fun of B for whatever reason he wants... and B says "look who's talking... I could just say the same thing about you... so you can't make fun of me/you're the last person on earth who could make fun of me for that".

Plus it's a little vulgar (but not too much), and it totally sounds like the one who's saying it, is a little annoyed by the person he's saying this to.

Would you say something like "oh jee... spare me, you just left for the states" would work?


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## rafanadal

Hi there. Sorry if I come back again on the well-worn subject, but I have something to ask. Quite often I see that the English rendering of Italian sentences which contain a "vulgar" word doesn't show the same hint or little bit extra of vulgarity.
What I mean is this: On the occasion of the award ceremony a Nobel Prize might possibly say "You're hardly in a postion to ridicule me" but he/she would NEVER EVER say "hai poco da prendere per il culo". So the point I'm trying to make is, even though the word culo loses a great deal of its taboo in this sentence, the phrase remains sort of "vulgarish", so the English rendering of these phrases should, IMHO, contain a 4-letter-word....or not?


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## GavinW

rafanadal said:


> so the English rendering of these phrases should, IMHO, contain a 4-letter-word....or not?


 
Well, maybe a three-letter word...! Yes, you're right, a mild expletive would be appropriate (and maybe necessary). Any suggestions, anyone?


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## Murphy

I suggest:
"You're in no position to take the piss...you moved to the States!"


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## GavinW

Nice one! (But maybe BE?)


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## leenico

Allora, se capisco posso dire " quella è una bella ragazza piacerei prendere per il culo!"


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## rafanadal

Murphy said:


> I suggest:
> "You're in no position to take the piss...you moved to the States!"


 
Yessss! That's what I meant! You know, guys, there must be all the time a way to convey the meaning which is very close to the "original". In any language. We're all humans after all. Someone might argue that cultural differences may be an obstacle to "perfect" translations but, come on, open up "Urban Dictionary" and you may find thousand examples of creative, amusing colloquialisms. Non natives like me are obviously very hard put to it when they look up a word they know "it must be there" but  they don't know where to start.
Thank you everyone for their precious contribution.


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## You little ripper!

_You're hardly in a position to take the mickey........................!_ might be another option, but not as vulgar as 'taking the piss'.

According to Wikipedia, _take the mickey" is an abbreviated form of the Cockney rhyming slang "take the mickey bliss" ("mickey" being slang for penis), meaning to "take the piss [out of someone]. _


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## leenico

Really! I didn't think it was any more vulgar than Marco3's post



> "Prendere per il culo" is a really common Italian idiom meaning "to screw around with.s.b, to f.uck around with s.b, to take the piss out of s.o,to fu.ck s.b over" etc. Or (like in that context) means to tease s.b, to fuck with s.b.....Hope it helped...Take care!! Or (like in that context) means to tease s.b...


I was just curious if it was a common way to convey the meaning. Apparently by your answer it is. Thank you

Probably a better translation would be "who are you to talk (you can add *you shithead *if you feel it requires a little vulgarity) you who immigrated to the states.


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## Azazel81

leenico said:


> Allora, se capisco posso dire " quella è una bella ragazza piacerei prendere per il culo!"


 
Uhm... well... this might be misunderstood, plus there are a few errors in it.

"quella è una bella ragazza che mi piacerebbe prendere per il culo"

or

"quella è una ragazza così bella che mi piacerebbe prenderla per il culo"

In any case... first of all it doesn't make much sense to me... but, if I were a girl reading/hearing this from a guy, I'd slap his face at least.


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## leenico

Azazel81 said:


> Uhm... well... this might be misunderstood, plus there are a few errors in it.
> 
> "quella è una bella ragazza che mi piacerebbe prendere per il culo"
> 
> or
> 
> "quella è una ragazza così bella che mi piacerebbe prenderla per il culo"
> 
> In any case... first of all it doesn't make much sense to me... but, if I were a girl reading/hearing this from a guy, I'd slap his face at least.



Hmmm.....piacerebbe was my first choice, but then I looked it up and noticed it was in the third person. I wanted to say "I would like to....." therefore I selected piacerei. Apparently I am missing something.


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## Azazel81

leenico said:


> Hmmm.....piacerebbe was my first choice, but then I looked it up and noticed it was in the third person. I wanted to say "I would like to....." therefore I selected piacerei. Apparently I am missing something.


 
Yep... the verb "piacere" works kinda contrarywise if compared to "to like".

You say:

Subject + to like + object. E.g.: I like horror movies
Right?

In Italian we say:

Complemento di termine + verbo piacere + complemento oggetto

E.g.: Mi (a me) piacciono i film horror

As an ex teacher I found most Italians, in fact, always make the same mistake while translating this kind of sentences... they usually translate it into:

"horror movies like me" which of course makes absolutely no sense at all... 

I hope I helped.


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## rrose17

What are you bitching about, you moved to the States...
or
You got nothing to bitch about, you moved to the States
Slightly vulgar, easily understood, what do we think?


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## Einstein

leenico said:


> Hmmm.....piacerebbe was my first choice, but then I looked it up and noticed it was in the third person. I wanted to say "I would like to....." therefore I selected piacerei. Apparently I am missing something.


If you think of the verb "piacere" as "to please", you can understand why we translate "I'd like" (1st person) as "mi piacerebbe" ("it would please me", 3rd person). Of course, once you understand the literal translation you can go back to "I'd like", which is more natural.


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## rafanadal

Hey, what a thread guys...more and more intriguing.
I still think the nicest one remains "You're in no position to take the piss...", because of the presence of a 4 letter word which, I suppose, loses much of its vulgar connotation in the specific sentence.(although it's definitely necessary to match the presence of the italian word culo) That's why I guess the transaltion matches the Italian counterpart.
In any case, "prendere per il culo" means "to tease" and it's largely used among workmates, friands, etc...in an extremely wide variety of subtle meanings, I'd say too many to give one single example.


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## Bookmom

Who do you think you are/You've got some nerve/You're on thin ice trying to stick it to anybody considering the fact that you're new here yourself.


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## Rotula

Hi everyone, I see this thread is dead but I still would like to know how you would translate "prendere per il culo" in slightly different contexts...

"Non prendermi per il culo" quando ad esempio qualcuno che si sta comportando in modo ipocrita viene "smascherato"

"Lui mi ha solo preso per il culo", frase usata abbastanza comunemente quando una ragazza parla di una relazione precedente finita male.
Mi interessa particolarmente come tradurreste "Non mi va di farmi prendere per il culo", in cui l'espressione ha un significato simile alla precedente...


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## london calling

Rotula said:


> Hi everyone, I see this thread is dead but I still would like to know how you would translate "prendere per il culo" in slightly different contexts...
> 
> "Non prendermi per il culo" quando ad esempio qualcuno che si sta comportando in modo ipocrita viene "smascherato"
> 
> "Lui mi ha solo preso per il culo", frase usata abbastanza comunemente quando una ragazza parla di una relazione precedente finita male.
> Mi interessa particolarmente come tradurreste "Non mi va di farmi prendere per il culo", in cui l'espressione ha un significato simile alla precedente...


_To fuck someone about/around_ is probably what you're looking for.

I don't want to be fucked around.


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## Rotula

Thank you very much!


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