# Chi diavolo/che cavolo/dove diamine



## TimeHP

Ciao a tutti.
In Italiano si enfatizza spesso una frase aggiungendo un'imprecazione dopo il pronome interrogativo.
_Chi diavolo crede di essere?_
_Cosa cavolo fai?_
_Dove accidenti sei stato? _
So che in Inglese esiste _on earth_, che suona più soft delle espressioni corrispondenti italiane. 
Esistono altri modo di dire? Gergo, slang...


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## Saoul

"The hell" che penso sia meno soft di "on earth" e il volgare ma pur sempre valido "the fuck"


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## You little ripper!

_ What/Where the heck/the world/the f..k/the bloody hell/in Christ's name/in God's name/the devil......._


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## TimeHP

Grazie, Saoul e Charles.
Non avevo dubbi che la lingua Inglese fosse altrettanto prolifica nello sfornare imprecazioni... 
Avevo sentito _the hell_ and_ the f..._, anche se non mi venivano in mente. Ma non avevo mai sentito _the heck_ e _the devil_ usati in questo modo.
Cosa significa _heck?_


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## You little ripper!

TimeHP said:
			
		

> Cosa significa _heck?_


_Heck_ is a euphemism for _hell_.
Link


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## TimeHP

I saw in the link the expression _a heck of a lot._
Never seen before.
Is it used _a heck of a lot_ or not a lot_? _
Thanks


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## Saoul

You can have a look at these previous threads, too:

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=139620
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=139529

You'll find lots of nice expressions...


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## You little ripper!

TimeHP said:
			
		

> I saw in the link the expression _a heck of a lot._
> Never seen before.
> Is it used _a heck of a lot_ or not a lot_? _
> Thanks


 
_Heck of a lot_ is used reasonably frequently in Australia, but not as much as _What the heck! _
That euphemism is less popular than _hell._ It's usually older folk or religious people who use it here.


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## TimeHP

Thank you, men. 
_What the heck_ I like this forum!

Bye


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## Petradakia

1. What the heck/hell
2. What on earth/in the world
3. What the f*uck

But you can get much more creative even, for example my friend says "what on god's green earth"...

As for, "diamine", is it then a cuss word? Cos I thought it meant certo/of course


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## federicoft

Petradakia said:


> As for, "diamine", is it then a cuss word? Cos I thought it meant certo/of course



Sorry, I can't think of similar words which means that.
And yes, _diamine_ is an euphemism for _diavolo_.


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## ikar

Quando una persona parla a vanvera o dice qualche stupidaggine di solito rispondo "Che cavolo/diavolo dici?"
In inglese c'è qualche modo particolare per dirlo?
Thanks


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## Rosa7

"What on earth are you talking about?"

or, less politely: "What the hell are you talking about?"


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## Mickele

Ciao. In attesa di conferme _native_ io direi "*what the hell *(are you talking about?)". Forse quel "hell" potrebbe essere sostituito anche con  fuck in un contesto molto colloquiale ("what the  fuck!"). 

Edit: conferma già arrivata (prima della mia replica...)


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## ikar

Corrisponderebbe al nostro "Che cazzo dici" ?


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## Rosa7

si, penso di si.


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## ikar

ok. Thanks


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## lashend

A "softer" way to say "What the hell are you saying!?" would be an even more direct translation of the Italian phrase: "What the devil are you saying!?" [Or: "What IN the devil . . . ] I think "the devil" [Or: "IN the devil"] can more or less always be substituted for "hell" to make it a bit less offensive, and more "exclamatory" instead.


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## beautiful_300

Sometimes people instead of saying *hell* they use *heck, *still pretty much the same thing.


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## giacinta

For "che diavolo" you can say "What the devil are you saying?"  or "What in the devil's name (or the name of the devil) are you saying?" 

I haven't heard of "what in the devil are you saying?"

"What on earth are you saying?" would be the most common way to render the meaning in both cases.

Ciao,

Giacinta


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## beautiful_300

Actually Giacinta you know what people usually say what the hell, not what on earth even tough it is pretty similar.


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## giacinta

I agree "What the hell.."  is used but it is rather crude and its use would be confined to fairly hostile encounters.

"What on earth are you saying?"  could be said to the Queen of England if she attempted to say that hunting foxes is only being kind to the foxes!

Giacinta


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## beautiful_300

Jajajaja, maybe you are right.


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## giorgioloi

Does it work also with "why"?
In italian we usually say "Perché diavolo/diamine...". Is "Why the hell/heck" correct as well?


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## Murphy

giorgioloi said:


> Does it work also with "why"?
> In italian we usually say "Perché diavolo/diamine...". Is "Why the hell/heck" correct as well?


 Yes, they are.


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## farronait

come tradurreste: "come accidenti può..."

"how the blank" forse?


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## Sheikh_14

Am I correct in assuming that the term in common use in Italian translates as what the devil rather than what the heck? For instance one often hears the following when he/she would otherwise more commonly hear what the heck or hell in English: "ma che diavolo di prende?"

Does Italian have synonymous terms for what the heck/hell as well?


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## tsoapm

In BE, either "devil" or "heck" sounds rather affected/jokingly restrained to me. I think I would translate that "diavolo" as "hell".


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## Sheikh_14

Mark Dobson said:


> In BE, either "devil" or "heck" sounds rather affected/jokingly restrained to me. I think I would translate that "diavolo" as "hell".


The level of abandonment and restraint is another matter entirely but word for word,  diavolo is not hell but devil. For instance che diavolo fai is what the devil are you doing? I was wondering if italians use hell in the same context or not? This link corresponds with my view http://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/diavolo.


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## Sheikh_14

Mark Dobson said:


> You’re not really asking anything then are you?



Previous post- I was wondering if italians use hell in the same context or not?- Is this not a question?


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## Matrap

We don't use a literal translation. We don't say "Che inferno (hell) stai facendo" for example, but as it's been said above "che/perché diavolo/diamine..."
Only seldom a literal rendering works as different languages use different phrases to express the same meaning.


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## Sheikh_14

Makes perfect sense, Grazie; so devil it is


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## g_man_50

No one ever addressed Petradakia's comment about "diamine" meaning "of course."  We are from Lucca and my parents always used it in that way, as if to say, "it goes without saying," or "or course." Is it ever used that way anywhere in Italy?


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## Odysseus54

g_man_50 said:


> No one ever addressed Petradakia's comment about "diamine" meaning "of course."  We are from Lucca and my parents always used it in that way, as if to say, "it goes without saying," or "or course." Is it ever used that way anywhere in Italy?



Not that I know.


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## Mary49

g_man_50 said:


> We are from Lucca and my parents always used it in that way, as if to say, "it goes without saying," or "or course." Is it ever used that way anywhere in Italy?


Yes, it is   http://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/diamine/   "anche come risposta energicamente affermativa: _se ci sono stato? diamine!"_
http://www.garzantilinguistica.it/ricerca/?q=diamine    "come risposta energicamente affermativa:_ se voglio la torta? diamine!"_
http://dizionari.corriere.it/dizionario_italiano/D/diamine.shtml    "può essere usata anche come risposta affermativa più forte del semplice _sì_: _“la conosci?” “Diamine!”._


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## Pietruzzo

Mary49 said:


> Yes, it is http://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/diamine/ "anche come risposta energicamente


I have no intention to dismiss your research, but would you really say "diamine" in any case?


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## Mary49

Pietruzzo said:


> I have no intention to dismiss your research, but would you really say "diamine" in any case?


Certo, a volte mi capita di dirlo.


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## Pietruzzo

Mary49 said:


> Certo, a volte mi capita di dirlo.


"Diamine, se mi capita di dirlo!" would have been the most assertive and convincing answer.


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## Mary49

Pietruzzo said:


> "Diamine, se mi capita di dirlo!" would have been the most assertive and convincing answer.


Mi hai tolto le parole di bocca!


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