# farla franca



## urizon9

Mi sembra che sia un idioma.Ma come si traduce questa frase?"Cosi la fa franca"Grazie.


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## moodywop

I would say "gets off scot-free" or simply "gets away with it" (without being punished/paying for his mistakes/getting what he deserves).

But more context would help in choosing the best translation


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## combustion

It may be:

"so, he goes out on a limb", but it's referred to a convict or someone has done something wrong that maybe would avoid the punishment!

I hope my sentence is correct...

cecilia


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## dalila

Is this expression used?
He will get away with murder.


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## urizon9

When someone is murdered, there`s always a chance that the murderer gets away with it.Grazie per le risposte,ho capito tutto bene!A presto!


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## Karl!!!!

Ciao a tutti

Mi hanno detto che fare la franca significa 'scappare senza essere scoperto' o qualcosa del genere. Che ne dite? E' una frase comune?

Grazie.


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## Alxmrphi

So like this, "Ho rubato la corona di Jana e ho fatto la franca" ?


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## Jana337

Alex_Murphy said:


> So like this, "Ho rubato la corona di Jana e ho fatto la franca" l'ho fatta franca?


Farla franca, not fare la franca.

A very cute sentence.


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## Alxmrphi

Ok, what about:

"Con il mio rasoio, ho raso i baffi di Saoul e poi sono corso via, avevo saputo che la farei franca, ma invece, mi ha afferrato"

Do I have the right idea yet?


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## rocamadour

Alex_Murphy said:


> Ok, what about:
> 
> "Con il mio rasoio, ho tagliato/raso i baffi di Saoul  e poi sono corso via, credevo di farla franca, ma invece, mi ha afferrato"
> 
> Do I have the right idea yet?


 
The sense is perfect!


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## giovannino

...ho tagliato i baffi di/a Saoul...pensavo/ero sicuro che l'avrei fatta franca...


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## Jana337

Alex_Murphy said:


> Ok, what about:
> 
> "Con il mio rasiolo, ho raduto i baffi di Saoul e poi sono corso via, avevo saputo che la farei franca, ma invece, mi ha afferrato"
> 
> Do I have the right idea yet?


You have too many ideas, some of them weird. 

Avevo saputo che la farei l'avrei fatta franca - something like "I had learned that I would get away with it.


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## Alxmrphi

Ah, didn't think of putting it in the past conditional, too many things going through my head now, I need a break from Italian for a bit~!

Rasiolo was a typo, I searched on WR and typed it instead of rasoio by accident.
Why does your last English sentence seem so odd?

Saputo = thought, I don't know why you said learn, and why it isn't in the past. I meant to say "I had hoped that I would get away with it", but forgot the rule that it needs to be past conditional in Italian.
So besides the "la farei -> l'avrei fatta", what's wrong with my sentence?


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## stalsy

In un contesto di dialogo scherzoso tra due ragazzi come sarebbe possibile dire:

"Non la farai franca!"  ?

Faccio una prova

"You don't get away with it" (Traduzione dal vocabolario)

Grazie mille


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## underhouse

You just got the tense wrong:

_you won't get away with it!_


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## baldpate

You can also say "you won't get off *scot-free*", which is an interesting phrase, because the term _scot_ in _scot-free_ is related to your own itaian word "scotto" as in "pagare lo scotto".


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## stalsy

Grazie mille ad entrambi.


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## Ka Mate Ka Ora

baldpate said:


> You can also say "you won't get off *scot-free*", which is an interesting phrase, because the term _scot_ in _scot-free_ is related to your own itaian word "scotto" as in "pagare lo scotto".


 
It's spelt scott-free and refers to a famous US Supreme Court decision involving the black slave Dred Scott. Ironically Scott lost his suit, though you wouldn't know it from the well-known phrase.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dred_Scott


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## baldpate

I didn't know that - thank you, thank you, KMKA!  
I first came across the term in a sea story by Patrick O'Brien, set in the 18th century, where the phrase was "to pay ones scot(t)" (not sure of the spelling right now), meaning to pay one's share/ones dues.  I obviously wrongly conflated the two terms.


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## Ka Mate Ka Ora

Not so obviously! I would like to find something more authoritative, but I found one post elsewhere claiming that scot-free is the correct expression with the etymology you indicated. Certainly your literature reference predates the Dred Scott decision. One thing is sure, the two scot(t)s seem to reinforce each other.


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## Ka Mate Ka Ora

Apparently poor Dred Scott lost again 

it's scot-free as Baldpate wrote above.


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## tuttoitaliano

Ciao, tutti. I am a new user, and haven't posted before, but here's a question: Can "farla franca" and "passarla liscia" be used interchangeably for "to get away with it"; or do they have different nuances to their meanings, or apply to different contexts?


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## underhouse

tuttoitaliano said:


> Ciao, tutti. I am a new user, and haven't posted before, but here's a question: Can "farla franca" and "passarla liscia" be used interchangeably for "to get away with it"; or do they have different nuances to their meanings, or apply to different contexts?


 
Hi tuttoitaliano and welcome!

Yes, in my opinion, you can use the two expressions interchangeably, with the latter sounding a bit more colloquial to me!

Ciao


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## tuttoitaliano

Grazie mille per la replica rapida!  Ciao.


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## prowlerxpla

tuttoitaliano said:


> Ciao, tutti. I am a new user, and haven't posted before, but here's a question: Can "farla franca" and "passarla liscia" be used interchangeably for "to get away with it"; or do they have different nuances to their meanings, or apply to different contexts?


I think yes they are interchangeable in any contest and meanings


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## LIM

What does "farla franca" literally mean? where does this idiomatic expression come from?
grazie


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## Necsus

LIM said:


> What does "farla franca" literally mean? where does this idiomatic expression come from?
> grazie


It comes from the meaning _free_ of the word _franco_. HERE is a good explanation (in Italian):
[...] Dal significato burocratico, legale e commerciale di _franco_ si svilupperà, per estensione, il significato di _franco_ nella locuzione che ci interessa e che sarà attestata molto più tardi nella lingua scritta (poco dopo la metà dell'Ottocento, tra le pagine del politico e scrittore Massimo D'Azeglio, secondo il Dizionario etimologico Cortelazzo-Zolli). _Farla franca_ significa «uscire senza danno o pena da qualche rischio o da qualche azione illecita», insomma scamparla alla gabella del caso o della legge.


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## LIM

Grazie mille per la spiegazione.


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## rajerry

Farla franca da tutto
Does this mean to get away with everything?
Why is "da" used instead of "con"


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## Paulfromitaly

rajerry said:


> Why is "da" used instead of "con"


Where?


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## rajerry

Paulfromitaly said:


> Where?


In the novel "ne qui ne altrovi" by author gianrico carofiglio:
"Avevo sempre confusamente pensato che l'avrei fatta franca da tutto.  Malattia, infelicita e magari anche la morte"

I would translate this as:
I had always confusedly thought that i would have gotten away with (avoided) everthing.  Sickness, unhappiness and maybe even death

I wonder why he used "da" instead of "con"


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## Odysseus54

rajerry said:


> In the novel "ne qui ne altrovi" by author gianrico carofiglio:
> "Avevo sempre confusamente pensato che l'avrei fatta franca da tutto.  Malattia, infelicita e magari anche la morte"
> 
> I would translate this as:
> I had always confusedly thought that i would have gotten away with (avoided) everthing.  Sickness, unhappiness and maybe even death
> 
> I wonder why he used "da" instead of "con"



To my ears it works, like 'with' works in your translation.

Although I would generally expect to see 'farla franca' by itself.

"L'hanno beccato, alla fine?"  "No, l'ha fatta franca"


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## Pietruzzo

rajerry said:


> I wonder why he used "da" instead of "con


In this case "farla franca da" stands for "essere esentato da (to be exempted from").


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## lövastrell

To sum up Odysseus's and Pietruzzo's comments: (1) I've never heard "farla franca da x", only the phrase by itself. I would have said "Pensavo che sarei sfuggito a tutto". (2) It's not "got away with everything", because that would be something the actor has done (which is the usual meaning of "farla franca"), not something they have to undergo or to face. So, I suppose it's something like "I thought I would escape death etc.", or "I would be spared death...". (3) Presumably, Carofiglio writes "da" because what he has in mind are verbs that go with "da", like "essere esentati da", "essere risparmiati da". IMHO, it's a bad turn of phrase, but I'm not an author, so...


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## rajerry

Thanks for all the explanations!


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