What do secondo and in base a mean in Italian?
In today’s post, you’re going to learn how to reference someone else’s words and how to use facts and ideas to develop what you’re saying.
In English we can say:
- According to (According to our records you owe $50)
- Based on (The film is based on a true story)
- In (someone)’s opinion (That’s great in our opinion)
In Italian, we have the following two options:
- Secondo (According to)
- In base a (Based on)
These two phrases are very useful when we want to give opinions or facts to support our ideas.
They are very common in academic writing, such as essays, and in scientific articles.
How to use secondo?
We use secondo when we want to give someone’s opinion or when we want to reference someone.
We also use secondo when we want to refer to an idea.
As you can see, we can use secondo in several ways:
- secondo + noun (Secondo Paolo)
- secondo+ pronoun (Secondo me)
- secondo + sentence (Secondo quello che si dice)
Here are some examples:
Secondo la dottoressa, non dovresti uscire.
According to the doctor, you shouldn’t go out.
Secondo me, hai sbagliato.
In my opinion, you did the wrong thing.
Secondo i critici è un film bellissimo.
According to critics, the movie is beautiful.
Secondo Dante, Virgilio dopo la morte è finito nel Limbo.
According to Dante, Virgil ended up in the Limbo after his death.
Secondo quello che dicono gli scienziati, bisogna fare attenzione.
According to what the scientists say, we need to be careful.
How to use in base a?
The structure of in base a is similar to the one for secondo.
However, since we usually say something is based on ideas or things rather than people, using a pronoun after in base a is less common.
Also, we can say in base al, alla, all’, allo, ai, alle, and agli depending on what we’re referring to.
Let’s have a look at some examples:
Abbiamo preso una decisione in base a certi criteri.
We took a decision based on certain criteria.
Il prezzo dei biglietti allo stadio varia in base al settore.
The ticket’s price to go to the stadium changes based on the section.
Ho scelto questo libro in base alle emozioni che mi trasmetteva.
I chose this book based on the emotions it conveyed.
In base agli accordi, guadagnerà 2.000 euro al mese.
Base on the agreement, he’ll earn 2,000 euros per month.
In base alle loro indicazioni, aspetteremo fino a domani.
Based on their instructions, we’ll wait until tomorrow.
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