Those who in Italian
Have you ever heard of the following idiomatic expression?
- Chi vivrà, vedrà.
If not, try to think of what it means before you carry on reading.
…
Well, it literally means “those who’ll live, we’ll see” which could be translated as “time will tell” or “wait and see”.
You might be wondering why we’re talking about this expression.
It’s because it’s very appropriate since today’s post is about how to say “those who”.
As you can see in the expression we analyzed above, we can just say chi in Italian.
Those who: chi
The fact that we just say chi when we want to say “those who” might sound weird to you if you’re a native English speaker.
In fact, in English, we would never start a sentence with “who” unless it’s a question.
If you’re not convinced, try to read this sentence and see if it makes sense:
- Who wants to come should come.
We would say instead:
- Those who want to come should come.
And in Italian, we would say:
- Chi vuole venire dovrebbe venire.
As we said in other posts, when we’re learning a foreign language, we should keep in mind that some words or expressions don’t have literal translations.
Chi as in “those who”: examples
Since we started with an idiomatic expression, we’ll give you one more:
- Chi non muore si rivede.
It literally means “those who don’t die are seen again”.
Of course, it sounds very odd so, again, try to guess what it means.
Our only clue is that it’s usually said in a sarcastic tone.
We usually say that expression when we haven’t heard from or seen someone in a while and we’re not happy about it.
In English, we could simply say, “Long time no see!”
Or we could go for a more sarcastic option like:
- Look who the cat dragged in!
OR
- So, you didn’t fall off the face of the earth!
Let’s now have a look at some more examples:
Chi non ha studiato probabilmente non capirà.
Those who didn’t study probably won’t understand.
Chi ama leggere può capire l’emozione di comprare un libro nuovo.
Those who love reading understand the emotion of buying a new book.
Chi viaggia sa che la libertà è un bene prezioso.
Those who travel know that freedom is a precious deed.
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