Learn Italian idioms

Hi, everybody! I'm Luca and this video is aimed at those amazing people who are learning Italian as a foreign language.

In this video I wanted to talk about an epic phrase that you probably don't know, but should definitely learn, if you wish to speak Italian like a native.

The phrase I wanted to discuss is: Fare i conti senza l'oste. This is the infinitive mood.

Let me say right off the bat that the most frequently used verb tense is undoubtedly the "passato prossimo". You will hear this phrase almost always in the passato prossimo. Granted, it could also be used in other verb tenses, but I'd say that this phrase is mostly used in passato prossimo.

And the most common forms are undoubtedly the second-person-singular and the third-person-singular. That is: "hai fatto i conti senza l'oste" and "ha fatto i conti senza l'oste".

Needless to say, this phrase could also be used with other persons. That is: "Io ho fatto i conti senza l'oste", "Noi abbiamo fatto i conti senza l'oste", "Voi avete fatto i conti senza l'oste" and "Loro hanno fatto i conti senza l'oste". Like I said, though, this expression is mostly used with the second and third-person-singular.

Let's try to understand what this expression means.

Let's start from the literal meaning, which will help you understand its idiomatic or figurative meaning.

In all likelihood, you don't know the word "oste". Also because in today's Italian this word is no longer used. This is a rather old-fashioned word, which was used in the past. Today it is no longer used. However, you can still find it in some idiomatic expressions.

Alright. "L'oste" was the owner or manager of a "osteria".

What does "osteria" mean?

"L'osteria" was a place where one could go for drinking and eating. I'd say that "l'osteria" was something between a restaurant and a pub. Well, something like that. In any case, you could go there to drink and eat.

The owner of such place was called "oste". Now you see what the noun "oste" means. Great.

As for the part "fare i conti", this phrase essentially means doing the math to see how much you will have to pay. So "fare i conti" essentially means adding all relevant amounts.

For example, if I took a beer and a soup, I'll sum one beer and one soup. This is what "fare i conti" means, that is, summing partial amounts.

As you probably know... - what do you typically in a restaurant?

You ask for the bill. That is, you ask the waiter to bring you a piece of paper showing how much you will have to pay. In Italian this is called "il conto".

"Fare i conti" in this phrase means summing the cost of each item that we have taken, to determine how much we will have to pay.

Basically, "fare i conti senza l'oste" means doing the math to see how much we will have to pay for what we have eaten without asking the owner. That is, without asking the owner what's the price of what we have eaten.

So, if we wanted to rephrase it using contemporary Italian words, we could say that "fare i conti senza l'oste" means issuing a check by yourself. Issuing a bill by yourself. That is, deciding on your own how much you will have to pay for each item.

In other words, doing the math without asking the "oste", that is, the owner of the restaurant, of the space we are sitting at, what is the price of what we have ordered. That is, in other words, we don't ask him that, we decide that on our own.

So we don't check the menu and sum the prices shown on the menu. We decide on our own, for instance, that this beer costs 1 Euro, this dish costs 50 cents. And then do the math.

Except that we forgot the most important thing. That is, asking the owner what's the price of each item.

Because you know better than I do: when you eat somewhere, right?! When you sit in a space for eating, be it a restaurant, a pub, etc., you don't get to decide how much you want to pay for each item. There is a menu showing all prices. That is, for instance, beer X costs amount X, soup X costs amount X, French fries cost amount X, ecc.

At the end of the day, when you go out to eat, right?! you don't decide the price. It's not that you can, so to speak, "invent" the price. You need to ask the owner: "How much should I pay?", "How much does this one cost?", "How much does that one cost?". If you don't ask the owner, you will obviously get wrong results.

So, well, basically, "fare i conti senza l'oste" literally means that. That is doing the math in our head to see how much we'll have to pay, without asking for the price of the items we have taken.

That will clearly lead us to calculate the amount wrongly. Why do we miscalculate? Because we didn't ask the owner.

And one of the figurative meanings of this phrase is precisely this. That is, calculating an amount wrongly because one didn't consult with the affected person.

So, well, this idiom is used whenever there is someone getting certain results or drawing certain conclusions. Later, though, it turns out that they have made a mistake. Why did they make a mistake? Because they didn't talk to the people concerned. They didn't consult with the affected individuals. Hence, for this reason they calculated an amount wrongly or drew wrong conclusions.

In addition to that, this phrase could also be used in a slightly different way, to mean: making certain decisions without taking into account the individual directly concerned. That is, in other words, we make a decision without consulting with the person concerned. That is, we decide in their place. Or in any case we decide without taking into account their opinion or their wishes.

But let's do another example!

Let's pretend, if you will, that a friend of mine told me: "This year I have decided to go on holiday in April. I'll be away for 3 weeks in the middle of April. I have already bought my tickets".

And I ask him: "But wait a minute! Did you ask the boss?! Is your boss fine with that?"

And he answers: "No, I haven't told him yet, but chances are he will agree - that's almost sure!".

Well, in this case I could tell my friend: "Mah! In my opinion, hai fatto i conti senza l'oste!".

What does it mean? It means: You made a decision without even consulting with the person directly concerned.

In this example, my friend's boss is the individual directly concerned, the person who will decide whether to authorize my friend to do that. My friend didn't even ask such authorization. He has bought his ticket for his trip, but he didn't even ask his boss if he could leave in April. He didn't ask his boss if he could go on holiday in mid April. So we can say: ha fatto i conti senza l'oste.

Let's do another example, a paradoxical example, if you will.

Let's pretend that a friend of mine has borrowed, I don't know, some money because he has decided to create a company, to start up a business. So he has borrowed some money, he has asked for a loan.

And then he explains to me that, basically, this company will consist of him and a friend of his. In particular, he will take care of operations whereas his friend will take care of marketing.

Except that, as he goes on to explain, in fact he hasn't yet informed his friend about this plan. That is, this was his idea, he has borrowed this money, he has created a company. However, he hasn't yet talked with his friend about this. So he cannot possibly know if she is willing to work with him.

Thus, I could tell him: "In my opinion, hai fatto i conti senza l'oste!"

What does it mean?

In my opinion, you have made a decision without asking the person who is directly concerned. That is, in other words: in my opinion, you have made a mistake.

That is, first of all, you should have asked your friend. And listen to her opinion on this matter. And then make a decision. By contrast, you have made this decision without talking to the "oste". That is, metaphorically, "l'oste" here stands for his friend. The person directly concerned.

That is, he decided that she will work with him, but he didn't ask her. He quite possibly took that for granted. He decided on her behalf too.

However, it may be the case that, when he asks this person, they will reply that they are not interested.

So, in other words, this idiom reminds us that, before making any decision, it's alsways better to ask those who are directly concerned.

In addition to that, this phrase can also be used in a slightly different way. Namely, to mean: making a decision ignoring, or without carefully taking into account, specific factors or events.

So this phrase doesn't mean only making a decision without talking to the person concerned. But it can also mean making a decision without considering all factors. That is, ignoring critical factors.

So, if I say that someone "ha fatto i conti senza l'oste", I can mean 2 things. Either that this individual didn't talk to the person who is directly concerned. Or - generally speaking - that this individual has made a decision ignoring specific factors. Ignoring specific events. Specifically, ignoring a critical factor.

So in this case, metaphorically speaking, "l'oste" is not an individual we should have consulted and to whom we didn't talk. "L'oste" stands for a critical factor that we should have taken into account, but we didn't take into account. As a consequence, our decision will probably have negative consequences.

Why? Because we ignored a critical factor.

Well, that is it.

I hope you liked this idiomatic expression and I say goodbye to you!