Learn Italian idioms: FARE COLPO

In this video I'm gonna talk about the Italian expression "fare colpo su qualcuno".

This video is designed for those amazing people who are studying or learning Italian.

Specifically, this video is geared toward those who understand (spoken) Italian, but would like to speak Italian like a native speaker.

If you are looking for videos that could help you learn Italian well, you have come to the right place!

Hi, everybody! I'm Luca and in this video I wanted to talk about the Italian idiom "fare colpo su qualcuno".

This phrasal expression consists of three parts. We have the verb "fare", the preposition "su" and lastly the person affected.

You obviously know the verb "fare".

You probably know the noun "colpo" as well. "Colpo" is clearly related to the verb "colpire". Though in this case this noun shouldn't be understood literally or physically, but figuratively.

What does "fare colpo su qualcuno" mean?

It means impressing someone. Capturing someone's attention and positively impressing them.

That is, in other words, if I say "ho fatto colpo su qualcuno", I mean that I made something that made this person exclaim "Wow!". I positively impressed them. They were positively impressed.

This idiomatic phrase is used almost exclusively in a specific context, namely when we talk about attraction, so to speak. For instance, when a guy wants to win a girl over.

Well, in Italian we can say that this guy wants to "fare colpo sulla ragazza che gli piace".

What does "vuole fare colpo sulla ragazza che gli piace" mean?

It means that he wants to do something so that this girl notices him and is positively impressed. He wants to do something that will make this girl say "Wow!" and make her decide to get together with him.

I hope you liked my imitation of the exclamation "Wow!".

For example, I could say: "Daniele dice queste cose solo per fare colpo su Cristina".

What does it mean?

It means that he says these things just to win Cristina over, just so that Cristina is positively impressed. That is, I'd say that in a way (the idiom) "fare colpo" refers to the step before winning her over. That is, "fare colpo" refers to the moment when the girl notices us and is positively impressed.

So, well, let's say that in 90% of cases you will find this expression together with words such as "ragazza", "donna", for example "fare colpo su una ragazza", "fare colpo su una donna", "fare colpo sulla ragazza che ti piace" and so on.

Needless to say, you could also find it with words such as "uomo", "ragazzo", etc.

For instance, I could say: With that dress, Laura would like to "fare colpo sul ragazzo che le piace". In this case too, the phrase "fare colpo" means being noticed (in a good way), capturing this person's attention.

I'd say that with proper nouns there is no problem at all, for instance: "Vuole fare colpo su Marco", "Vuole fare colpo su Cristina", "Vuole fare colpo su Elisa".

Similarly, if nouns follow, there is no problem: "Vuole fare colpo sul ragazzo che le piace", "Vuole fare colpo sulla ragazza che gli piace".

But pay attention to pronouns. Because in Italian we do say "Vuole fare colpo su di me", su di te, su di lui, su di lei, su di noi, su di voi e su di loro. So you should add "di".

Well, I gave you an example of the most typical case, that is the scenario related to attraction, winning a girl over, etc.

This idiomatic expression could be used in other contexts as well. For example, if - generally speaking - we want to make a good impression on someone.

For instance, if I say "Davide vuole fare colpo su suo padre", in this case it's clear that we are not talking about attraction, but we are only talking about positively impressing someone.

Well, that's it!

I hope you like this Italian idiom!

Some time ago I made a video about another idiomatic phrase with the word "colpo", or rather, with the plural of the word "colpo", which is "perdere colpi".

Here you can find a card to it. If you wanna learn another amazing idiomatic expression, you might wanna take a look at this video as well!

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