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Antique antics (English/Italian)

Five years ago, I was staying with my stepmum's friend in Italy. The friend is English but she has lived there over half her life. Me and her older Italian husband got on okay so one night when we were all having tea I decided to tease him a bit by telling him he was 'old'. I didn't know how to say it in Italian so I looked in my dictionary which gave me about 20 different words for 'old'. Most of them were unpronouncable (to me), so I decided to go for the easiest one to pronounce. I chose antico. I wondered why everyone around the table burst into laughter. Later I found out I called him an 'antique'!

Sent by: Malin

Comments

antonio, milano 2009-08-02

Ah ah this is funny , but it's not completely wrong . In the Italian poetry antico is used sometimes instead of 'Old'. Aenes call his father Anchises, antico padre.
Anyway, mind that a man when he gets old he becomes Vecchio, but if u want to be more polite u have too say Anziano.
Ciao

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