Quote:
Originally Posted by rubicon
Congratulazioni (congrats) if you got that poem in 8th grade and by got I mean received and understood it. Buona giornata (have a nice day) 
I;m just joshing. |
I wish my dad had taught me the Italian language.
He did once offer to teach me when I was five years old.
But I stamped my feet and stated, "No, I'm an American".
Can you believe that? It would have been much easier at a young age.
That would have been 1950.
Believe it or not, we 8th grade girls did "get it".......as we had to memorize the poem "IF". We understood it, even though we were not young men.
cento anni.........may you have “100 years”.
The Italian expression for '100 years' is cento anni - which is pronounced [chen-to annee].
However, during natural speech, the last vowel sound on cento is often dropped so it sounds more like cent'anni.
One well-known example of the phrase
cent'anni being used as a salute (in the context of an Americanized portrayal of Italian mob families) is a discussion between several characters during a particular scene of The Godfather Part II, which reads as follows:
""MICHAEL: Cent' anni!
Everyone: Cent' anni!
DEANNA: What's "Chen dandy"?
FREDO: Cent' anni -- It means a hundred years.
CONNIE: It means we should all live happily for a hundred years -- the family. That'd be true if my father were still alive.""