Imagine this scenario: you’re visiting Italy, it’s mid-July, it’s 100 F in the shade, people are sweating buckets in the street, and suddenly you hear a native Italian say, “F*ck Aldo!“. Why is that? What did Aldo do? Find out here!
Is Aldo really to blame?
Let’s face it, Italians love to swear. There’s an Italian curse word for every occasion. However, when you hear them swear at Aldo, know that they are not swearing at all. It’s all your English ear’s fault.
You see, what you really mean by f*ck Aldo is actually a very innocent Italian expression, fa caldo, which means it’s hot.
| Fa caldo! | It’s hot! |
The expression fa caldo is made up of fa, which is the third person singular conjugation of fare, to do, in the present tense (“it makes”), and caldo, which is an adjective meaning hot. So fa caldo literally translates to “it makes hot”.
Italian summers can get unbearably hot, which is why you’ll often hear this expression during your summer vacation in Italy.
A popular alternative to it is che caldo, which literally means “what hot”.
| Che caldo! | It’s hot! |
The next time you hear a native Italian insult Aldo, remember that they’re just complaining about the scorching hot weather.
And since this 2022 summer is turning out to be the hottest ever (at least the hottest I can remember), I have a hunch that Aldo will be summoned quite often!
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