/a ˈdue ˈpassi/ lit. ‘two steps away’
Italian idiom, everyday. A very short distance away.
Draft Not yet checked by a native Italian speaker.
How do people use A due passi
?
Everyday Italian for anything close enough to walk to, and you’ll hear it from real estate agents, hotel websites and friends giving directions. Add “da” for the reference point: “a due passi da casa”, “a due passi dal mare”. Nobody means literally two steps, so the station can be ten minutes away and still be “a due passi”.
Also said a pochi passi, a un passo
A due passi
in real sentences
-
Abito a due passi da casa tua.
I live a stone’s throw from your house.
Tatoeba, sentence by Nuel, CC BY 2.0 FR
-
La stazione è a due passi da noi.
The station is a stone’s throw from us.
Tatoeba, sentence by dnnywld, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does A due passi
come from?
There’s no mystery in the picture: two steps is about as close as anything gets. Treccani’s “passo” entry notes that the word also means a short distance and lists “a due / a pochi passi” among its set phrases, and English Wiktionary gives “due passi” as an Italian translation of “stone’s throw”. We found no date for when the phrase settled.
Mistakes learners make with A due passi
Using “di” for the reference point. It’s “a due passi da casa”, never “a due passi di casa”, because distance from a place always takes “da” in Italian.
Other Italian idioms like A due passi
Spot a mistake in A due passi
?
Send a correction, or a sentence you’d actually say with it. Everything is read before anything on this page changes.