/non aˈvere la pju ˈpallida iˈdɛa/ lit. ‘to not have the palest idea’
Italian idiom, everyday. To have no idea at all.
Draft Not yet checked by a native Italian speaker.
How do people use Non avere la più pallida idea
?
Everyday and polite, fine at work or with strangers. It’s nearly always in the first person, often with “ne”: “non ne ho la più pallida idea”. Add “di” plus a question to say what you don’t know: “non ho la più pallida idea di cosa fare”.
Also said non ne ho la più pallida idea, non avere la minima idea
Non avere la più pallida idea
in real sentences
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Non ne ho la più pallida idea.
I don’t have the slightest idea.
Tatoeba, sentence by Guybrush88, translation by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
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Non ho la più pallida idea di cosa fare.
I don’t have the slightest idea what to do.
Tatoeba, sentence by Guybrush88, translation by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Non avere la più pallida idea
come from?
Treccani, under “pallido”, gives the figurative sense of faint or weak and singles out “non avere la più pallida idea di qualcosa”. English Wiktionary lists “non ne ho la più pallida idea” as the Italian for “not have the foggiest”. The picture is an idea so pale you can’t see it at all; German “keinen blassen Schimmer” uses the same pale image. No date is recorded.
Mistakes learners make with Non avere la più pallida idea
Dropping “più”. “Non ho la pallida idea” is wrong; the idea has to be the palest one.
Other Italian idioms like Non avere la più pallida idea
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