/per ˈme ɛ ˈarabo/ lit. ‘to me it’s Arabic’
Italian idiom, everyday. I can’t understand any of it.
Draft Not yet checked by a native Italian speaker.
How do people use Per me è arabo
?
Everyday and a bit jokey, said about a text, a subject or someone’s explanation that you can’t follow at all. Put the thing first: “la fisica è arabo per me”, “questo per me è arabo”. In the past it’s “era tutto arabo per me”. Arabo stays masculine and singular whatever you’re talking about, because it means the language.
Also said è arabo per me, è tutto arabo
Per me è arabo
in real sentences
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Questo per me è arabo.
It’s all Greek to me.
Tatoeba, sentence by Guybrush88, translation by Zifre, CC BY 2.0 FR
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La fisica è arabo per me.
Physics is Greek to me.
Tatoeba, sentence by Guybrush88, translation by Balamax, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Per me è arabo
come from?
Every language picks its own hard language: English has Greek, French and Spanish have Chinese, Italian has Arabic. The Treccani dictionary lists “incomprehensible language” as a figurative sense of arabo and quotes “quello che dici per me è arabo”, and Italian Wiktionary labels that sense as pejorative. We found no first date for the phrase.
Mistakes learners make with Per me è arabo
Making arabo agree with the thing you don’t understand. It’s “la fisica è arabo”, never “la fisica è araba”, because you’re comparing it with the Arabic language, and the feminine form would turn it into a statement about an Arab woman.
Other Italian idioms like Per me è arabo
Spot a mistake in Per me è arabo
?
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