30 Minute Italian

If I had to choose a few words that I’m asked about all the time in Italian, ones like “proprio” and “magari” would surely be up there, but the one I hear about being difficult constantly is “mica”. In fact, it’s such a difficult word that I was still fuzzy on how to use it as I wrote this lesson. I had to get lots of help from our lovely in-house native Italian editor, Carlotta. Despite that, we’ve done our best to drill “mica” -- a word that’s used informally in everyday spoken conversation -- down to its simplest usages. Buono studio! Definitions: Not at all/not one bit Surely Not even Not in the least By any chance Overall, know that it's used in order to strengthen the negative meaning of a sentence. POPULAR EXPRESSION #1: Mica Male “Mica male” can best be translated as “not bad”, as in: Questo gelato non è mica male! - This gelato is not bad at all! (in the sense of, “this gelato is quite good”.) Mica male quella ragazza! - Look at that girl, not bad, right? Mica male questo libro. - This book isn't