Do you know how to say “it makes sense” in Italian? It’s one of those phrases that you need to be a little bit careful with because it’s easy to end up saying something totally different by accident!
Learn more in episode #76 of five minute Italian
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Vocabulary: How to say “it makes sense” in Italian
- Ma non ha senso! = But it doesn’t make sense!
- Non = make a sentence negative
- Ha = it has
- Senso = sense
- Ha senso = it makes sense (lit. it has sense)
- Fare = to do or to make
- Fa = it makes
- Fa senso = it makes me cringe/it’s disgusting
- Il sangue fa senso = blood is disgusting/makes me cringe
- La carne fa senso = meat is disgusting/makes me cringe
- La tua idea ha senso = your idea makes sense
- Sono d’accordo = I agree
- Hai ragione = you’re right (lit. you have reason)
Quiz: How to say “it makes sense” in Italian
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Flashcards: How to say “it makes sense” in Italian
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Transcript: How to say “it makes sense” in Italian
Please note, this is not a word for word transcript.
Katie: Ciao a tutti e benvenuti a 5 Minute Italian. I’m Katie.
Matteo: And I’m Matteo. Ciao!
K: Recently we’ve been looking at ways to agree in Italian. It’s really handy to have these little phrases in your Italian toolkit because they help you keep the conversation going smoothly.
M: Today we’re going to learn how to say “it makes sense”
K: And you have to be a bit careful with this one because one little slip and you could end up saying something totally different!
M: To learn how to say it, let’s start by listening to a phrase Katie often says when she’s trying to file her taxes in Italy:
M: Ma non ha senso!
K: But it doesn’t make sense! When you’re navigating the Italian tax system, the struggle is real. Word for word, that’s:
Non = used to make a sentence negative
Ha = has
Senso = sense
K: We know that to make a sentence negative, we add “non” to the beginning. So let’s zoom in on the last part. To say “it makes sense” we say “ha senso”. Which is literally “it has sense”. So if you’re agreeing with someone, you can say:
M: Sì sì sì, ha senso, ha senso.
K: Italians like to repeat for emphasis so we get yes yes yes, it makes sense, it makes sense. Ha = it has, senso = sense. Now, it’s important to remember to use “have” and not just translate the phrase directly, as this can lead you down the wrong path. Do you know how to say “it does” or “it makes” in Italian?
M: Remember that do and make are the same in Italian – we say “fare”. To say “it makes”, we say “fa”.
K: And we don’t want to say this, because the expression “fa senso” exists in Italian, but it actually means “it’s gross” or “it makes me cringe”. For example, you can say:
M: Il sangue mi fa senso
K: Il sangue is “blood”, so if you say “il sangue mi fa senso” you’re saying “blood makes me cringe”. Another example is, if you’re vegetarian, you could say:
M: La carne mi fa senso
K: Which means something like “meat makes me cringe” or “I find meat gross or disgusting”.
And here, you can see how it’s very easy to make this mistake in Italian. You don’t want to say to someone “la tua idea fa senso”, which would mean… I find your idea disgusting.
If you want to agree with someone and say “your idea makes sense” you actually have to say “your idea has sense”
M: La tua idea ha senso.
K: So to say “it makes sense” we say “ha senso”.
K: For a quick review, can you remember the other ways to agree in Italian? We had “I agree” which is literally “I am of accord”
M: Sono d’accordo
K: And we also looked at “you’re right”, literally “you have reason”
M: Hai ragione
K: If you’re like me and you find it useful to see all this stuff written down, on our website you’ll find the transcripts and other bonus materials like a quiz and flashcards to help you remember the phrases from today’s lesson. Go to www.joyoflanguages.com/italianpodcast and scroll down to episode 76. You can also practice chatting Italian with us in our facebook group, you can find the link in the show notes.
See you next time, or as we say in Italian
Alla prossima!
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