Glossary entry

Italian term or phrase:

non lo dico tanto per dire

English translation:

I\'m not just saying it.

Added to glossary by Lara Barnett
Oct 28, 2017 10:11
6 yrs ago
2 viewers *
Italian term

non lo dico tanto per dire

Italian to English Art/Literary General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters Character-based narrative
This is the conscience speaking of a character in a novel, who claims that his author originally gave his self to a theatrical career, leaving the character's presence in a future novel at risk. i.e. the author has just proved successful in his improvisation class and is starting to head towards the world of showbiz, rather than continue novel writing.

I cannot see how exactly I could word this here, though I get the tone and gist of it.

Purtroppo fu un successo. Non c’era più niente da fare. E quando dico che la mia stessa esistenza era in pericolo, non lo dico tanto per dire. Rischiavo sul serio di spegnermi lentamente, come una fiammella a cui viene a mancare l’ossigeno.
Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

Non-PRO (2): Yvonne Gallagher, Grace Anderson

When entering new questions, KudoZ askers are given an opportunity* to classify the difficulty of their questions as 'easy' or 'pro'. If you feel a question marked 'easy' should actually be marked 'pro', and if you have earned more than 20 KudoZ points, you can click the "Vote PRO" button to recommend that change.

How to tell the difference between "easy" and "pro" questions:

An easy question is one that any bilingual person would be able to answer correctly. (Or in the case of monolingual questions, an easy question is one that any native speaker of the language would be able to answer correctly.)

A pro question is anything else... in other words, any question that requires knowledge or skills that are specialized (even slightly).

Another way to think of the difficulty levels is this: an easy question is one that deals with everyday conversation. A pro question is anything else.

When deciding between easy and pro, err on the side of pro. Most questions will be pro.

* Note: non-member askers are not given the option of entering 'pro' questions; the only way for their questions to be classified as 'pro' is for a ProZ.com member or members to re-classify it.

Proposed translations

+4
12 mins
Selected

I'm not just saying that.

He is not just saying it, means it, his existence really was under threat.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 13 mins (2017-10-28 10:25:13 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Or you could put:

When I say my existence was in danger, I really mean it.
Peer comment(s):

agree Daniel Frisano
1 hr
Thanks!
agree philgoddard
7 hrs
Thanks!
agree Michele Fauble
7 hrs
Thanks!
agree Rachel Musselle
1 day 10 hrs
Thanks!
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
1 hr

I am not saying it just for the sake of saying it.

colloquial expression when someone wants to emphasize a point
Something went wrong...
2 hrs

it's not an overstatement

I am not exaggerating, I really mean that. Lisa Jane's option looks OK too.
Something went wrong...
Term search
  • All of ProZ.com
  • Term search
  • Jobs
  • Forums
  • Multiple search