English Translation
You’re really nice.
I’m wondering whether amabili would work here, or is it too much?
You’re really nice.
I’m wondering whether amabili would work here, or is it too much?
Ehilà @morbrorper I tend to think of carini as cute, nice or pretty, and amabili as lovable and amiable - so perhaps it depends more on the age of the person being complimented.
A dopo…
I totally agree with Floria7: “carini” = “cute, pretty” and “amabili” = “amiable” (alcoholic beverages can also be “amabile”.
However, “nice” is such a versatile English word that you cannot really translate it without knowing the situation.
Even the Anglo-Saxons don’t agree on its use:
On a science conference an Englishman had a lecture. Afterwards, in question time, an American started his question very friendly with “Mighty nice lecture you gave …” whereas the English - clearly not amused - answered rather stiffly " Thank you for calling my lecture mighty nice …"
A nice example of a transatlantic misunderstanding.
I didn’t know of this transatlantic division.
About the original question: I think using “amabile” to translate nice seems a bit of a stretch.
If I had to translate the English sentence to Italian, I would probably use:
“Siete davvero gentili” (or “sei davvero gentile”), interpreting “nice” as “kind”.
“Carino” means cute, but it can be used also to to mean “kind”, for example:
“È stato davvero carino da parte tua invitarmi.” → It was kind of you to invite me.
After all, “carino”, while it is used as an independent word nowadays, comes from “caro”, “dear”.
Thanks Mike-lima. Out of interest we were always taught to avoid the word “nice” as it was so bland and could also be quite demeaning. MRgK is spot-on. Mind you I would be quite happy with an American “nice” as long as mighty came before it:-)
Thanks for all the responses! My question was actually motivated by Spanish, where amable can be used to express kindness/niceness: Muy amable (Very kind of you).
Oh, I see! In this case, I can definitely say that “amabile” is not commonly used in this sense; it is a word that is more often used to describe the taste of a wine than the feeling toward someone.
Another word popped into my mind: cortese; how about that? Siete davvero cortesi.