Learn Italian: Il ristorante è buono? Non c'è male! - "Is the restaurant good?" "It is not bad!"

Il ristorante è buono? Non c'è male!

"Is the restaurant good?" "It is not bad!"

Breakdown of Il ristorante è buono? Non c'è male!

Questions & Answers about Il ristorante è buono? Non c'è male!

Why does the answer use c'è ("there is") instead of just è ("it is")?

Non c'è male is a fixed Italian expression that literally means "there is no bad." Even though English speakers just say "it's not bad," Italians use this specific phrase with c'è to say that something is fairly good or acceptable.

I learned that "bad" is cattivo. Why does this sentence use male?

You are right that cattivo is the adjective for "bad" used to describe objects or people. However, non c'è male is a set phrase. You don't build it word-for-word using grammar rules. It is a very common idiom used to reply to questions like "How are you?" or "How is it?", so it is best to memorize it as a whole chunk.

Could I ask Il ristorante è bene? instead?

No, because bene means "well" (an adverb) and is used to describe actions, like how someone is doing. Since you are describing a thing—the restaurant (a noun)—you must use the adjective buono, which means "good".

What does the apostrophe in c'è stand for?

It shows that a letter has been dropped. C'è is a combination of the word ci (there) and è (is). Because ci ends in a vowel and è is a vowel, they crash together. Dropping the "i" makes it much smoother to say.