Learn Italian: Un tale individuo ha chiamato oggi. - A certain individual called today.

Un tale individuo ha chiamato oggi.

A certain individual called today.

Breakdown of Un tale individuo ha chiamato oggi.

Questions & Answers about Un tale individuo ha chiamato oggi.

How does adding tale change the meaning compared to just saying Un individuo?

By adding tale, you change "an individual" to "a certain individual" or "some guy". It emphasizes that the person's identity is completely unknown to the speaker, often carrying a slightly suspicious, distant, or dismissive tone.

Could I drop the word individuo and just say Un tale ha chiamato oggi?

Yes! Here tale is used as an adjective modifying individuo, but it can also act as a standalone pronoun. If you just say Un tale, it means "Some guy" or "A certain man". For a woman, you would say Una tale.

If the noun were feminine, like donna, how would un tale change?

It would become una tale donna. The word tale ends in -e, meaning it has the same form for both masculine and feminine singular nouns. However, the indefinite article before it (un or una) must still match the gender of the noun.

I've learned that tale means "such a". Why doesn't it translate to "Such an individual called today"?

While tale frequently translates to "such a" to express intensity (like in un tale disastro for "such a disaster"), before a neutral noun for a person it typically takes on this indefinite meaning of "a certain" or "some". You would only translate it as "such an individual" if the previous context had already established how terrible or great this person was.