Breakdown of Visto che sei invadente, sbirci sempre il telefono altrui.
essere
to be
il telefono
the phone
sempre
always
visto che
seeing that
altrui
of others / other people's
invadente
intrusive
sbirciare
to peek
Questions & Answers about Visto che sei invadente, sbirci sempre il telefono altrui.
Why is altrui placed after telefono, and does it change if we talk about multiple phones?
Altrui translates to "other people's" or "of others". It is a special indefinite possessive adjective that is invariable, meaning it never changes its ending to match the gender or number of the noun. Furthermore, it strictly must be placed after the noun it modifies. So, even if you were talking about multiple phones (i telefoni altrui), the word altrui would stay exactly the same.
Could I use siccome or perché instead of visto che here?
Yes, you could use siccome (since/as), which is very common at the beginning of a sentence. However, you generally wouldn't start a sentence with perché to mean "since" in Italian. Visto che (literally "seeing that") is a great, natural-sounding alternative that can flexibly go either at the beginning or in the middle of a sentence.
The English translation says "other people's phones" in the plural, but the Italian says il telefono in the singular. Why the difference?
In Italian, when referring to an item that each person possesses individually (everyone has one phone), it is very common to use the singular noun to represent the general category. Il telefono altrui focuses on the concept of "someone else's phone" in a general sense. You could technically say i telefoni altrui, but the singular is more idiomatic when referring to the habit of peeking at whatever single phone happens to be nearby.
What is the exact nuance of the verb sbirci?
It comes from sbirciare, meaning to peek, to glance furtively, or to snoop. It specifically implies looking at something quickly or secretly out of the corner of your eye. It is the perfect vocabulary choice here because it captures the sneaky nature of an invadente (nosy or intrusive) person looking at a screen they shouldn't be looking at.
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