There are plenty of Italian idioms with the verb andare. I’ve selected 15 interesting ones.
Read, listen and repeat.
“Andare” with a preposition can often be an idiom. For example, the sentence “andare a gonfie vele” means that things are going extremely well, something like “full steam (sail) ahead”.
Il lavoro sta andando a gonfie vele
We can have avere followed by prepositions, such as a, in, di or with a simple adverb.
andare a rotoli – to fall apart
Il matrimonio di Lucia e Andrea sta andando a rotoli.
andare a ruba – to sell fast
L’ultimo libro di Alessandro Baricco sta andando a ruba.
andare a tentoni – fumbling around
E’ molto buio, vado a tentoni.
andare a genio – to be good enough
Gli amici di mio figlio non mi vanno a genio.
andare a fagiolo – to fit perfectly
Il giovedì libero mi va proprio a fagiolo.
andare in fumo – go up in smoke
L’investimento che ho fatto l’anno scorso è andato in fumo.
andare in giro – wandering around
Il mio gatto va sempre in giro per i fatti suoi.
andare in palla – to lose it
Durante l’esame orale, alcuni studenti sono andati in palla.
andare in rosso – wind up in red
Non avevo più soldi sul mio conto in banca, quindi sono andato in rosso.
andare in bestia – to lose it
I politici in televisione mi fanno andare in bestia!
andare di lusso – hit the jackpot
Il poliziotto non mi ha fatto la multa. Mi è andata di lusso.
andare di male in peggio – from bad to worse
Ieri ho perso il lavoro e oggi si è rotta la mia macchina. Va di male in peggio.
andare di pari passo – go hand in hand
La disoccupazione va di pari passo con la crisi economica.
andare d’amore e d’accordo – get along great
L’anno scorso in ufficio andavamo tutti d’amore e d’accordo.
andare di sfiga – to be unlucky
Ho perso l’ultimo treno per due minuti. Mi è andata di sfiga.
If you have better translations, feel free to add them below.
Grazie e a presto.
Hi Riccardo, I’m a mature age student of Italian in Australia. Born in Rome but now live here. Decided to get back to Uni to look at my heritage and wanted to perfect my Italian in academia. I’m doing traslaction Across Cultures and a long translation assessment is on Harry Potter ‘e la pietra filosofale’. We have to pair up and discuss in a video the differences and similarities between cultures and I have chosen Japanese and Italian. Any hits regarding language differences? Culture? We’ve been learning about the four pillars. Register, authority, family,gender in other cultures and I have a fair idea about differences and similarities but I thought you could help with words or idioms etc relating to both languages.
Love your posts and quiz by the way. I try and do them regularly to keep abreast of Italian grammar.
Regards
Simonetta
Ciao Simonetta. Interesting assignment, which goes beyond the scope of this blog. I live in both countries, Italy and Japan (I’m in Tokyo now), and can give you my personal, simplistic point of view. There’s no connection between Japanese language and the Italian language, or any western language, except for a large number of words imported into the Japanese vocabulary through the katakana alphabet. Italian and Italy are very popular in Japan, obviously many Japanese go to Italy and study our language with good results. And vice versa. There’s a fortuitous similarity between the Italian and Japanese pronunciation of syllables and sounds, which makes the Italian vocabulary not too difficult to learn and fun to Japanese students. Opera and Italian traditional music are highly valued in Japan. Perhaps that’s a topic you may want to explore in more details. There are more qualified people out there to speak about that and answer your questions. I suggest you to just google Italian websites talking about that. There are plenty, broken down in detailed topics. It may be a good exercise for practicing your Italian. Japan is part of my personal life, I love being here and I love Tokyo. Ciao.