Today, we’re going to look at a simple phrase that can be useful both for sincerely acknowledging someone’s good fortune and for making a slightly sarcastic remark about their happy circumstances, often with a touch of envy: Beato te!
Beato te!
Lucky you!
Beato te! is essentially the equivalent of Lucky you! in English, with the feminine equivalent being beata te. If you are addressing more than one person, the equivalent plural forms would be beati voi (for a group of men, or a mixed group) and beate voi (for a group of women).
As one of our readers on Facebook observed, beato doesn’t actually mean lucky – the translation for this is fortunato. In a religious context, it can mean blessed, sainted or consecrated, whereas in a more general sense, it equates to happy or content.
San Francesco è considerato beato per la sua vita di fede e devozione.
Saint Francis is considered blessed for his life of faith and devotion.
Mentre noi corriamo da una parte all’altra, lei se ne sta beata sul divano.
While we’re running around everywhere, she’s happily sitting on the couch.
So, if we take beato to mean happy or content in this context, the expression can be understood as literally meaning “Happy you!”
Oggi mi lasciano stare a casa tutto il giorno. – Beato te!
Today they’re letting me stay at home all day. – Lucky you!
Ho vinto alla lotteria! – Beato te…
I won the lottery! – Lucky you…
In this expression, te is the stressed object pronoun, which is commonly used in exclamations and comparisons, such as the following:
- Povero te! = Poor you!
- Stupido me! = Stupid me!
- Disgraziato me! = Woe is me! (literally “disgraced me”)
Heather Broster is a graduate with honours in linguistics from the University of Western Ontario. She is an aspiring polyglot, proficient in English and Italian, as well as Japanese, Welsh, and French to varying degrees of fluency. Originally from Toronto, Heather has resided in various countries, notably Italy for a period of six years. Her primary focus lies in the fields of language acquisition, education, and bilingual instruction.
