Gazumping and Gazundering

Transcript:

Hello!

Today we are in England to we meet John and Mary.

John puts his home up for sale for £500,000. Mary visits the home, loves it and agrees to buy it for £500,000. They shake hands and smile.

Mary immediately calls her lawyer who does various property searches for her (£1,300). She also engages (ingaggia) a surveyor (geometra) who does a physical inspection of the property and writes a favourable report (£750), and a bank who agrees to give her a loan (booking fee: £150 and valuation fee: €500).

Three weeks later John meets Henrietta. He tells her that he is selling his home to Mary for £500,000.

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English words that the English do not understand

Transcript:

Hello!

Today we will look at some words that Italian people have borrowed from English, but which are used in a way that native English speakers would not easily understand. In bold is what you should say if want a native English speaker to understand you:

• Basket – The sport is called basketball in English. We use a basket” for picnics. If you say “Do you want to play basket?” We will understand “Do you want to play cestino?” You should say “Do you want to play basketball?“;
• Bar – The Italian “bar” is similar to an English “café“. For us a “bar” means a “pub” where coffee and tea are not served. If you say “Let’s go to the bar for breakfast”, I presume we will have beer and fish and chips;
• Block-notes or Bloc-notes – In English we call it a notepad;
• Body rental – Is a temporary staffing firm when referred to the company offering temporary staff, or temporary staff if referring to the person who is filling a temporary position;
• Box – “Box” means “scatola” in English. A car is parked in a garage;
• Box doccia – shower cubicle;
• Cotton fioc – We say Cotton bud (UK) or cotton swab (USA);
• Un discount – A Hard-discount supermarket. “Discount” only means “sconto” in English;
• Una fiction – A miniseries. “Fiction” means “storia o racconto di fantasia” in English;
• Un talent – A talent show. “Talent” means “talento” in English;
• Un golf – A sweater or a jumper or a jersey. “Golf” is a sport in the UK and USA;
• Un Mister – A football coach;
• Un night – A nightclub. On its own “night” only means notte in English;
• Un residence – A residencial hotel, a residency hotel or an extended stay hotel;
• Un happy hour – A happy hour is a time when drinks are sold cheaply, or half price, in a bar to encourage drinking and to get the bar full earlier. There is no equivalent for what Italians take to mean as “apericena”. At a Happy Hour in the UK or USA you drink a lot and pay very little. At a Happy Hour in Italy you drink very little and eat a lot!;
• Fare footing – Go jogging. “Footing” in English means “appoggio per i piedi“;
• Plum cake – Loaf cake. For us a plum cake means “torta di prugne“;
• Pullman – Luxury bus or coach;
• Pungiball – Punching bag or punching ball;
• Sexy shop – Sex Shop. “Sexy shop” to us would mean that the shop, itself, is very sexy (che il negozio stesso è sexy e affascinante);
• Social – We say Social network;
• Fare un po’ di social – to go onto social networking sites for a while;
• lo Smartworking – Working from home or Remote working. We have no idea what you mean if you say “He is in smartworking”. Please say “He is working from home“;
• Spot – TV advert. For us “spot” means macchia;
• Stage – Internship. “Stage” means “palcoscenico; palco“. Fare uno stage – to do an internship;
• Un ticket – pay the cost associated to a National Health Care System service;
• Tight – Morning Suit or Morning Dress;
• Un trolley – Roller bag or Suitcase with wheels. Trolley means “carrello da supermercato o da trasporto” in English, So if you say “I’ll take a trolley on my trip”, we understand that you will be using a supermarket trolley, like a homeless person;
• Tutor – Speed camera or Traffic enforcement camera;
• Water – Water closet or W.C. or toilet. “Water” on its own only means “acqua“;
• Un Writer – Graffiti writer or Graffiti artist;
• Un Babykiller or Baby Killer – Juvenile murderer. If you say “baby killer” an English speaker would understand “a person who kills babies”.

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Easement vs Profit à prendre

Transcript:

Hello!

Today we look at two interesting concepts in Land Law, namely an easement (servitù) and a profit à prendre (a volte servitù, o licenza, o usi civici).

Easements may arise (verificarsi) when you want to use another person’s land for a specific purpose, e.g., as a right of way for people, for telephone lines, gas pipelines, sewers (fognature), or for storage (stoccaggio).

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-er, -or and -ee names

Transcript:

Hello!

Names with reciprocal opposite relationships are often indicated by -er/-or and -ee endings in Legal English.

Generally the party who “does” or “gives” ends in -er/-or, while the party who “receives” ends in -ee. So, for example, an Employer is someone who gives employment to another person known as an Employee.

Lets look at some more common examples like this:

Assignor is a party who assigns or transfers something to another party.

Assignee is the party to whom something is assigned.

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The Objects Clause

Transcript:

Hello!

Before the Companies Act 2006 (CA 2006), every company was required to include an objects clause (oggetto sociale) in its memorandum of association (atto costitutivo). This objects clause set out the purpose for which the company was formed and limited the activities of the company to those set out (stabilite) in its objects clause. Any transaction that fell outside the objects clause was ultra vires, which means “outside the capacity of the company”, and therefore void (nulla). Today UK companies are no longer required to have an objects clause.

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