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a correre
gg clin 5

Glossary entry

Italian term or phrase:

chi ben comincia è a metà dell’opera

English translation:

Well begun is half done

Added to glossary by Greta Bertan (X)
Jan 12, 2012 09:13
12 yrs ago
4 viewers *
Italian term

chi ben comincia è a metà dell’opera

Italian to English Art/Literary General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters old adage
I don't need a translation but is there an equivalent adage in English to this?:

chi ben comincia è a metà dell’opera
Proposed translations (English)
4 +1 Well begun is half done
4 +7 a good start is half the battle
4 +1 starting off on the right foot is half the battle
4 start well and you are already half way there
4 a good start is half the work
4 Well Begun Is Half Done OR A good start is half the job done
References
Aristotle
Change log

Jan 17, 2012 11:09: Greta Bertan (X) Created KOG entry

Discussion

James (Jim) Davis Jan 12, 2012:
Ghits Brilliant Google: a search on Google.com and on Google.it gives 171,000, but if you are hungry for hits go to Google.co.uk and you get nearly double at 324,000. It seems they have done the impossible: a computer that can't count! Some terribly male chauvinist quips come to mind, but I'll zip my lips.
Oliver Lawrence Jan 12, 2012:
Ghits http://www.google.co.uk/search?num=20&hl=en&lr=&q="a good st...
James (Jim) Davis Jan 12, 2012:
@Oliver Can you paste in the URL, please. Re "counts for the first page are notoriously unreliable". I find that only occasionally you get your 'batman' phenomenon, where Google posts several thousand hits. Consequently, I often check this, when it seems suspect by looking at the bottom of the page, where you see that there are less than ten pages of hits. If you then click on the last page (seven in the batman case), you see the real number of hits actually posted by Google (69).
Oliver Lawrence Jan 12, 2012:
Ghits Searching for the entire phrase "a good start is half the battle" (with quotes) in Google gives me 324,000. Perhaps if you go down a few pages the hit count will change; counts for the first page are notoriously unreliable (eg Google immediately claims 10,700 hits for "well played batman" for me, even though there are only 8 pages; on page 8 the count droops to a pitiful 74).
James (Jim) Davis Jan 12, 2012:
@Eileen If you restrict "Well done is half done" to the UK then all you get is 12,300, which would explain why I from England have never heard of it. The rest is mainly on .com sites, half of which tend to be American and the other half "the rest of the world"

https://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&=&q="Well...
Restricting it to US universities (.edu) you get 26,300, twice as many as for the whole of the UK, so it would seem to be of Ancient Greek origin and commonly used in the United States today, but rare in the UK.
Eileen Cartoon (asker) Jan 12, 2012:
I also got 171,000 hits, but got 1,880,000 for well begun is half done
James (Jim) Davis Jan 12, 2012:
@Oliver Neat putting "good start" with "half the battle". I'm curious about your Ghits. I only got 171,000, which is fair number. https://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&=&q="a go...
How did you get 370,000? The maths for this in terms of probabilities of a six word combination in order is fascinating. I wish Google would give more info on their algorithms for hit counts.

Proposed translations

+1
2 mins
Selected

Well begun is half done

Peer comment(s):
neutral James (Jim) Davis : I've never heard of this one before, Is it US English? // Nope it is ancient Greek: https://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&=&q="Well...
2 mins
I don't know, anyway it does not sound completely new to me...http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/Well begun is half done
neutral Gad Kohenov : Sorry, I didn't see you already posted one of my answers!
2 hrs
it doesn't matter, it happens!
agree Denise DeVries
3 hrs
Thank you, Denise!
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you, I had never heard this one before but after you suggestion I found many hits. Thanks again"
4 mins

start well and you are already half way there

No I know of no equivalent saying, however this translates so easily that I don't think it matters. Alternatively:
"Get a good start and you are already half way there".
Something went wrong...
+7
29 mins

a good start is half the battle

324000 Ghits, hence pretty safe to say it's widely used
Note from asker:
Thank you. If I were to translate it this would have been my translation. However, I chose to go with "Well begun is half done" because it sounds more like a true and proper adage. Thanks again
Peer comment(s):
agree Theodora OB
9 mins
agree James (Jim) Davis : Nice one: a combination of two sayings. See discussion, where there is extra space.
21 mins
agree Isabelle Johnson : Agree
44 mins
agree Linda Thody
4 hrs
agree philgoddard
4 hrs
agree Glinda : perfect
7 hrs
agree Dominique Broady
1 day 3 hrs
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56 mins

a good start is half the work

like Oliver's version, but this is the version I'm most familiar with. 430,000 Ghits http://www.google.it/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4RNWN_enIT235IT235&q...
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+1
1 hr

starting off on the right foot is half the battle

...hopefully this helps
Peer comment(s):
agree Peter Cox
58 mins
Something went wrong...
2 hrs

Well Begun Is Half Done OR A good start is half the job done

2 suggestions.
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Reference comments

3 hrs
Reference:

Aristotle

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