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balla

bale

noun BAL-lah Rare
Communication Speech

Also means

tall tale

Usage Note

Balla has two distinct uses: a bale (of hay, cotton, or paper: una balla di fieno) and, colloquially, a lie or nonsense story (raccontare balle = 'to tell tall tales'). The plural is balle. The informal sense overlaps with bugia but balle is more dismissive and often plural (che balle! = 'what rubbish!'). Context always makes the sense clear.

Examples

"Non raccontarmi balle."

Natural Translation

Don't tell me tall tales.

Literal Translation

Not tell-me bales.

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