How to Use Sounds (Boh, Beh, Uffa & Oh) in Italian

Boh, che ne so?

“Boh, che ne so?” The baker’s nephew replied as we leaned against a wall at the edge of Orvieto.

I had just asked a slightly awkward question because all of the other Italian words I knew had taken leave.

The fact that I had just asked this acquaintance to share the depths of his soul with me was not the point. The point, in fact, was the complete Italian-ness of the sentence he had just said.

You could translate it to, “Eh, what do I know?”

If you’ve spent any length of time in Italy listening to Italians (or have watched snippets of Italian TV), you’ve heard all kinds of sounds used to express a spectrum of emotions.

These sounds, once mastered, will help you sound more like a native speaker, and after a while, they’ll be so natural that you’ll find yourself doing them in your native language, too.

In this article, I’m going to break down four sounds: boh, beh, uffa, and oh.

WORD 1: BOH

“Boh” isn’t the most refined word to use (particularly in formal situations), but it is common in everyday Italian.

So when and how do Italians use “boh”?