How to Say ‘Keep the change.’ in Italian
Tenga il resto.
TEN-gah eel RES-toh
[TEN-gah eel RES-toh]
💬 Usage Tip: [Tenga] is the polite form used with [Lei]. With someone you know well, it would be [tieni].
🇮🇹 In Italy: Saying [tenga il resto] is natural with taxi drivers, delivery riders, or at a café. In a full-service restaurant, people more often just leave a small tip rather than saying it out loud.
Phrase Breakdown
Tenga
[TEN-gah]
keep / take
Polite formal imperative of 'tenere'; here it means 'keep it.'
Tenga pure il resto, grazie.
Please keep the change, thank you.
il
[eel]
the
Masculine singular definite article.
Il resto è piccolo, tenga pure il resto.
The change is small, please keep the change.
resto
[RES-toh]
change
The money returned after you pay more than the total.
Non ho bisogno del resto.
I do not need the change.
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