to take a whirl

15:02 Mar 23, 2009 

meaning of the "provarci" in this sense (the speaker is really an old aviator, the kind of... what's in English? a real man, a hard man, you know? sort of cowboy of the air....). Thank you too. Cristina

14:51 Mar 23, 2009 

It is important to understand the register, which is informal and also the sort of language that flyers, (especially older ones?) tend to use, which downplays skill or risk. Taking a whirl at something, or giving something a whirl, means having a go with a hint of uncertainty of success. I suspect this derived from an RAF expression about taking a plane for a whirl - a short flight, possibly a test flight.

13:23 Mar 23, 2009 

If you want to translate it, "Here take it for a whirl" -would be -"Here, you fly it for a while"

13:16 Mar 23, 2009 

, unless you can think of a clever way of incorporating it.

13:13 Mar 23, 2009 

Hi ciumbino, under no circumtances could it mean do a loop-the-loop, irrespective of the pilot's ability, that's just not how we say it in English. If translating it to Italian I'd translate 'took a turn' or 'took the controls' and forget the word 'whirl'

13:06 Mar 23, 2009 

I meant wrong...

13:05 Mar 23, 2009 

You based your "neutral" on: "Unlikely for a beginner"... do you mean that, if this beginner is a ... genius of the aviation (I can't find the right word now, but I think you understood), grammatically also this interpretation could be right? Because this is my case: this woman is a wonderful pilot, and rather daring. So, if grammatically it could be... I'm again in my doubt: both interpretations could be right........ On the other hand, if this is uncorrect, the proposal of Wil seems to be the one for me... Thanks again. Cristina