There are so many words of the Neapolitan language that even the Neapolitans themselves cannot pronounce correctly. One of these is the word “sanfasò”. In reality sanfasò is not a real word, it is above all a way of doing a thing, an expression that indicates the sloppy way in which something is performed. A synonym of sanfasò in the Neapolitan language is the verb “arronzare” which means performing a task without obligation.
Sanfasò comes from the French phrase Sans Façon which in Italian means “alla buona” or “alla meglio”.
As we said before, many words of the Neapolitan dialect are incorrectly pronounced even by the Neapolitans. Most citizens of Naples say sanfasò like this: “sonfrasò”, or “alla sonfrasò”. This happens because often the speaker of the dialect does not know what certain words refer to, does not know where they derive from and above all cannot write them.
But when is it that the Neapolitans pronounce the word sanfasò? Especially when something is not done well. In every Neapolitan house, for example, every time you have to make a bed in the morning, a battle arises between mothers and children. If the son volunteers to make his own bed, or worse, he wants to make his parents’ bed, it is more than obvious that the mother on duty will reproach him for not having made the bed well and will tell him: “look what you’ve done, you always do things ‘alla sanfasò'”.
If, on the other hand, we are hanging out with our friends, it may happen that a friend of our crew is made fun of for being a guy who does things without particular attention. It therefore happens that if on a Saturday night it is up to him to drive the car to take friends around, he can be told this phrase: “As usually you do things without sense. You parked alla sanfasò”.
And more. If at home we find ourselves having to cook, we who know nothing about cooking, it is almost certain that the classic Neapolitan grandmother will make fun of us by saying: “Today you cook? Then we certainly eat at Sanfasò”.
Neapolitan Dialect Of The World 