Heather Broster
The masculine noun equivoco is one way to translate the words misunderstanding, misinterpretation or crossed wires. If you are having trouble remembering this word, simply think of the adjective equivocal in English, which is just another way of saying ambigous or open to more than one interpretation. equivoco misunderstanding / misinterpretation It can be traced back to the …
Something we all harbour, whether we want to admit it or not, are secrets – some fairly innocent, others more nefarious! In Italian, the word for secret is, quite simply, segreto. segreto Segreto is a masculine noun that takes the following definite and indefinite articles: Luckily for us, segreto and secret are used almost identically. …
Sometimes there are words you cannot help but fall in love with, and for me, the verb sdrucciolare is one of them. It sounds just like what it describes – the act of slipping and falling (or nearly falling) on a very smooth and slippery surface. sdrucciolare to slip / to slide Whereas the more …
Metterci una pietra sopra is an Italian expression meaning to definitively put an unpleasant matter or argument, or to put a painful memory to rest. The imagery is pretty clear – by placing a stone on top of something, it becomes impossible to see and easy to forget. In many ways, it is similar to …
The verb guidare is fairly intuitive; its prefix clearly mirrors the English ‘to guide.’ While that is one possible translation, there is plenty more to discover. Let’s take a look now! guidare Before we begin, it’s worth mentioning that guidare is an -ARE verb, making it fairly easy to conjugate. Here it is in the …
A curious fact about the noun ospite in Italian is that is has a double meaning – it can refer to either a guest or a host. This is because, in Latin, the word hospes, from which ospite derives, alluded to the “reciprocity of the pact of hospitality” – or in other words, the idea …