Heather Broster
When I first started learning Italian, I found it perplexing that the word for table could be both tavolo (masculine) and tavola (feminine) depending on the context. If you too are confused, don’t worry – you are in good company! Tavolo (plural: tavoli) is the generic word for table, the ubiquitous piece of furniture found …
Read moreTavolo vs Tavola in Italian – What’s the difference?
In the biographical romantic drama Eat Pray Love, unfulfilled business woman Elizabeth Gilbert – played by Julia Roberts – leaves behind her marriage, house and high-flying job in America to embark on a year-long spiritual journey of self-discovery in Italy, India and Indonesia. Her first stop is Rome where she spends four month stint learning …
Read moreItalian Words and Phrases from ‘Eat Pray Love’ (The Movie)
One of the most well-loved creatures on the planet is the butterfly, known as farfalla (plural: farfalle) in Italian. If this word sounds strangely familiar, this is because farfalle is also a type of pasta whose shape resembles a butterfly. It is often referred to as butterfly pasta in English. Interestingly farfalla, cravatta di farfalla …
When we used to live in Turin, a week would never go by without a trip to one of our favourite local restaurants. After all, there is nothing quite like Italian cuisine! Ristorante (plural: ristoranti) is the Italian word for restaurant and as you can see, the spelling is very similar to the English word. …
When I was a kid back in Canada, my friends and I used to have competitions in class to see who could roll their Rs the longest, much to our teachers’ chagrin. Now, I don’t have many claims to fame from my school years, but I can proudly say that when it came to tongue …
Read more10 Beautiful Italian Words Beginning with the Rolled ‘R’
An Italian word that has an established place in the English language is graffiti which specifically refers to writing or drawings on public walls, usually done without permission and as a form of artistic expression. In English, graffiti is almost always used as if it were a mass noun but in Italian, you will encounter …
Read moreItalian Word of the Day: Graffiti (writing on walls)