Heather Broster
Accidenti! is one of the mildest interjections found in Italian. The plural of accidente (mishap or sudden illness), it is used to express a variety of emotions including wonder, anger and annoyance. Learn with our video Did you know that…?Accidenti is actually the ellipses of expressions such as ti arrivino degli accidenti or ti vengano …
The most literal translation for the verb spopolare in Italian is to depopulate. Formed from the prefix s- (which in this case denotes a removal or reversal) and the verb popolare (to populate), it is used when a group of people dies or moves away, reducing the population. Learn with our video L’epidemia ha spopolato …
Recently one of our readers asked us to write an article explaining the different uses for magari in Italian. Given that this is one of our all-time favourite words, we were more than happy to oblige! Magari = maybe / perhaps The translation for magari which learners find easiest to comprehend is maybe or perhaps. …
The best way to translate the phrase I don’t think so in Italian is, quite simply, Non penso which literally means I don’t think. The phrase is composed of two words: non is used to give a negative sense to a sentence, especially in front of a verb. It is the equivalent of not in …
Olio di oliva – or olive oil in English – is technically three words, but they appear together so often that we figured you’d let us off the hook, just this once! 😉 Olio is a masculine noun. To create the plural form, just get rid of the ending -o and you have oli, and …
The Italian word infatti is a useful conjunction whose purpose is to confirm, prove or justify a previous statement, much like the English terms in fact, as a matter of fact and indeed. Learn with our video Here is an example that shows how infatti can be used in a sentence. Non mi piace il …