Heather Broster
The adjective pignolo (also written as pignuolo in rare cases) in Italian is used to describe someone who is fussy, pedantic or extremely meticulous in nature. Learn with our video It derives from the word pigna (pine cone), but precisely how it came to denote a fussy person is uncertain. According to Treccani, this figurative …
While forse (maybe) and magari (possibly) are perfectly good words for expressing a possibility or uncertainty, an expression you simply cannot ignore if you really want to sound fluent in Italian is può darsi. It is the combination of può (the third-person singular of potere ‘to be able‘) and darsi (the reflexive form of dare …
When you think of the word toast, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Probably a slice of bread (pane) that’s just popped out of the toaster (tostapane), covered in butter (burro), jam (marmellata), or peanut butter (burro di arachidi). Note: Toast isn’t pronounced /toʊst/ in Italian but /tōst/ with a long ‘o’ sound. …
The adjective lunatico in Italian is used to describe someone with a fickle and inconstant character, who is subject to mood swings or sudden outbursts of anger. Although it shares the same origin as the English word lunatic, its meaning is closer to moody or temperamental. Learn with our video Lunatico comes from the Latin …
Today’s Italian phrase will come in handy whenever you find yourself wondering about the mysteries of the universe! Mi chiedo perché. I wonder why. As is customary, let’s break it down into its component parts: Mi chiedo The verb chiedere means to ask but if you drop the -e of its infinitive ending and add …
Today’s word of the day is pianoforte (masculine, plural: pianoforti) which is how you would say piano in Italian. Learn with our video Composed of the words piano and forte (literally ‘soft and loud’), it is an abbreviation of the original name which Bartolomeo Cristofori gave his invention in the early 1700s: gravicembalo col piano …