Heather Broster
The original meaning of the word cucciolo (plural: cuccioli) in Italian was puppy but it has since expanded to include any type of baby animal. If you want to specify which kind of baby animal you are talking about, simply add the preposition di (of) plus the name of the animal after cucciolo. For example: …
An interesting verb in Italian that doesn’t really have a precise English equivalent is sgranocchiare which means to eat crunchy foods that crumble easily. Some possible translations in English include to munch, to crunch or to nibble but none of them truly encompass all facets of the word. It is a derivative of the verb …
The word squarciagola in Italian, when preceded by the preposition a (at), is the equivalent of the idiomatic English expressions at the top of one’s lungs or at the top of one’s voice. Note that there is an equivalent expression in Italian: a pieni polmoni (lit. with one’s lungs full). It is a combination of …
A raspberry or Bronx cheer – known as a pernacchia (feminine, plural: pernacchie) in Italian – is a derisive and vulgar sound, performed by blowing through pursed lips with the tongue to obtain a noise similar to that of flatulence. /per·nàc·chia/ It derives from vernacchio which in turn can be traced back to the Latin …
They say that time flies when you’re having fun, so let’s indulge in a bit of fun ourselves by learning how to say ‘Time flies!‘ in Italian! The Italian equivalent of Time flies! is Il tempo vola! The only difference between the two phrases is that Italians say il tempo (literally the time) instead of …
The word for yesterday in Italian is ieri. Both this word and the ‘yester‘ in yesterday can be traced back to a common Indo-European root shared by the Latin heri and the Greek khthes. As in English, the Italian ieri can be divided into the four times of day: The day before yesterday can be …