Heather Broster
The usage of the word mondo (masculine, plural: mondi), which translates as world, is more or less the same in Italian as it is in English. In its most literal sense, it can refer specifically to the physical planet that we inhabit (Earth), or to other heavenly bodies outside of our solar system. L’astronauta riesce …
If you’re anything like me, you probably spend much of the day on social media platforms such as Twitter, laughing at the funny interactions, rolling your eyes at the often pointless debates or just mindlessly scrolling. But did you know that Twitter can actually serve as a great tool for learning a new language? 😀 …
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that tesoro (masculine, plural: tesori) is the Italian word for treasure! The origin of both terms can be traced back to the Greek word thesauros (storehouse, treasure). Il pirata aveva seppellito il tesoro prima di morire. The pirate buried the treasure before he died. However what …
If you’ve been learning Italian for a while now, you may already be familiar with the classic greeting Buongiorno! which is how to say Good day! / Good morning! / Hello! in a formal context. Buongiorno. Come sta? Good morning! How are you? If you want to explicitly wish someone a good day however, it …
The word for trousers or pants in Italian is pantaloni. If you find yourself struggling to remember this term, simply think of the English word pantaloons! Both the Italian pantaloni and English pantaloons derive from the French pantalon, which in turn owes its name to the famous Commedia dell’Arte character, Pantalone, whose costume consists of …
Many tenses in Italian are formed by combining an auxiliary verb – either avere (to have) or essere (to be) – with the past participle of the main verb. These so-called compound tenses include the passato prossimo (present perfect), trapassato prossimo (pluperfect), futuro anteriore (future perfect), and trapassato remoto (preterite perfect). Whether the main verb …