Heather Broster
Whenever you have a shower, jump in the bath or visit the beach, one thing you should never forget is your trusty asciugamano (masculine, plural: asciugamani), which is the Italian word for towel. A compound word made up of the verb asciugare (to dry) and mano (hand), it literally translates as hand-dryer! Mi sono asciugato …
Something all parents must teach their kids as they grow up is the importance of washing one’s hands, which translates as lavarsi le mani in Italian. This clause is made up of three parts: lavarsi (reflexive verb ‘to wash oneself‘) + le (definite article ‘the‘) + mani (‘hands‘) Below you can see the straightforward conjugation …
The word for courage or bravery in Italian is coraggio. It comes from the Latin cor meaning heart. If you are facing an intimidating situation, you may want to find ways to pluck up your courage, which in Italian translates as farsi coraggio or trovare il coraggio. È nei momenti più difficili che bisogna farsi …
The word for book in Italian is libro (masculine, plural: libri), which comes from the Latin word liber. If you find it hard to remember, just think of the English word library! Before the Latin word came to mean book, it indicated the inner bark of some plants which, when dried, was used as a …
In these times of hardship, people around the world are searching for ways to show solidarity with Italy on social media. In English, the hashtag #WeStandWithItaly has gone viral, but so has its Italian equivalent #SiamoConVoi (siamo con voi) which translates as We are with you. Since many of you are probably unfamiliar with Italian …
The word for quarantine in Italian is the extremely similar quarantena (feminine, plural: quarantene). Although today it refers to an indefinite period of isolation for people or animals exposed to infectious or contagious diseases, it was originally a 14th-15th century Venetian word used to describe a precise forty-day (quaranta giorni) period of isolation for the …