Heather Broster
It is believed that the words jewel and gioiello (masculine, plural: gioielli) are both derived from the Latin word iocus, meaning joke or jest. In its plural form, gioielli translates as either jewels or the mass noun jewellery. Mia nonna tiene tanti gioielli dentro una scatola nella sua stanza. My grandma keeps lots of jewellery inside a box …
One look at the Italian word silenzioso and you can easily guess that it means quiet or silent in English. Because it is an adjective, the ending changes depending on the subject’s gender and number. Mi piace lavorare in questa stanza perché è molto silenziosa. I like working in this room because it is very …
One of the safest and least vulgar ways of saying I don’t care in Italian is the phrase Non mi interessa, which literally means It doesn’t interest me. Non mi interessa che tu voglia andare a casa. Dobbiamo rimanere qui. I don’t care that you want to go home. We have to stay here. As …
When Italians talk about money, they normally use the word soldi in everyday conversation. It is the plural of the word soldo, the name given to the Italian medieval silver coin, issued for the first time by Emperor Enrico VI in the late 12th century. The name derives from the late Roman coin solidus. Ho risparmiato abbastanza …
Fare (to do or to make) is one of the most frequently used verbs in Italian along with avere (to have) and essere (to be), so it shouldn’t come as a great surprise that it appears within a plethora of idiomatic expressions. In this article, you’ll find 15 of the most commonly used idioms with …
We’ve already looked at the word for woman (donna), so now it’s time to look at the other half of the human equation! The word for man in Italian is uomo (masculine, plural: uomini). Similar to English, the word uomo can be used to refer to an adult human male or more generally, the human …