Heather Broster
Whenever someone asks me how to say “to tease” or “to take the mickey” in Italian, my first instinct is to teach them the expression prendere in giro, simply because it is the most commonly used translation. Those who wish to amplify their vocabulary, however, may be interested in a similar expression which replaces giro …
One word in particular echoed throughout the shark documentary my son and I watched the other evening: torbido, used every few minutes to describe the murky depths with which the scuba-divers had to contend. torbido In English, we have the word turbid, which comes from the same Latin origin turbidus, but we would be more …
When we want to describe something that ends in an exciting, impressive, successful or spectacular manner, we can use the following expressions in English: In Italian, every single one of these expressions can be encapsulated by chiudere in bellezza, which literally translates as “to close in beauty”. An alternative expression is finire in bellezza, which …
I don’t know about you, but I tend to be irresistibly drawn to words that sound exactly like the thing or action they describe. These onomatopoeic gems are relatively rare but I find that they infuse language with such flavour and vibrance, especially in one as naturally melodic as Italian! Today we will be talking …
The other day, my friend Jean – with whom I run a series of Italian language immersion trips in Italy – admitted that she was still struggling with the correct usage of the conjunction finché in Italian. Surprised that I hadn’t already covered this word, I promised her I’d make it a priority, so here …
In Italian, if you want to say that something is easy to do, you might say è facile / semplice (it’s easy), è molto facile / semplice (it’s very easy), or è facilissimo / semplicissimo (it’s very easy). All these expressions are just fine, but if you want to go for something a bit more …