Heather Broster
The word for hope in Italian is speranza (feminine, plural speranze). It bears no relation to the English word but if you understand some French, you’ll notice that it is similar to the word espoir. It is related to the verb sperare meaning to hope. Some other words with the same origin include: speranzoso = …
The word for cousin in Italian is cugino. Unlike the English word however, you can specify the gender of the person by changing the last letter of the word. A male cousin is a cugino and a female cousin is a cugina. There are also masculine and feminine versions of the plural cousins. Many male …
The word potere (masculine, plural: poteri) in Italian can act as either a noun or a modal verb. When used as the former, it translates as power in most cases. Both potere and power can mean various things depending on the context, including authority or special ability. Il capo del governo ha il potere di …
The expression “I would like…” is extremely useful to know in any language. In Italian, one common way of translating this phrase is “Mi piacerebbe…” which literally means “It would please me…“ Mi piacerebbe andare al cinema questa sera. I would like to go to the cinema this evening. Similar to “Mi piacerebbe…” is the …
If you are familiar with the English word felicity, then you will have no trouble guessing the meaning of our word of the day: felice (happy, cheerful). Because felice is an adjective that ends in e, the ending only changes when the subject is plural (felici). In the singular, it remains felice regardless of whether …
The mere mention of the word “Italy” is likely to conjure up thoughts of all the gastronomic delights one can experience when visiting or living there, including wine (vino), pizza, gelato and of course, pasta! In English and Italian, the mass noun pasta (feminine, plural: paste) refers to any dish consisting of dough made from durum wheat and …