Heather Broster
English speakers are taught from an early age that putting more than one negative in a sentence is grammatically incorrect. In fact, I’m sure my English teacher would have had a fit had I ever written “I don’t have nothing,” in one of my essays! Not so in Italian! In the language of love, it …
As languages go, I would classify Italian as one of the easiest to learn for English speakers, at least in terms of pronunciation. A big advantage is that it is a highly phonetic language – unlike English and French, for example – so what you see written on paper is very close to how it …
The Italian word for rainbow is arcobaleno (plural: arcobaleni). It is composed of two words: arco (arch) and baleno (flash, flare). arcobaleno rainbow As a masculine noun that begins with a vowel, it takes the following definite and indefinite articles: l’arcobalenoun arcobaleno gli arcobalenidegli arcobaleni Ho visto un arcobaleno dopo il temporale. I saw a …
The word faccia (plural: facce) in Italian is the most widely used term for face. faccia face Here are its definite and indefinite articles: la facciauna faccia le faccedelle facce Mi sono lavato la faccia stamattina. I washed my face this morning. Below are the main componants that make up a human face: It is …
If you’ve just met someone new in Italy, one of the first things you’ll want to find out in order to avoid an embarrassing situation in the future is their name! (That is, if you manage to remember it, of course!) The most common way to ask What is your name? in Italian in an …
Italian, like many other romance languages, has formal and informal registers. The purpose of formal speech is to show respect. It may be used when addressing a stranger (especially someone older than you) or superiors such as your boss. It is also the default register for those who provide a service such as shopkeepers or …