Heather Broster
It should be pretty easy to guess the meaning of the word momento just by mentally removing the word-final o! Momento comes from the Latin momentum, derived from the root of movere meaning “to move”. Because it is a masculine noun, it takes the following definite and indefinite articles: Aspetta un momento, non sono ancora …
Famigerato is an adjective that derives from the Latin word famigeratus, the past participle of famigerare meaning “to make famous”. In ancient Italian, the original meaning was famous, used in a positive or ironic sense, but over time, the meaning shifted to infamous or notorious. Adjectives such as famigerato always agree with the noun they …
The moment I entered an Italian bathroom for the first time, I was taken aback by the presence of a peculiar fixture resembling a secondary sink placed next to the toilet. Despite being completely and utterly unfamiliar with it, it didn’t require much imagination to deduce its true purpose! The bidet, pronounced as bidè in …
As you were crossing the street, your keys fell down the storm drain. Then, to add to your frustration, you missed the last train home. In English, we often say “When it rains, it pours” (or “It never rains but it pours“) to convey the idea that when one bad thing happens, other bad things …
When we answer the phone in English, and we don’t know who the caller is on the other end, we almost always start the conversation with the word “Hello?” with a rising intonation. Italians, on the other hand, will always respond with the word “pronto” which literally means “ready” or in this specific case, “ready …
If you find yourself tired of repeatedly using the conjunctions ma (but) and però (but / however), you might be interested in adding a more advanced conjunction to your vocabulary: eppure! In Italian, eppure is used to express a sense of contradiction or surprise. It is often translated as (and) yet, still or but in …