Heather Broster
Marco Mengoni is currently one of Italy’s most famous singer-songwriters. He first rose to fame in 2009 after winning the Italian version of X-Factor. Then, in 2013, he won the Sanremo Music Festival with the song L’essenziale, earning him the right to represent Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest where he came in seventh place. …
When I first starting learning Italian, I remember attempting to translate the phrase “(That is) good to know!” in various ways, none of which were remotely correct. The most cringeworthy attempt was probably Bello di sapere quello! which generated quite a few laughs from my work colleagues. So let me save you the trouble I …
The word for a nail, as in the covering on the upper surface of the tip of the finger and toe in primates, is unghia in Italian. If you want to specify which part of the body you are referring to, you can use the terms le unghie delle mani (lit. the nails of the …
The word moquette in Italian comes from the French of the same spelling. It refers to the type of wall-to-wall carpeting found in the most important living spaces of the home, as well as the material from which it is made. Moquette is an invariable feminine noun. Invariable simply means that its form does not …
Most of you have probably come across the words dormire (the verb to sleep) and sonno (the noun sleep) at some point in your Italian studies. But did you know that there is another equally common way to talk about sleep in Italian? The word we’ll be looking at today is nanna, which is a …
A few years back, I remember being in the kitchen with my Italian mother-in-law, helping her prepare a shopping list for the week. The Monday meal was going to consist of her famous zucchini fritters, so I diligently started writing out the word: zucchini… “Zucchini? Don’t you mean zucchine?” she asked, peering bemused over my …