Heather Broster
Is there someone in your life with whom you have a perfectly harmonious relationship? If so, you could describe your bond using the adjective affiatato. affiatato close / close-knit Affiatato can be translated as close or close-knit, but in English, it’s just as common to use wordier descriptions to illustrate the relationship. Let’s look at …
An everyday object we would struggle to live without is the humble busta. Let’s discover all the different meanings associated with this word! busta envelope / case / bag According to Treccani, the word busta derives from the Old French word boiste (which evolved into the modern French boîte, meaning box). This, in turn, comes …
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 …