Italian Word of the Day: Spigolo (corner / edge)

An important word to know if you have a baby or toddler wandering around the house is spigolo which means corner, angle or edge. It is used most frequently to talk about the edges of furniture (particularly tables), walls, boxes, and cubes. Spigolo is a masculine noun that begins with the consonants sp, so it …

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Italian Phrase: Spero di sì. (I hope so.)

A phrase used in Italian to say that you want something to happen or be true is Spero di sì which means I hope so. Let’s take a moment to break it down into its component parts. Spero di sì. I hope so. Spero is the first-person conjugation of the verb sperare (to hope). In …

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Italian Word of the Day: Soleggiato (sunny / sunlit)

After a number of vicious winter storms, the sun is shining for the first time in days, so what better word to talk about than soleggiato, which means sunny or sunlit. As you have probably inferred, it is a derivative of the word sole (sun). Being an adjective, the ending changes to match the gender …

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Italian Word of the Day: Pranzo (lunch)

Today we’re going to be discussing the meal that comes between colazione (breakfast) and cena (supper) which is, of course, pranzo (lunch)! Pranzo is a masculine noun that comes directly from the Latin prandium of the same meaning. It takes the following definite and indefinite articles: il pranzothe lunch un pranzoa lunch i pranzithe lunchesdei …

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italki Review for Italian: The best way to practise speaking?

Very few serious language learners will argue with me when I say that speaking – and I mean speaking a lot – is the key to learning a language to high degree of fluency. Indeed, the reason many learners never move beyond the beginner or intermediate stage is because they spend too much time studying …

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How to Pronounce “Arrivederci” in Italian

If you are taking Italian classes online or in person, you have likely come across the quintessential word for goodbye: arrivederci. Indeed, it is easily one of the most widely recognised greetings in Italian, along with buongiorno, buonasera and ciao. Arrivederci is made up of the following components: a = a preposition with multiple translations …

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