Vergogna (feminine, plural: vergogne) is a very useful Italian noun that translates as shame, disgrace or embarrassment in English depending on the context. Below are a few common verbs you’ll see is the company of vergogna: sentire / provare vergogna = to feel shame (non) conoscere la vergogna = to (not) have a sense of …
There is a great Italian word for someone who eats with his mouth open, talks back to his parents, and disturbs other people by making too much noise, and that is maleducato. Maleducato translates into English as rude, impolite or ill-mannered and may refer to a person’s speech or behaviour. A volte quel ragazzo è …
The word for curse in Italian is maledizione (feminine, plural: maledizioni). It is composed of two parts: male (meaning bad or evil) and dizione (meaning diction or speech). Related to the noun is the verb maledire (lit: to say bad) which means to curse or to damn. Another more complex way of saying the same …
Today’s word of the day is something extremely annoying and sometimes quite hard to get rid of: the hiccups (also spelled hiccoughs) which in Italian translates as singhiozzo (masculine, plural: singhiozzi). It comes from the verb singhiozzare meaning to hiccup (when referring to a human being) or to go by fits and starts (when talking …
Scarpetta in Italian is the diminutive of scarpa, the word for shoe or boot. It refers to any small shoe including a child’s shoe, a small and elegant shoe that ladies wear, or a flat sports shoe made of light and flexible material such as canvas or rubber. The idiomatic expression fare la scarpetta (lit: …
Whenever you don’t feel up to doing something, perhaps due to tiredness or simply because you aren’t in the mood, you can use the phrase Non mi va! which roughly translates as I don’t feel like it! / I don’t fancy it! / It doesn’t sit well with me! in English. This expression is made …