The adjective dolciastro, which derives from the more commonly known adjective dolce (sweet), refers to anything that is sweet in flavour, but not pleasant. Some possible translations include sickly sweet or cloying. Adjectives such as dolciastro always agree with the noun they describe, which means that they have to demonstrate whether they are masculine, feminine, …
You may be as surprised to learn as I was that there is a single verb in Italian that means “to wag its tail” in Italian which is scodinzolare. scodinzolare to wag one’s tail Scodinzolare is a regular -are verb, so it can be conjugated in the following manner in the present tense: (io) scodinzolo …
Today we have a word that I actually heard for the first time while playing the game Memory with my son. The theme of the game was animals, many of which were quite obscure! colibrì hummingbird Colibrì is an invariable masculine noun. Invariable is just a fancy way of saying that its singular and plural …
The masculine noun stento in Italian is used to describe a situation of severe suffering or privation, much like the word hardship in English. stento hardship It derives from the verb stentare which translates as to struggle, to find difficult or to scrape by. Because stento begins with the letters st-, it takes the following …
Today we’ll be looking at a verb that was suggested by one of the members in our fantastic Facebook community: costeggiare. costeggiare Costeggiare is a regular -are verb, so it can be conjugated in the following manner in the present tense: (io) costeggio (tu) costeggi (lui) costeggia (lei) costeggia (Lei) costeggia (noi) costeggiamo (voi) costeggiate …
I happened to hear today’s word while listening to my favourite Italian radio station, Radio Italia, where they were discussing the unusually hot temperatures that have gripped Italy over the past week. In some places in the south, the mercury has soared past the 40°C / 104°F mark. Arroventato is an adjective that translates as red-hot …