Italian Word of the Day: Orecchio (ear)

Today we’re going to be talking about a very important body part: the ear! Before we begin, it’s important to clarify that there are two forms that derive from the Latin auriculam: the masculine noun orecchio and the feminine noun orecchia. The masculine singular orecchio is the most common form used to indicate the organ …

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Italian Word of the Day: Mano (hand)

Mano, which is the word for hand in Italian, has its origins in the Latin word manus, which also means hand. A curiosity about this word is that, despite ending in the letter o (which is usually associated with masculine nouns) mano is actually feminine. This is because the Latin manus is a fourth-declension feminine …

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Italian Word of the Day: Certo (certain / sure / of course)

Certo is the Italian word for certain or sure. It derives from the Latin certum, the past participle of cernĕre meaning “to distinguish”. Being an adjective, its form changes to match the gender and/or number of the noun it describes. We should start out with some good news for English speaking learners: certo covers more …

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Italian Word of the Day: Mare (sea)

Do you enjoy spending time by the seaside? Then you will love today’s word! The sea in Italian translates as mare, which should be easy to remember as it closely resembles the English word marine. It derives from the Latin mare of the same spelling. It is a masculine noun that takes the following definite …

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Italian Word of the Day: Porta (door)

The Italian word for door is porta. It comes from the Latin porta of the same meaning. If you have trouble remembering this word, try and associate it with the English word portal! Porta is a feminine noun whose ending changes from -a to -e in the plural. It takes the following definite and indefinite …

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Italian Word of the Day: Città (city / town)

The word for a city in Italian is città. It is derived from the Latin civitatem, a derivative of civis meaning “citizen“. It generally refers to any human settlement of considerable size with streets, public services, and a local administration. Because it is an invariable feminine noun, the plural form is the same as the …

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