There are numerous false friends in Italian and English, but few cause as much confusion as libreria and library. Although they share the same origin – the Latin word libraria – they mean two very different things. The Italian libreria has retained the original Latin meaning, bookshop or bookstore, whereas the English library denotes the …
Modo is a word that means various things in Italian, but three of the most common translations are way, method and manner. It derives from the Latin modus (“measure”) and can easily be recalled by thinking of the word mode in English. Because modo is a masculine noun beginning with a consonant, it takes the …
The Italian word for airplane is aeroplano. It derives from the Latin aer (air) and planus (plane) via the French aéroplane (which has since been replaced by avion). It is a masculine noun starting with a vowel, so it takes the following definite and indefinite articles: Contrary to popular belief, the everyday term for airplane, …
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 …
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 …
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 …