On a cold wintery day, few things are more comforting than curling up with a bowl of hot minestra (feminine, plural: minestre). Minestra is just one way of saying soup in Italian, and it has a fascinating history as we’ll discover in this article! Learn with our video Although minestra is now a generic term …
In Italian, there are two possible ways to translate the word old: Unlike vecchio, which can sound quite impertinent when talking about a person’s age, anziano is more polite and respectful. Il signore anziano sta camminando lentamente verso la piazza. The old gentleman is walking slowly towards the square. The feminine form of anziano is …
The Swedish band Abba may have made the expression popular around the world, but Italians have been using Mamma mia! as a mild expression of surprise, joy, annoyance, disappointment, anger and fear for years. It can translate in numerous ways in English including Oh my goodness! Wow! and Oh man! to name a few. Mamma …
A question you can expect to hear when visiting friends and family in Italy is Vuoi qualcosa da mangiare? which translates as Do you want something to eat? Vuoi qualcosa da mangiare? Do you want something to eat? Let’s take a quick look at the four words that make up this phrase: vuoi Vuoi is …
The Italian word for a glass or cup from which one drinks is bicchiere (masculine, plural: bicchieri). It is thought to derive from a dialectal form of old French, or possibly the Greek βῖκος (bikos). Learn with our video Ho fatto cadere il bicchiere e si è frantumato in mille pezzi. I dropped the glass …
