The word for train in Italian is, you guessed it, treno (masculine, plural: treni). It entered the language via the French word train, which in turn comes from the verb traîner meaning to drag. Some common verbs you will see used with treno include: Viaggiare in treno può essere veloce quanto prendere un aereo. Traveling …
The word for hat or cap in Italian is cappello (masculine, plural: cappelli). It derives from the Latin cappellus which in turn comes from the word cappa meaning hood. When pronouncing this word, it is very important to clearly enunciate the double pp so as to avoid confusion with the similar sounding capello, the Italian …
Do you consider yourself the “huggy” type? Then you will love today’s word of the day! The word for hug in Italian is abbraccio. It derives from the verbs abbracciare (to hug) and abbracciarsi (to hug one another), which in turn come from the word braccio meaning arm. Abbraccio is a masculine noun starting with …
A few months ago, we wrote an article about the word moglie (wife), so now it’s time to talk about the other half of the equation! The word for husband in Italian is marito (masculine, plural: mariti). It comes from the Latin maritus which in turn is a derivative of mas / maris meaning male. …
If you happen to make some Italian friends whilst travelling around or living in Italy, at some point in the conversation you can expect them to inquire about your place of birth. The informal way to ask this question is: Di (of) + dove (where) + sei (second person of verb essere ‘to be’)? Where …
What is furry, cute and classified as both a house pet and a pest? Why, the humble mouse of course! The word for mouse in Italian is topo (masculine, plural: topi), which was originally a dialectal variant of talpa (mole). There are various synonyms for topo when referring to the family of rodent in Italian, …