One of the primary translations for building in Italian, as in a physical structure with a roof and walls, is edificio (masculine, plural: edifici). If you find it difficult to remember, just think of the English word edifice! Both the Italian and English terms derive from the Latin aedificium of the same meaning. L’edificio è …
The word for bird in Italian is uccello (masculine, plural uccelli), and it comes from the Latin aucellus. By transforming it into its diminutive form uccellino, you get the word for baby bird, fledgling or nestling. Below are various kinds of birds with which you might be familiar: L’uccello è entrato dalla finestra. The bird …
Summer is the season for strawberries, which are known as fragole (feminine, singular: fragola) in Italian. Just as in English, the word refers to both the plant and the fruit it produces. The common variety we buy from stores and markets tend to be grown in large strawberry fields (campi di fragole) by farmers and …
In Italian, the word tempesta (feminine, plural: tempeste) refers to any violent storm and may be characterised by strong winds (venti forti), thunder and lightning (tuoni e fulmini), heavy rainfall (forte pioggia), ice (ghiaccio), or winds carrying sand (sabbia), snow (neve) or hail (grandine). There are numerous names and varieties of tempeste in the Italian …
Today’s word of the day was my favourite vegetable as a child: the humble carrot or carota (feminine, plural: carote) in Italian. Once you’ve washed (hai lavato) and peeled (pelato) your carrots, there are numerous ways to prepare them. I always preferred eating raw carrot sticks (bastoncini di carote crude) as a child but these …
The word for the hair on one’s head is the plural capelli in Italian. The singular capello, on the other hand, usually refers to an individual strand of hair. This word is easily mixed up with the similar sounding cappelli, the plural of cappello, which is the Italian word for hat. You can hear the …