If you learn one Italian word related to time today, make sure it is ora (feminine, plural: ore)! One of the most common translations of this word is hour, as in the time unit of 60 minutes measured by the clock. Questa lezione d’Italiano dura quasi un’ora. This Italian lesson lasts almost an hour. A …
The word for vacation or holiday in Italian is vacanza (feminine, plural: vacanze). Derived from the Latin vacantia, it is used for both the fixed holiday periods between school terms and periods of recreation or leisure, often spent away from home. If you are referring to an extended period such as the summer break or …
If you have young children or a pet that likes to roll around in the mud, one word you simply cannot do without is sporco, the Italian word for dirty. As with many adjectives, the ending changes depending on whether the subject is masculine, feminine or plural. Devo pulire la stanza perché è molto sporca. …
One of the seven colours that sits between arancione (orange) and verde (green) on the spectrum is giallo (yellow). It is also one of the three primary colours along with rosso (red) and blu (blue). It comes from the Latin word galbĭnus which means greenish-yellow or yellowish. Il giallo era il mio colore preferito quando …
The word for eye in Italian is occhio (masculine, plural: occhi). Just as in English, it refers to the physical body part but also has a number of figurative meanings related to sight. Mi è entrato qualcosa nell’occhio! Something went into my eye! Below is a brief selection of the many figurative expressions containing the …
Humans have used soap – or sapone (masculine, plural: saponi) in Italian – for washing, bathing and cleaning for millennia, with evidence of soap-like materials existing even in ancient Babylon. Soap that is used for bathing or hand-washing generally comes in two forms: saponetta (bar soap) or sapone liquido (liquid soap). Bisogna strofinare le mani …