If you’ve been living in Italy for any amount of time, you will have surely come across the phrase va bene in conversation! Literally translating as (it) goes well, it can be used as a substitute for the affirmative responses okay, alright or (that’s) fine in English. Mangiamo fuori stasera? – Va bene. Shall we …
The prickly shrub that bears red, pink, yellow or white flowers is called a rosa (feminine, plural: rose) in Italian. It is also the name given to the colour pink, presumably because many roses come in a pink shade. Questa rosa mi sembra più rosa che rossa. This rose looks more pink than red to …
The Italian word for colour, or color if you live in the States, is colore (masculine, plural: colori), both of which come from the Latin color. The seven most commonly cited and remembered colours of the rainbow (colori dell’arcobaleno), as defined by Isaac Newton, are as follows: Ci sono sette colori in un arcobaleno. There are …
The word for queen in Italian, which is regina (feminine, plural: regine), is easy to remember because it looks a lot like the verb to reign in English. Both words are related to the Latin term rex meaning king. Margherita di Savoia fu la prima regina consorte d’Italia. Margherita di Savoia was the first queen consort of …
Yesterday was the first day of March (il primo giorno di marzo) and that means that spring is only a few weeks away! 🙂 Marzo is the third month (terzo mese) of the year according to the Julian and Gregorian calendars. As is the case with all months of the year, marzo isn’t capitalised in …
The Italian word succo (plural: succhi), meaning juice in English, comes from the Latin succus. An easy way to remember this word is to think of the term succulent (full of juice). It is closely related to the verb succhiare meaning to suck, presumably because at the time, people would suck on the fruit to …