If you are familiar with the English word felicity, then you will have no trouble guessing the meaning of our word of the day: felice (happy, cheerful). Because felice is an adjective that ends in e, the ending only changes when the subject is plural (felici). In the singular, it remains felice regardless of whether …
The mere mention of the word “Italy” is likely to conjure up thoughts of all the gastronomic delights one can experience when visiting or living there, including wine (vino), pizza, gelato and of course, pasta! In English and Italian, the mass noun pasta (feminine, plural: paste) refers to any dish consisting of dough made from durum wheat and …
The name we give the bright star (stella) at the centre of our solar system is the Sun (Sole) with a capital letter S. The word sole can be used to describe not just the star itself but also the light (sunlight or sunshine) it generates. When referring to the light, you must use the …
In foreign countries, the noun gelato (masculine, plural gelati) is associated with a special kind of Italian ice cream. In Italy however, gelato refers to a wider range of ice cream and is therefore a more generic term. The family of gelati includes, for example: sorbetto = sorbet ghiacciolo = ice pop / ice lolly …
Many nouns and adjectives that end in -ct in English take the ending -tto in Italian. This includes words like oggetto (object), architetto (architect) and our “word of the day” perfetto (perfect). However, unlike English, the ending of perfetto changes depending on how many subjects are involved (singular versus plural) and the gender of the …
The greatest turning point in history for the human species was the discovery of fire, or fuoco in Italian (masculine, plural: fuochi). Mi sono seduto vicino al fuoco per scaldarmi. I sat beside the fire to warm myself up. In a figurative sense, fuoco can also be translated as hearth or flame (in the sense of …