Italian Word of the Day: Spesso (often)

If you want to say that you carry out an activity often or frequently, you can always rely on the useful adverb spesso in Italian. spesso often The adverb originates from the adjective spesso, which means “thick,” sharing both pronunciation and spelling. This, in turn, can be traced back to the Latin word spissus. Spesso …

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Italian Word of the Day: Contento (happy / pleased / glad / content)

While it might be tempting to assume that the Italian adjective contento is the direct counterpart of the English content, it actually encompasses a slightly broader range of meanings as we’ll soon discover. The most common translations for contento are glad and happy. Like its English counterparts, it denotes a subdued or contained kind of …

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Italian Word of the Day: Folle (crazy / foolish)

Did you know that there are numerous ways to translate the word “crazy“ into Italian? One of the most frequently used translations is the adjective folle, which happens to be our word of the day! folle crazy / foolish The word comes from the Latin follem, meaning inflated ball or bellows, and by extension, an …

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Italian Word of the Day: Cetriolo (cucumber)

Cetriolo is the standard Italian word for cucumber. Is is derived from the Vulgar Latin citriòlum, and in turn from citrium, which comes from citrus (meaning “citron”). cetriolo cucumber Being a masculine noun, it takes the following definite and indefinite articles: Ricordati di prendere un po’ di cetrioli quando vai al supermercato. Remember to buy …

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Italian Word of the Day: Minuto (minute)

Each hour (ora) of the day consists of sixty minutes, which in Italian are known as minuti (singular: minuto). It comes from the late Latin minutum, which means particle, and is the neuter noun form of the adjective minutus. minuto minute Because minuto is a masculine noun, it takes the following definite and indefinite articles: …

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Italian Word of the Day: Già (already)

Out of all the small and widely used adverbs in Italian, già is undoubtedly one of the most important. Its most frequent translation in English is already and it comes from the Latin word iam of the same meaning. già already It is mostly used with the passato prossimo tense, appearing between the auxiliary verb …

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