Although Italian has gained the reputation of being a “phonetic language” – meaning that there is a direct relationship between the spelling and sounds – there are a few pesky letters that aren’t always pronounced in the same way. One such letter is C. In today’s article, we’re going to discover the different ways in …
The idioms are common in all languages, and each is inextricably linked to the language itself and the culture of the country from which it originates. This means that Italian expressions are not the same as those in English. In fact, when one has to translate a common saying from one language to the other, …
Sicilian, which in Sicily is known as sicilianu, is a Romance language like all the dialects distributed across the Italian Peninsula. With more than five million native speakers, mainly located in Sicily, this dialect descends from a variety of historical languages. This is owing to the geographical position of the island, located strategically in the …
When one thinks of Italy, the first language that undoubtably comes to mind is Italian, but did you know that multiple dialects and regional languages are spoken throughout the peninsula even to this day? This is because, up until the year 1861, Italy wasn’t a single unified nation but rather a conglomerate of states, each …
In all languages, including Italian, there are countless adjectives whose job is to add an extra layer of meaning to the words they describe. Of course, some adjectives are used more frequently than others because in spoken language, we tend to simplify concepts and repeat the same words over and over again. In this article, …
The air is getting colder, the streets are filled with colourful lights, the trees are covered in beautiful decorations: that’s right, Christmas is just around the corner! In Italy, Christmas is everyone’s favourite time of year. Children, in particular, spend Christmas Eve anxiously waiting for Santa Claus, the jolly fellow who has spent the entire …