Così is one of those amazingly versatile words in the Italian language with various meanings based on the context it’s used in. It serves not only as an adverb but also as a conjunction and an adjective, making it quite challenging to summarise in a single article. Nonetheless, let’s give it a shot! Before we …
If you find yourself tired of repeatedly using the conjunctions ma (but) and però (but / however), you might be interested in adding a more advanced conjunction to your vocabulary: eppure! In Italian, eppure is used to express a sense of contradiction or surprise. It is often translated as (and) yet, still or but in …
If you have started reading more advanced material in Italian, such as newspapers or journals, you will certainly have come across the word bensì. Composed of the words bene (good) and sì (yes), bensì is mainly used as a conjunction whose purpose is to introduce a statement that opposes or contradicts a previous statement. It …
The word nonostante in Italian is the combination of non (no / not) and ostante (the present participle of the verb ostare meaning to impede). It is used to express a contrast between two things and tends to be more common in writing than in speaking. While normally written as one word these days, the …
An Italian word that many of our readers and followers on Facebook have been requesting is allora, so let’s dive straight in! Allora is an extremely flexible word in that it can function as an adverb, conjunction or adjective depending on how it is used in a sentence. We’ve decided this article into three sections …
Mentre is an important conjunction in Italian that means ‘during the time that‘ or ‘at the same time as‘. It comes from the Latin dum interim via the old Italian domentre. In most cases, it translates as while (or whilst if you live in Britain) or as in English. Mentre stavo facendo la spesa, ho …