Wherever there are fields with growing crops and birds in the vicinity, you will typically come across a scarecrow, known as spaventapasseri in Italian. They’ve long been used to dissuade these cunning winged gluttons from destroying the harvest. spaventapasseri scarecrow Spaventapasseri is made up of two parts: the verb spaventare (to scare) and passeri, the …
Halloween is just around the corner, so what better word to focus on than the adjective that best embodies the spirit of the holiday: scary. In Italian, there are five principal ways you can translate this word depending on the context. Let’s take a look at them now! 1. Pauroso Pauroso is one of two …
Both the English caramel and the Italian caramella derive from the Spanish caramelo, which in turn can be traced back to the Latin calamellus, the diminutive of calamus (sugarcane). Caramel and caramella can be considered false friends, however, in that the Italian word refers to any piece of candy or sweet made of sugar, whereas …
Scopa is the word for broom in Italian. It is a feminine noun that comes from the Latin scopae meaning twigs. The definite and indefinite articles you need to use with this word are as follows: la scopa = the broom le scope = the brooms una scopa = a broom (delle) scope = (some) …
In Christian and Jewish belief, the enemy of Dio (God) and the supreme spirit of evil is il Diavolo (the Devil), otherwise known as Satana (Satan). You will see this word written with both a capital letter ‘D’ and a lower case ‘d’. Generally speaking, the capital letter is used when referring specifically to Satan, …
Today’s ‘phrase of the week’ is part of our Italian Halloween Word series. On the days leading up to Halloween, we’ll post a word that is related to this spooky time of year. Enjoy! 🦇 Despite being an American invention, Halloween (which is pronounced ‘alloween without the initial ‘h‘ in Italian) has become increasingly popular …