A useful idiomatic expression for indicating something is absolutely certain or blatantly obvious is Non ci piove. Non ci piove! No doubt about it! The literal translation of this phrase is It doesn’t rain on it, with piove meaning “it rains” and the particle ci meaning “on it.” Some possible English equivalents include: It’s often …
Imagine you are taking part in a heated discussion at work, and all of a sudden, one of your colleagues forcefully interrupts the conversation in order to assert their opinion. When someone aggressively enters a conversation, debate or discussion without waiting for their turn, you can describe their behaviour with the idiomatic expression entrare a …
The famous Italian proverb Chi dorme non piglia pesci – which literally translates to “those who sleep don’t catch fish” – suggests that simply lounging around will get you nowhere. Just as a fisherman must remain vigilant to catch a fish when it bites, achieving success requires constant readiness and action. Chi dorme non piglia …
At some point in our lives, we all end up blaming or criticising ourselves for something we have done, or perhaps should have done. In Italian, there is a very suitable idiomatic expression you can use to express this sentiment: mangiarsi le mani. mangiarsi le mani Mangiarsi le mani literally translates to “to eat one’s …
If you’re facing the wind or standing on the side of something that is exposed to the wind, you are described as being “windward” in English—for example, the windward side of a boat. In Italian, this concept is translated as sopravvento (sopra “above” + vento “wind”), which is also featured in a common idiom: prendere …
Whenever you narrowly manage to do something or just miss something, you can use the Italian idiomatic expression per un pelo, which literally means for a hair. Some possible English equivalents include by the skin of one’s teeth or by a hair’s breadth, but more often than not, we use simple adverbs such as nearly, …