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! 🦇 Twenty five years ago, when my husband was a child living in Turin, his knowledge of Halloween mostly came from …
Peekaboo, or il gioco del cucù (lit: the cucù game) as it is known in Italian, is a form of infant play in which the adult hides their face with their hands from the baby, and suddenly pops back into view while saying Cucù! in a high pitched, funny voice. It is thought that the …
In Italian, any verb that follows the plural first-person pronoun noi (we) must be conjugated with the ending -iamo in the present tense. This means that, for example, the infinitive andare (to go) becomes noi andiamo (we go), fare (to do/make) becomes noi facciamo (we do/make) and venire (to come) becomes noi veniamo (we come). …
If you happen to make some Italian friends whilst travelling around or living in Italy, at some point in the conversation you can expect them to inquire about your place of birth. The informal way to ask this question is: Di (of) + dove (where) + sei (second person of verb essere ‘to be’)? Where …
When giving someone a present on a special occasion, such as their birthday or at Christmas, we often accompany the act of giving with a phrase such as «This is for you». The way you would say this phrase in Italian ultimately depends on the grammatical gender of the gift in question. If it is …
If you have an Italian friend, significant other or relative whose special day is on the horizon, a sure-fire way to impress them is to learn how to say Happy Birthday in Italian! The official greeting is Buon Compleanno, with buon meaning ‘good‘ and compleanno meaning ‘birthday‘. Important: In Italian, felice (the actual word for …