Italian Phrase of the Week: La vita è bella! (Life is beautiful!)

The phrase « Life is beautiful » translates as « La vita è bella » in Italian. It is made up of the following components: La (feminine form of definite article ‘the‘) + vita (life) + è (third person of essere ‘to be‘) + bella (feminine form of bello ‘beautiful‘). It’s important to note that …

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Italian Phrase of the Week: Non fa niente! (It doesn’t matter!)

If someone inconveniences you or unintentionally causes you offence, a handy phrase you can use to reassure or comfort him or her is Non fa niente, which is one way of saying It doesn’t matter in Italian. It is made up of the following components: Non (negation) + fa (third person of fare ‘to do/make‘) …

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Italian Phrase of the Week: Mica male! (Not bad!)

When expressing satisfaction, admiration or approval in Italian, it is perfectly acceptable to use overtly positive expressions such as Che bello! (How wonderful!), Fantastico! (Fantastic!) or Meraviglioso! (Marvellous!). However, in some cases, you may want to express a positive judgement using a litote (a negative, often ironic understatement that expresses a positive meaning). One frequently …

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Italian Phrase of the Week: Mi sono perso/a! (I’m lost!)

If you are travelling around Italy and somehow manage to lose your way despite having invested in a reliable map and travel book, fear not – you can always rely on the tried and tested method of asking the locals for help! 😀 To inform someone that you are lost in Italian, you can use …

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Italian Phrase: Buona serata! (Have a nice evening!)

If you’ve been learning Italian for a while now, you may already be familiar with the classic greeting Buonasera! which is how you say Good evening! in a formal context. Buonasera signore. Come sta? Good evening sir. How are you? If you want to explicitly wish someone a good evening however, it is necessary to …

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