If you’ve been living in Italy for any amount of time, you will have surely come across the phrase va bene in conversation! Literally translating as (it) goes well, it can be used as a substitute for the affirmative responses okay, alright or (that’s) fine in English. Mangiamo fuori stasera? – Va bene. Shall we …
If you are brimming with confidence before a difficult task or simply feel ready to take on any challenge the world throws your way, here is the perfect Italian phrase for you! 🙂 Ce la faccio! is the way Italians say I can do it! It comes from the pronominal verb farcela, meaning to manage …
One of the safest and least vulgar ways of saying I don’t care in Italian is the phrase Non mi interessa, which literally means It doesn’t interest me. Non mi interessa che tu voglia andare a casa. Dobbiamo rimanere qui. I don’t care that you want to go home. We have to stay here. As …
If somebody asks you a question and you simply can’t think of the answer, the best (and most honest) way to respond is by saying I don’t know. In Italian, this phrase translates as (Io) non lo so. It breaks down as follows: Io (I) + non (negation) + lo (it) + so (know, first …
(Tu) sei carino/a! is how you would say You are cute! in Italian. If you are talking to a man, you need to make the adjective masculine (carino) whereas for a woman, you would choose the feminine carina. The reason I’ve put tu (you) in brackets is because in Italian, subject pronouns are optional if …
One of the most memorable scenes from the movie Eat Pray Love is when the protagonist Elizabeth (played by Julia Roberts) is sitting in a local barber shop, talking with her Italian tutor and his friend about the Italian expression Il dolce far niente. In the words of the tutor, this phrase translates as the …