As children, many of us are fascinated with the process by which a bruco (masculine, plural: bruchi) – the Italian word for caterpillar – turns into a butterfly (farfalla). The story begins with a caterpillar hatching from an egg (uovo). The caterpillar then stuffs itself with leaves, growing fatter and longer until one day, it …
There are four main ways to translate the Italian adverb presto into English: early and soon, which are the most common translations, and quick and easy. Let’s take a look at each translation now! Presto = Early One of the most common translations of presto is early. The opposite of the adverb tardi (late), it …
At some point in time, we’ve all found ourselves laughing uncontrollably at a funny situation or a hilarious joke. In English, we call this unstoppable laughter the giggles whereas in Italian, it is called la ridarella (feminine). The word comes from the verb ridere meaning to laugh. To say that you’ve got the giggles in Italian, …
The word for aunt in Italian is zia (feminine, plural: zie). It comes from the Latin word thia and, as in English, is used to describe the sister of one’s mother or father, or the wife of one’s uncle (zio). To describe the latter, the term zia acquisita (aunt by marriage) is often used. Mia zia abita in Italia da dieci anni. My aunt …
When I lived in Turin, I always looked forward to paying a visit to my local panetteria (feminine, plural: panetterie), which is the Italian word for bakery. In addition to various types of homemade bread (pane), the counter was always piled up with breadsticks (grissini), pastries (pasticcini), slices of focaccia, farinata and pizza, and various …
The word for angry in Italian is arrabbiato. It is also the past participle of the verbs arrabbiarsi (to get angry) and far(e) arrabbiare (to anger). Because it is an adjective, the ending of arrabbiato changes depending on whether you are talking about a solitary male (arrabbiato), a solitary female (arrabbiata), a group of males …