The prickly shrub that bears red, pink, yellow or white flowers is called a rosa (feminine, plural: rose) in Italian. It is also the name given to the colour pink, presumably because many roses come in a pink shade. Questa rosa mi sembra più rosa che rossa. This rose looks more pink than red to …
The Italian word for colour, or color if you live in the States, is colore (masculine, plural: colori), both of which come from the Latin color. The seven most commonly cited and remembered colours of the rainbow (colori dell’arcobaleno), as defined by Isaac Newton, are as follows: Ci sono sette colori in un arcobaleno. There are …
The word for queen in Italian, which is regina (feminine, plural: regine), is easy to remember because it looks a lot like the verb to reign in English. Both words are related to the Latin term rex meaning king. Margherita di Savoia fu la prima regina consorte d’Italia. Margherita di Savoia was the first queen consort of …
The word for adventure in Italian is the similar-sounding avventura (feminine, plural: avventure)! Both words are based on the Latin term adventurus meaning ‘about to happen‘. Il nostro viaggio in Galles è stato un’avventura. Our trip around Wales was an adventure. Whereas in English, the significance of adventure is generally limited to an unusual, exciting …
Ombra (feminine, plural: ombre) is the word for both shadow (the dark shape cast behind an illuminated body) and shade (the darkness created by direct shelter from sunlight). In Italian, there is no real distinction between these two concepts. L’albero proiettava un’ombra sul marciapiede. The tree cast a shadow on the footpath. Mi sono seduto all’ombra …
Yesterday was the first day of March (il primo giorno di marzo) and that means that spring is only a few weeks away! 🙂 Marzo is the third month (terzo mese) of the year according to the Julian and Gregorian calendars. As is the case with all months of the year, marzo isn’t capitalised in …