Italian Word of the Day

We have officially entered the first days of July (i primi giorni di luglio) which means it is time to get out the swimsuits, sunscreen and the classic Spritz - one of Italy's favourite alcoholic summer drinks! IPA: /ˈlu.ʎo/ Luglio is the seventh month (settimo mese) of the year according to the Julian and Gregorian calendars. As is the case with all months of the … [Read more...] about Italian Word of the Day: Luglio (July)

The Italian word for mouth is bocca (feminine, plural: bocche), which comes from the Latin bucca meaning cheek. IPA: /ˈbok.ka/ Below are a few common verbs you'll often see used with bocca: aprire la bocca = to open one's mouthchiudere la bocca = to close one's mouthcoprire la bocca = to cover one's mouthtenere la bocca chiusa = to keep one's mouth shutmettere in bocca = to put in one's … [Read more...] about Italian Word of the Day: Bocca (mouth)

The word for breakfast in Italian is colazione (feminine, plural: colazioni). IPA: /co·la·zió·ne/ Traditionally, the first meal eaten just after waking up was referred to as la prima colazione (the first breakfast), whereas the midday meal was called la seconda colazione (the second breakfast). The latter has since been replaced by the word pranzo (lunch) but the term prima colazione still … [Read more...] about Italian Word of the Day: Colazione (breakfast)

The Italian word for nature is the similar sounding natura (feminine, plural: nature). It corresponds to the English meaning of the word in every sense as we'll discover below. IPA: /naˈtu.ra/ The first translation is the physical world that surrounds us including plants (piante), animals (animali), the landscape (paesaggio) and any other features or products of the earth. Noi esseri … [Read more...] about Italian Word of the Day: Natura (nature)

Peloso is an Italian adjective that may describe anything with a soft hair-like texture. This means that it can translate as any one of the following terms in English: fluffy, hairy, furry, fuzzy, wooly or shaggy. It comes from the word pelo which means hair. IPA: /peˈloso/ un gatto peloso = a fluffy catun braccio peloso = a hairy armuna foglia pelosa = a fuzzy/furry leafun tessuto peloso = … [Read more...] about Italian Word of the Day: Peloso (fluffy / hairy)

An adjective you simply cannot survive without in Italian is carino. The diminutive of caro (dear), it translates in many ways including cute, pretty, nice, kind and lovely to name a few. IPA: /ca·rì·no/ In Italian, adjectives always agree in gender and number with the nouns they modify. Those ending in o have four forms - masculine, feminine, singular and plural - as you can see … [Read more...] about Italian Word of the Day: Carino (cute / nice)