One of the most common adjectives in Italian for someone who is sick or ill is malato. The feminine form is malata and their respective plurals are malati and malate. Just like its English equivalent, it can describe ailing plants and animals too. If you are only suffering from a minor sickness, you can say …
The word for clover in Italian is trifoglio (masculine, plural: trifogli). It comes from the Latin trifolium which is the combination of the prefix tri- (meaning three) and folium (meaning leaf). If the word trifoglio sounds familiar, that’s because clover is also known by the alternative common name trefoil in English. An average of around …
Focaccia (feminine, plural: focacce) is a popular type of Italian flat bread composed of a mixture of flour, water, salt, yeast and olive oil, which can be cooked either in the oven or on the grill. Origin of the word: The Italian word focaccia derives from the late Latin focus which refers to cooking on …
Today we are going to be looking at the pronominal verb infischiarsene which means to not give a damn about something or to not care in colloquial Italian. It is very similar in meaning to the more widely known verb fregarsene, albeit a little less vulgar. What is a pronominal verb, you might ask? Well, …
The Italian word for patience is pazienza (feminine, plural: pazienze). You can trace the origin of the word back to the Latin patienta meaning suffering. Learn with our video Some common verbs you’ll see used with pazienza include: Sto per perdere la pazienza! I’m running out of patience! In Italy, you will often hear the …
Don’t let the appearance of today’s word fool you: fattoria (feminine, plural: fattorie) is the word for farm in Italian, not factory! (If you’re interested in learning about even more “false friends” in Italian and English, check out our dedicated article!) It derives from the word fattore, the name for a person who manages a …