One word in particular echoed throughout the shark documentary my son and I watched the other evening: torbido, used every few minutes to describe the murky depths with which the scuba-divers had to contend. torbido In English, we have the word turbid, which comes from the same Latin origin turbidus, but we would be more …
Imagine you’re sitting around a table with Italian friends. Dessert arrives — a gorgeous homemade torta (cake) — and someone says: Mica male questa torta! Non avevo mica capito che l’avessi fatta tu. This cake is really good! I had no idea you made it. Mica la rifaresti per il mio compleanno? Any chance you’d …
I don’t know about you, but I tend to be irresistibly drawn to words that sound exactly like the thing or action they describe. These onomatopoeic gems are relatively rare but I find that they infuse language with such flavour and vibrance, especially in one as naturally melodic as Italian! Today we will be talking …
I’m sure we’ve all met one of these people at least once in our lives: the colleague who laughs a bit too enthusiastically at the boss’s bad jokes, the student who showers the professor with compliments that would make even a Hallmark card blush. The kind of person who’s always super nice to someone important, not …
The other day, my friend Jean – with whom I run a series of Italian language immersion trips in Italy – admitted that she was still struggling with the correct usage of the conjunction finché in Italian. Surprised that I hadn’t already covered this word, I promised her I’d make it a priority, so here …
Imagine you’re in Venice, leaning dangerously off a vaporetto to capture the perfect shot of the Grand Canal (hard to resist, I know), when the ticket controller rushes over shouting: Non è sicuro!(It’s not safe!). Then, in full tourist mode, you book a local guide for the afternoon. Don’t worry, your hotel receptionist reassures you, è una guida …