Today, my husband and I discovered a brand-new technique to help our extremely fussy baby to sleep during the day: we hold him tightly in our arms while bouncing him on an exercise ball! The word for the intransitive verb to bounce in Italian is rimbalzare. It is formed from the prefix rin- (which is …
Today was a landmark in our son’s cognitive development. At just shy of 13 weeks, he figured out how to laugh (ridere) for the first time! Sadly it wasn’t directed towards either of us but rather a particular white wall in our house of which he’s grown very fond for some reason. Ah well, a …
When not in the midst of a short-lived diet regime, I have the terrible habit of binging on chips (or crisps as they are known in the UK) and French fries. There is something about their salty greasiness that just hits the spot! The word for both of these irresistible junk foods in Italian is …
One of the sweetest words in the Italian language is coccola (feminine), which is how you’d say cuddle or snuggle. An interesting fact about this word is that it usually appears in its plural form coccole. Ai bambini piccoli piacciono molto le coccole. Young children really like cuddles. When not referring to a sweet embrace, …
The word for train in Italian is, you guessed it, treno (masculine, plural: treni). It entered the language via the French word train, which in turn comes from the verb traîner meaning to drag. Some common verbs you will see used with treno include: Viaggiare in treno può essere veloce quanto prendere un aereo. Traveling …
The word for hat or cap in Italian is cappello (masculine, plural: cappelli). It derives from the Latin cappellus which in turn comes from the word cappa meaning hood. When pronouncing this word, it is very important to clearly enunciate the double pp so as to avoid confusion with the similar sounding capello, the Italian …