The word for crossroads in Italian is bivio (masculine, plural: bivi). Like the English equivalent, bivio has both a literal and figurative meaning. In the literal sense, it refers to the place where two roads meet, whereas in the figurative sense, it denotes the point at which a crucial decision, which will have significant consequences, …
The Italian word for smoke is fumo (masculine, plural: fumi). If you have trouble remembering this word, I’ve found that it helps to think of the English term fume which shares the same origin. Related to fumo is the verb fumare which means to smoke in both the transitive and intransitive sense of the word. …
The word for smile in Italian is sorriso (masculine, plural: sorrisi). It derives from the verb sorridere (to smile) which in turn comes from the Latin subridere, the combination of sub (under) and ridere (to laugh). Another way to say to smile besides sorridere is fare un sorriso – literally to make a smile. The …
If you are in a hurry to get from point A to point B, you may prefer to take a scorciatoia (feminine, plural: scorciatoie) – the word for shortcut in Italian – rather than the long way around. The word is a combination of the verb scorciare, which means to shorten, and the instrumental suffix …
In order to say that something is smooth in Italian, you would use the adjective liscio. The opposite of liscio is the word ruvido (rough). As is the case with many adjectives in Italian, the ending of the liscio changes depending on whether you are talking about a masculine, feminine or plural subject: I neonati …
In linguistics, false friends (or falsi amici in Italian) are words in different languages that look or sound similar, but differ in meaning. One of my favourite examples is the English eventually and the Italian eventualmente, the latter of which is our word of the day. In English eventually is synonymous with the expressions prima …