The word for the terrifying natural phenomenon known as an earthquake is terremoto in Italian (masculine, plural: terremoti), which comes from the Latin terrae motus meaning ‘movement of the earth’. Learn with our video An earthquake occurs when pressure, building up within rocks of the earth‘s crust (crosta terrestre), is released in a sudden burst …
The Italian word for planet is pianeta, which comes from the Greek planetes via the Latin planeta. Learn with our video It would be logical to assume that it is a feminine noun given that it ends in the letter ‘a‘, but it is actually masculine. This is likely because the archaic version of the …
The colour purple is known as viola in Italian. It comes from the Latin word of the same spelling. When used as an adjective, it remains invariable, or in other words, it has the same form in both the singular and the plural. For example: un vestito viola = a purple dress (masculine, singular) una …
The Italian word for hail, as in pellets of frozen rain, is grandine (feminine, plural: grandini). It derives from the Latin word of the same spelling. One way of translating the verb to hail is to use the verb cadere (to fall), as in cade la grandine (the hail falls), but it is just as …
The Italian word for flame is fiamma (feminine, plural: fiamme). Both the Italian and English words can be traced back to the Latin flamma of the same meaning. /fiàm·ma/ Some of the most common types of flames and the objects that produce them include: la fiamma di una candela = the flame of a candle …
The Italian word for life is vita (feminine, plural: vite). It shares the same root as the English words vital and vitamin, which is the Latin vita of the same spelling and meaning. In almost every sense of the word, it mirrors its English equivalent barring a few exceptions. For starters, it can refer, not …