A term used to indicate “good manners” in many languages across Europe is etiquette, such as the Italian etichetta, the Spanish etiqueta and the French étiquette. It can be traced back to the old French estiquier / estiquer, meaning “to drive, affix, attach”. Owing to the addition of the diminutive suffix -etta in Italian, the …
One of the very first Italian adjectives you should learn as a beginner is freddo, which means cold. ‘Freddo’ as an adjective As with all adjectives, the ending changes in accordance with the gender and/or number of the subject in question. Much like the English word cold, you can use freddo to describe anything characterised …
A spuntino in Italian can be defined as a quick, light snack eaten either between main meals or in place of one of them. According to Treccani, its etymology is unknown, whereas Il Devoto–Oli maintains that it derives from the word spunto. Spuntino is a masculine noun, and the plural is spuntini. lo spuntinouno spuntino …
Italian and English are full of cognates, but some are used more frequently in one language than in the other. This is certainly the case with the Italian word presentimento, which, unlike the English equivalent presentiment, occupies a valuable place in the core lexicon of most Italians. Presentimento, which can be defined as an intuitive …
The word for knife in Italian is coltello. It comes from the Latin cultellus which in turn is the diminutive form of the word culter (knife). Here are the definite and indefinite articles that must be used with this masculine noun: il coltellothe knife un coltelloa knife i coltellithe knives dei coltelli(some) knives A few …
As I was taking my son to nursery school early this morning, I noticed him looking at the sidewalk and grass, mesmerised by the shimmering layer of brina (frost / hoarfrost) that had powdered them white overnight. Brina is a feminine noun whose plural form is brine. (Note, however, that the plural form is very …