Italian Word of the Day: Colazione (breakfast)

The word for breakfast in Italian is colazione (feminine, plural: colazioni). Traditionally, the first meal eaten just after waking up was referred to as la prima colazione (the first breakfast), whereas the midday meal was called la seconda colazione (the second breakfast). The latter has since been replaced by the word pranzo (lunch) but the …

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Italian Word of the Day: Natura (nature)

The Italian word for nature is the similar sounding natura (feminine, plural: nature). It corresponds to the English meaning of the word in every sense as we’ll discover below. The first translation is the physical world that surrounds us including plants (piante), animals (animali), the landscape (paesaggio) and any other features or products of the …

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Italian Word of the Day: Cane (dog)

Today’s post is all about man’s best friend! The word for dog in Italian is cane (plural: cani), which is easy to remember as it sounds similar to the word canine. It comes from the Latin canis meaning dog. cane dog The feminine of cane is cagna (bitch). In addition to referring to a bad …

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Italian Word of the Day: Giardino (garden)

The word for garden in Italian is giardino (masculine, plural: giardini). Both come from the French jardin which in turn derives from the Germanic gart or garto. giardino garden Giardino can refer to any kind of garden, from the small variety (giardinetto) to the stately kinds that surround large houses. Some of the most popular …

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Italian Word of the Day: Frutta / Frutto (fruit)

The Italian word frutta, like the word fruit in English, is a singular collective noun that refers to the category fruit in general, or a collection of fruit on display in a basket. It may also specifically denote the fruit course Italians tend to consume at the end of lunch. Frutta is almost always used …

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Italian Word of the Day: Spiaggia (beach)

My husband and I are extremely lucky live just a stone’s throw away from the beach, which translates as spiaggia (feminine, plural: spiagge) in Italian. It is a derivative of the now-obsolete word piaggia which means a variety of things including slope, shore and land. Below are the verbs you’ll most often see used with …

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