A connoisseur of good food is known as a buongustaio in Italian. It is made up of the following three parts: buon (good) + gustare (to taste / savour) + aio (a suffix used to form agent nouns) Buongustaio is a masculine noun that takes the following definite and indefinite articles: Unlike a mangione (a …
The word for twins in Italian is gemelli (masculine, singular: gemello; feminine, singular: gemella). Whereas in English, we have separate terms for offspring in a multiple birth (twins, triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets, sextuplets, septuplets, octuplets, nonuplets and decuplets), Italian applies the blanket term gemelli regardless of the number. In order to be specific, you must add …
The affectionate name children use towards their father (padre) in Italian is papà. It is the equivalent of dad, daddy or pa in English. A very easy mistake you might make when you first start learning Italian is to accidentally place the emphasis on the first rather than the last syllable. If you place it …
The name almost all children call their mother (madre) in Italian, no matter their age, is mamma, which translates as mom / mommy in American English or mum / mummy in British English. Three possible variations are the affectionate diminutives mammi, mami and mammina. When using a possessive adjective like mia (my), you have the …
The word for the daughter of a king or queen, or the wife or daughter of a prince, is principessa (feminine, plural: principesse) in Italian. The last Crown Princess of Italy to become Queen of Italy was the famously beautiful and rebellious Marie José of Belgium, wife of King Umberto II. She reigned alongside her …
Are you wondering what the best Italian word is to describe that Scrooge in your life, the one who wouldn’t part with a penny if his or her life depended on it? Well, you’re in luck! 😉 The word for stingy in Italian is tirchio. According to Treccani, it likely comes from the old dialectal …