October—known as ottobre in Italian—has always been one of my favourite months. Perhaps it’s because autunno (autumn) is in full swing, with colourful leaves falling from the trees and a crisp breeze in the air that invites you to cozy up in your warmest maglione (sweater) and pantofole (slippers). ottobre October Ottobre is the tenth …
The Italian word for leap year is anno bisestile, which should be easy to remember if you are already familiar with the term bissextile year, a synonym for leap year. anno bisestile leap year The word bisestile is derived from the Latin term “bissextilis (annus)” or “bissextilis (annus),” meaning ‘the year of the bissextus,’ which …
We already discussed mezzanotte (midnight) in a previous post, so now it’s time to take a look at the other end of the temporal spectrum, mezzogiorno (noon / midday). Mezzogiorno is the combination of the words mezzo (half or halfway) and giorno (day). It is a masculine noun, so it takes the following definite and …
What comes after il mattino (the morning) and precedes la sera (the evening)? Il pomeriggio (the afternoon), of course! pomeriggio afternoon According to Treccani, this term is a cross between the Latin adjective pomeridiano (the adjective “afternoon”) and meriggio (a synonym for mezzogiorno – midday – that refers to the hours at which the sun …
Stasera, meaning this evening, is one of the very first and most essential adverbs of time you’ll encounter when delving into the Italian language. It is the combination of the adjective questa (this), with the removal of the initial que-, and sera (evening). stasera this evening In everyday conversation, stasera is used more commonly than …
Each hour (ora) of the day consists of sixty minutes, which in Italian are known as minuti (singular: minuto). It comes from the late Latin minutum, which means particle, and is the neuter noun form of the adjective minutus. minuto minute Because minuto is a masculine noun, it takes the following definite and indefinite articles: …