Following the morning (mattina) and the afternoon (pomeriggio), we experience the penultimate phase of the day, which is sera (evening). This feminine noun, whose plural form is sere, takes the following definite and indefinite articles: Sera is derived from the late Latin sēra, which is an ellipsis of sera dies (“late part of the day”). …
Humans have devised various ways to divide time, encompassing the tiniest increments of seconds and minutes to the vast expanse of years, decades, and centuries. Tucked right in the middle lies the unassuming month, known as mese in Italian, serving as the fundamental unit for dividing our calendar year. Mese is a masculine noun in …
It should be pretty easy to guess the meaning of the word momento just by mentally removing the word-final o! Momento comes from the Latin momentum, derived from the root of movere meaning “to move”. Because it is a masculine noun, it takes the following definite and indefinite articles: Aspetta un momento, non sono ancora …
At the stroke of midnight on December 31st, the new year will begin, bringing with it a whole new set of hopes, dreams, wishes, and challenges. The word for midnight in Italian is mezzanotte, which is the union of two words: mezzo (half or middle) and notte (night). The reason mezzo has become mezza is …
On New Year’s Eve, people all over the world ring in the new year by counting down the final ten seconds before the clock strikes midnight. In Italian, countdown is translated with three words: conto alla rovescia. Conto is a masculine noun that has various meanings including calculation, the check you receive at a restaurant, …
One word for late in Italian is tardi, which should be very easy to remember as we have the same word in English, albeit spelt with a word-final ‘y’ instead of an ‘i’. Both the Italian and the English tardy can be traced back to the Latin tardus meaning ‘slow’. The expressions essere tardi (lit. …