The verb to work translates as lavorare in Italian. It comes from the Latin verb laborare and shares the same origin as the words labor and laboratory in English. Learn with our video and podcast The video is also available on our YouTube channel. The podcast episode can be found on Podbean, Google Podcast, Apple …
The word disfare in Italian is a combination of the prefix dis- (the equivalent of the English prefix un-) and the verb fare (to do / make). In addition to the verb to undo, which is the most literal translation, there are multiple ways of expressing this word in English, and as always, the surrounding …
Last night at the dinner table, our six month old son – who usually has the attention span of a goldfish – spent the entire duration of our meal fixated on a toy horse, analysing every hoof, hair and marking on its colourful body. To describe this kind of behaviour, there is a great verb …
The Italian verb indietreggiare is formed from the adverb indietro meaning behind, back or backwards. You can use it to express a number of concepts that translate as to move backwards in English including: 1. to fall back / to retreat Indietreggiare, in the most literal sense of the word, refers to the withdrawal from …
An interesting verb in Italian that doesn’t really have a precise English equivalent is sgranocchiare which means to eat crunchy foods that crumble easily. Some possible translations in English include to munch, to crunch or to nibble but none of them truly encompass all facets of the word. It is a derivative of the verb …
The word for to gossip in Italian is pettegolare. It comes from the Venetian verb petegolar (to gossip) and the Venetian noun petegolo (gossip). When pettegolare is followed by a direct object, the preposition su (on / about / above) or su + a definite article (sul, sulla, sui, sugli, sulle) is required. Dai, smettila …