The Italian word for airplane is aeroplano. It derives from the Latin aer (air) and planus (plane) via the French aéroplane (which has since been replaced by avion).
It is a masculine noun starting with a vowel, so it takes the following definite and indefinite articles:
- l’aeroplano = the airplane
- gli aeroplani = the airplanes
- un aeroplano = an airplane
- (degli) aeroplani = (some) airplanes
Contrary to popular belief, the everyday term for airplane, aereo, isn’t an abbreviation of aeroplano but rather the noun form of the adjective aereo (aerial / air). It can be seen in words like attacco aereo (air attack) and posta aerea (air mail). Curiously, many Italians tend to mispronounce and misspell the word as *aereoplano due to the belief that aereo is a derivative of aeroplano!
A colloquial form of this word is areoplano, with the letters ‘e’ and ‘r’ inverted.
Questo aeroplano è molto grande!
Questo areoplano è molto grande!
This airplane is really big!
A jet plane in Italian is known as an aeroplano a reazione, although the english word is also used. A small aircraft can be described as piccolo aeroplano (the diminutive aeroplanino also exists but is not common).
Here are a few useful verbs you will see used with aereo. Note that with verbs, it is rare to use the full form aeroplano.
- andare in aereo = to go by plane
- pilotare un aereo = to fly a plane
- prendere un aereo = to catch/take a plane
- perdere un aereo = to miss a plane
- viaggiare in aereo = to travel by plane
- salire su un aereo = to get on a plane
- scendere da un aereo = to get off a plane
Sbrighiamoci, non vogliamo perdere l’aereo!
Let’s hurry up, we don’t want to miss the plane!
