Today we’re going to be talking about one of my favourite verbs in Italian, brontolare, meaning to grumble or complain in a low voice.
It comes from the Greek word βροντάω (vrontáo), which means to thunder or rumble. An easy way to remember this verb is to think of brontosaurus, the well-known dinosaur whose name literally means ‘thundering lizard’ in Greek.
Mio padre non faceva altro che brontolare giorno e notte.
My father did nothing but grumble day and night.
Below you can find the full conjugation of brontolare in the present tense.
Io brontolo
Tu brontoli
Lui brontola
Lei brontola
Noi brontoliamo
Voi brontolate
Loro brontolano
I grumble
You (singular) grumble
He grumbles
She grumbles
We grumble
You (plural) grumble
They grumble
Derived from brontolare are the nouns brontolio and brontolamento, the word for a complaint or gripe.
If your friend or family member is in a bad mood and won’t stop complaining about their day, you could jokingly call them a brontolone (masculine) or brontolona (feminine), which translates grump or grouch.
Dai, non fare il brontolone come al solito.
Come on, don’t be a grump as usual.
This verb is also used for the low rumble of thunder and the sound a person’s intestines make while digesting food.
Si sentì un tuono brontolare in lontananza.
Thunder was heard rumbling in the distance.
Heather Broster is a graduate with honours in linguistics from the University of Western Ontario. She is an aspiring polyglot, proficient in English and Italian, as well as Japanese, Welsh, and French to varying degrees of fluency. Originally from Toronto, Heather has resided in various countries, notably Italy for a period of six years. Her primary focus lies in the fields of language acquisition, education, and bilingual instruction.
