How to Say “House / Home” in Italian – Casa

They say that home is where the heart is, and this couldn’t be truer in Italy where family always comes first.

There is one word in Italian that covers both the words “home” and “house” and that is casa (feminine, plural: case).

When used on its own with the following verbs, the translation is always “home” rather than “house”.

• andare a casa = to go home
• venire a casa = to come home
• tornare a casa = to go back home
• restare / rimanere / stare a casa = to stay home
• passare da casa = to pop home (for a short duration)
• mangiare a casa = to eat at home

Although not necessary, you can add possessive adjectives such as mia (“my”) or tua (“your”) after casa for emphasis or clarification.

If you want to refer to somebody else’s house, you must add di [name of person] after the word casa.

The only exception is possessive adjectives which, as we already saw above, don’t require the preposition di.

One thing learners of Italian may find confusing at the beginning is that it isn’t obligatory to use the word casa when talking about another person’s house. All you have to do is insert the preposition da after the verb and it is assumed you are talking about another person’s place of residence.

An extremely useful expression in Italian is sotto casa which literally translates as “under house” but in context, refers to people or things that are located a stone’s throw from where you live. This could be a friend who is waiting outside, your closest pizzeria, or a local shop where you know the owners by name. In English, the expression usually translates as nearby or out front.

By adding the ending -etta to casa, you end up with the diminutive form casetta which can mean little house, cottage or a stall at a market depending on the context.

As in English, casa can also be combined with other nouns to refer to specific kinds of homes.

• casa di cura = nursing home
• casa di riposo = retirement home
• casa famiglia = foster home

It can also mean company or firm if you tack on an adjective such as in the following examples:

• casa discografica = record company
• casa produttrice = production house
• casa costruttrice = manufacturer
• casa automobilistica = car company
• casa editrice = publishing house

Other words based on casa include:

• casolare = farmhouse
• casale = farmhouse, but it also means small rural village
• caseggiato = apartment block
• caserma = barracks, or large building in colloquial Italian, it also means military base
• casalinga = housewife

Casa is a simple word for a simple concept, yet as we’ve seen, there is quite a lot to say about how its usage differs from the English equivalents! How about you – what kind of casa do you live in? 🙂

Useful phrases:

Trivia

One of the most famous dialogues from Federico Fellini’s masterpiece La Dolce Vita takes place during a dancing scene where Marcello (Marcello Mastroianni) gives a flattering monologue to Sylvia (Anita Ekberg):

Tu sei tutto, Sylvia! Ma lo sai che sei tutto, eh? You are everything… everything! Tu sei la prima donna del primo giorno della Creazione. Sei la madre, la sorella, l’amante, l’amica, l’angelo, il diavolo, la terra, la casa… Ah, ecco cosa sei: la casa!

You are everything, Sylvia! Do you know that you are everything, eh? You are everything, everything! You are the first woman of the first day of creation. You are the mother, the sister, the lover, the friend, the angel, the devil, the earth, the home… Ah, that’s what you are: home.

Heather Broster

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.