If you find yourself regularly coming up against stumbling blocks while trying to realise your goals, you’ll definitely find the word intoppo useful!
Intoppo is a masculine noun. The plural is intoppi.
l’intoppo
un intoppo
gli intoppi
degli intoppi
Intoppo, which comes from the verb intoppare (to crash, collide, stumble), describes the act of colliding with an obstacle, either literally or figuratively. Some popular translations include hindrance, setback, hiccup, difficulty and hitch to name a few.
La porta non si chiude. Ci dev’essere un intoppo.
The door won’t close. There must be something blocking it.
Some verbs you will often see used with intoppo include:
- andare / procedere senza intoppi = to proceed smoothly (lit. to proceed without obstacles)
- trovare / incontrare intoppi = to encounter obstacles, to come up against obstacles
- mettere / creare intoppi = to put obstacles in the way, to throw up obstacles
- superare un intoppo = to overcome a difficulty
- fare intoppo = to get in the way
Il matrimonio si è svolto senza intoppi.
The wedding went off without a hitch.
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.
