Has your other half’s snoring been keeping you up all night? Then maybe now’s a good time to learn the Italian verb russare!
Derived from the term hrūzzan, it is one of many words that entered Italian via the Lombard language of Northern Italy.
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Since it is a regular -are verb, it conjugates in the following manner in the present tense:
(io) russo = I snore
(tu) russi = you snore (singular, informal)
(lui) russa = he snores
(lei) russa = she snores
(Lei) russa = you snore (singular, formal)
(noi) russiamo = we snore
(voi) russate = you snore (plural)
(loro) russano = they snore
Smettila di russare! Mi impedisci di dormire…
Stop snoring! You’re stopping me from sleeping…
Turning russare into a noun is straightforward: all you have to do is add the article il in front.
Il russare di suo marito la costringeva a dormire sul divano.
Her husband’s snoring forced her to sleep on the sofa.
Some possible synonyms include il russamento (a medical term not used very often in standard Italian), il ronfare and il ronfamento (the latter two mean ‘very loud snoring’). Ronfare also exists as a verb.
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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.
