Archive for the ‘Word of the week’ Category
I romanzi aiutano a vivere (e le donne lo sanno) - Level: intermediate
Why do women read more novels than men? Francesco Alberoni, a great contemporary sociologist and psycologist, wrote an interesting article in the newspaper Il Corriere della Sera about this phenomenon
Se una sera andate a cena da degli amici e portate come regalo un romanzo spesso il padrone di casa vi dirà: «Grazie, mia moglie ne [...]
An Italian article: “La pioggia non frena la seconda giornata di saldi”
In some Italian cities have started January sales, and last Saturday they have started in Rome too, where a strong rain fell all weekend. the journalist speaks about, in this article, with a nice Italian rich on metaphors and idioms, the first two days of sales in tha capital.
Saldi bagnati, saldi [...]
the italian word of the week: “Pronto”
Pronto means ready, immediately, prepared, fit, quickly etc. but, have you tried to call to an italian family? What did they say, pronto!? Weel, it seems funny, but pronto can be have value of interjection and we use it every time that we answer the telephone.
“Pronto chi parla?”
“Buongiorno, sono Giorgio c’è Mario?
or
“Pronto!”
“Pronto sono il Dr. [...]
The Italian word of the week: “problema”
The Italian word problema means problem, question, case.
I would like to call your attention on this word that ends in “-a” but it’s a masculine word. We say il problema and not la problema, and in plural “-a” changes in “-i“, it means
il problema - i problemi
Do you konw other words that are belong [...]
The Italian word of the week: “andarsene”
When we speak, we use often “verbi pronominali”. It means verbs that are conjugated with one or two pronouns that change a bit the original meaning.
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Tags: verb
The Italian word of the week: “macchina”
The Italian word “macchina” means machine, engine, apparatus; but we use this word regularly to say “car.
We have also the word “automobile”, but we don’t say it a lot in the Italian spoken language.
Example:
Luigi ha una bella macchina
Sono partiti in macchina
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The Italian word of the week: “bello”
The word bello is an adjective that means: beautiful, good looking, handsome, fine, pretty, nice, pleasant, fair.
This adjective (only masculine, singular or plural) has a peculiarity in his declination. When bello is after nouns his declination is like the other adjectives: (masculine sing. bello - pl. belli)
E’ un libro bello ed interessante - [...]
The Italian word of the week: “Piccante”
“Piccante” means spicy, hot, piquant:
Ha un sapore piccante - it tastes hot
salsa piccante - spicy (or hot) sauce
But piccante can also have a figurative meaning (biting, cutting, pungent):
parole piccanti - cutting words
satire piccante - biting satire
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