Archive for June, 2014
Boh! Posted by Serena on Jun 28, 2014
A couple of days ago a reader asked me: is "Boh" the Italian equivalent of "Doh!"? Well, according to the Vocabolario della Lingua Italiana Treccani, the exclamation ‘boh!’ expresses: uncertainty, e.g. ‘boh! non lo so proprio’ (… I don’t really know); incredulity, e.g. ‘boh! se lo dice lui, sarà vero’ (… if he says so…
Mimì The Cat’s Special Recipe Posted by Serena on Jun 26, 2014
Written by our guest blogger Mimì the Cat (with a little help from Serena). Based on a True Story. Cari lettori, oggi tocca a me, Mimì La Gatta, descrivervi una buonissima ricetta, e finalmente non vegetariana: arrosto di orbettino! Questa è una ricetta molto semplice ed economica, come potete vedere dagli ingredienti, pochi e genuini…
Fiori di Zucca Fritti Posted by Serena on Jun 24, 2014
It’s early in the morning and the courgette plants look beautiful with their big yellow orange flowers fully open, they look so inviting to the bees, but also … to me: mi viene l’acquolina in bocca pensando ai fiori di zucca fritti (my mouth waters just thinking about fried pumpkin flowers). I don’t know why…
Molta Confusione! – The Solutions Posted by Serena on Jun 23, 2014
Here, as promised, are the solutions and explanations to last weeks quiz on the use of molto, molta, molti or molte. We asked you to fill in the gaps in the following sentences. Notice that when molto means ‘many’ or ‘a lot of’, it’s an adjective (i.e. it refers to a noun), and therefore it…
The Changing Face of Cheating Posted by Serena on Jun 19, 2014
Cheating isn’t what it used to be! When I was at school we used the good old fashioned methods handed down from generation to generation. But kids these days are spoilt by modern technology. In short, they’re cheating at cheating! Why this sudden nostalgia for good old fashioned cheating? Well, right now, all over Italy…
Molta Confusione! Posted by Serena on Jun 18, 2014
It’s a perennial source of confusion, we’ve examined it in depth in a couple of posts, it’s the theoretically simple but deceptively elusive word molto, molta, molti, molte. Here’s a quiz that should help to clarify any difficulties you may be having. But before you have a go at it I suggest that you revisit…
I Gigli Posted by Geoff on Jun 16, 2014
People often ask us where we get our ideas for blogs. Well, the source of inspiration for a good many of them is the view from our dining room windows, a view that mutates continually: with the season, the weather, the time of day, and depending on what happens to be going on in our…