Archive for the year 2009
Tricky little words: “Ci” – part 2 Posted by Serena on Aug 5, 2009
Last week I wrote a post in which I explained as best as I could the many ways in which we use that tricky little word called ci. If you missed it you can read it here: Ci – part 1 . Well done those of you who had a go at translating my two silly sentences…
Il Basilico – L’Erba Regale Posted by Serena on Aug 2, 2009
It’s difficult to imagine Italian cuisine without il basilico (basil). The name basilico derives from the Greek word basilicòn which means ‘royal’, and in fact it was the Greeks themselves who introduced this most archetypal of Mediterranean herbs into Europe, importing it from its native habitat of India. For the Romans, besides being an important aromatic ingredient…
‘Bat-box’ to the rescue! Posted by Serena on Jul 30, 2009
Roma, our illustrious capital, is launching a new campaign to improve living conditions in the quartieri periferici (city suburbs). We are pretty much used to hearing about these campaigns: a campaign to fight against the deterioration of the environment, a campaign to help homeless immigrants, a campaign against le lucciole (lucciole are fireflies but the…
Tricky little words: “Ci” Posted by Serena on Jul 27, 2009
Very often, in the process of learning a language it’s the little things that we find the hardest to get to grips with. It doesn’t take long when learning Italian for example to work out that soddisfazione means ‘satisfaction’, eccellente means ‘excellent’, and that riabilitazione means ‘rehabilitation’. But ‘ci’, that little two letter word that…
Esprimiti! part 3 Posted by Serena on Jul 24, 2009
So far, in the first two articles of this series, I’ve been concentrating on the positive aspect of expressive vocabulary. What a wonderful world it would be if we only ever needed to talk about good and beautiful things! But of course life isn’t always so kind and sometimes we need to express distaste or…
Ciliegie e Amarene Posted by Serena on Jul 21, 2009
Questa è stata un’ottima estate per molti tipi di frutta! This has been a great summer for many types of fruit! The first fruit to ripen in our village are le ciliegie (the cherries), which are fairly small and dark but very sweet, and they appear at the end of May. There are lots of cherry trees…
Esprimiti! part 2 Posted by Serena on Jul 18, 2009
In the first article of this series Esprimiti! part 1 I introduced a number of useful words and expressions aimed at extending your expressive vocabulary. Let’s continue in the same vein in part two by looking at a range of descriptive words and phrases that will help you to esprimerti (express yourself). In Italian we…