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Parole Curiose Posted by Serena on Apr 19, 2009
One of the things that attracts a lot of people to the Italian language is its musicality. This is probably largely due to our rather ‘generous’ usage of vowels which enable scorrevolezza (fluency), well at least for us ‘natives’, students of Italian may disagree! Try this little scioglilingua (tongue twister) for example: Sopra la panca la capra…
Un po’ di giardinaggio Posted by Serena on Apr 16, 2009
Oggi facciamo un po’ di giardinaggio (today we are going to do a bit of gardening). At this time of year we are very busy working on the orto (vegetable garden). I wouldn’t say that we are big gardening experts, but we have had an orto for many years now and we manage to be self sufficient…
Un cappuccino per favore Posted by Serena on Apr 10, 2009
‘Un cappuccino per favore’ is probably one of the most common phrases learnt by tourists visiting Italy, yet as with many things Italian a cappuccino isn’t always what you think it is. To the tourist a cappuccino is nothing more than a fancy cup of coffee with foam on top, but how many realize that a cappuccino…
Abruzzo Posted by Serena on Apr 7, 2009
Once again Italy has been hit by an earthquake, this time the main victim being the town of L’Aquila in the region of Abruzzo. In terms of seismic activity we are a very high risk country, added to which we have a lot of old vulnerable buildings, but it’s easy to forget all that until…
La Camera di Canaletto? Posted by Serena on Apr 4, 2009
Speaking of misleading words (see my recent series ‘Misleading Word of the Day’), another word that I have often seen included in lists of so called ‘falsi amici’ (false friends) or false cognates is ‘camera’. I don’t however consider ‘camera’ a ‘false friend’ but rather a ‘helpful friend’ because it is one of the many…
Meglio o Migliore? Posted by Serena on Apr 2, 2009
I recently received an interesting e.mail from a reader saying that he had never realized that “adverbs can also function as adjectives and nouns” and he asked me to focus in particular on “bene, meglio, male e peggio in comparison with buono, migliore, cattivo e peggiore”. I must admit that I had a few moments of panic…
La Primavera! Posted by Serena on Mar 31, 2009
The 21st of March was the official beginning of Primavera (Spring), and as the proverb goes: ‘a San Benedetto una rondine sotto il tetto’ (for Saint Benedict a swallow under the roof), because in the Italian calendar the Saint for the 21st of March is San Benedetto, and when the swallows appear it’s a sign that…