Archive for 'Italian Language'
Italian Numbers 1-100 Posted by Serena on Mar 27, 2010
I have had a couple of requests recently for a quick and easy list of numeri Italiani (Italian numbers) from one to one hundred. You can now learn to count in Italian. Allora, eccola (so, here it is): 1 uno 2 due 3 tre 4 quattro 5 cinque 6 sei 7 sette 8 otto 9 nove 10…
Gesti Universali Posted by Serena on Mar 23, 2010
To complement my series of blogs about Italian body language I thought it might be useful to take a look at a few universal gestures. Here are several that we all use: Fare segno, or fare cenno means ‘to make a sign’, and from this comes the expression ‘fare cenno di sì con la testa’…
Gesture of the day – part 3 Posted by Serena on Mar 17, 2010
It’s time to interpret yet another of those intriguing gestures that we Italians use, and today I’m going to look at one that my uncle Luciano, who is originally from Rome, uses a lot. But before I describe the gesture I need to give you a bit of background information. Fregarsene The verb fregarsene means…
Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare Posted by Serena on Mar 8, 2010
It’s time to pause my series of ‘Gesture of the Day’ blogs for a moment (yes, don’t worry, there are more to come!) and move from il profano al sacro (from the profane to the sacred) in order to commemorate La Festa della Donna (International Women’s Day), which is celebrated here in Italy and in…
Gesture of the Day – 2 Posted by Serena on Mar 4, 2010
Continuing my theme of ‘body language’, here, for your entertainment, is another colorful and expressive Italian gesto (gesture): ‘Che Palle!’ (what balls!) An expression of annoyed boredom. So, once you’ve done a few warm up exercises and loosened up those limbs we can begin: 1. Place both hands slightly in front of you at hip…
‘Che t’aggia dì’ Posted by Serena on Feb 28, 2010
In my imagination, all of you who read my last blog ‘Gesture of the Day’ have been spending hours in front of the mirror practicing and perfecting your moves. Now I won’t pretend that learning body language will improve your grammar, but it will perhaps help you to speak Italian in a more convincing way…
Gesture of the Day Posted by Serena on Feb 25, 2010
In my blog ‘La Dolce Lingua part 2′, I wrote “when we Italians speak we like to use our whole body, not just our mouths!” This, in fact, is an aspect of our language, indeed our culture, that is very hard to transmit in writing. However, I like a challenge, so I will now attempt…