The group of letters ‘-cqu-‘ are used by many words in Italian, the majority of which belong to the ‘acqua’ family. Here is a list of the most common:
| Acqua |
Water |
| l’acquaio |
the kitchen sink, more commonly known as il lavello |
| l’acquedotto |
the aqueduct |
| acquatico |
aquatic, e.g. pianta acquatica (aquatic plant) |
| l’acquolina |
only used in the expression ‘far venire l’acquolina in bocca’ (make one’s mouth water), e.g. il profumo di vaniglia mi fa venire l’acquolina in bocca (the smell of vanilla makes my mouth water) |
| un acquazzone |
a downpour / shower of rain |
| l’acquerugiola |
the drizzle / fine rain |
| sciacquare |
to rinse, e.g. ‘mi sciacquo le mani’ (I rinse my hands) |
| acquoso |
watery, e.g. ‘una minestra acquosa’ (a watery soup) |
| l’acquavite |
brandy |
| l’acquario |
the aquarium / fish tank / Aquarius (birth sign) |
| l’acquasanta |
the holy water |
| l’acquasantiera |
the holy water basin |
| anacquare |
to dilute / to water down |
| l’acquitrino |
the marsh |
| l’acquarello / l’acquerello |
the water color |
| l’acquaragia |
the turpentine |
In addition to these there are four verbs not related to acqua, which use ‘-cqu-‘:
| acquietare |
to appease / to calm someone down |
| acquistare |
to buy / to purchase |
| acquisire |
to acquire / to obtain |
| acquattarsi |
to crouch / to squat |
You will also encounter ‘-cqu-‘ in il passato remoto (the historical past) of a handful of verbs:
| nascere |
to be born, e.g. Giuseppe Verdi nacque a Busseto (Giuseppe Verdi was born in Busseto) |
| tacere |
to become silent, e.g. tutti tacquero all’improvviso (suddenly everybody became silent) |
| piacere |
to like, e.g. mi piacque molto Venezia (I really liked Venice) |
| giacere |
to lie, e.g. lei giacque sul letto malata (she lay ill on the bed) |
However, there is only one word in Italian which contains the letter group ‘-qqu-‘. Do you know what it is?
Comments:
Mercy:
It will be great if you would make it possible to make these pages print friendly. It will be easy to attach your notes to my Italian class note book.
Thank you.
Mercy
Serena:
@Mercy Ciao Mercy,
Transparent company has just redesigned the web page, and I don’t have any control over it. I can only suggest that you highlight the main text, copy and paste it into Words or Notepad, and then print it.
A presto
Serena
Gail:
Ciao Serena,
L’unica parola italiana che contiene ‘-qqu-‘ deve essere ‘soqquadro.’
Alla prossima,
Gail