Le Professioni–Part 2 Posted by Serena on Jul 5, 2013
In the last article we looked at nouns which describe professions, and in particular those words that don’t change their ending from masculine to feminine, i.e. professions ending in –ista such as farmacista (pharmacist, chemist), and professions ending in –nte such as insegnante (teacher). Today we are going to look at two more main groups…
Le Professioni–Part 1 Posted by Serena on Jul 3, 2013
Recently Geoff wrote an article about Luciano Lutring, “il solista del mitra” (the machine gun soloist). We had a comment from a reader asking why, in the title “il solista del mitra” we use the article il (masc. sing.) rather than la (fem. sing.), since the word solista ends in –a, which is the typical…
Una Visita Dal Cardiologo Posted by Serena on Jun 28, 2013
Lunedì mattina ho accompagnato mio padre all’ospedale per un elettrocardiogramma e una visita cardiologica di routine. L’appuntamento era per le 8.30 del mattino, per cui mi sono dovuta alzare prima delle 7.00 (io che odio alzarmi la mattina presto!), per essere a casa dei miei per le 8.00. Siamo arrivati all’ospedale alle 8.15 e nella…
The Machine Gun Soloist: Part 2 Posted by Geoff on Jun 25, 2013
Luciano Lutring, ‘Il Solista del Mitra’, ‘nemico pubblico numero uno’, fuorilegge, e latitante (‘The Machine Gun Soloist’, ‘public enemy number one’, outlaw, and fugitive). At the end of part 1 we left Luciano at a turning point in his life … si era innamorato di una bella ragazza (he had fallen in love with a…
Breaking The Boxes Posted by Serena on Jun 21, 2013
Rompere le scatole (to break the boxes) is a very commonly used Italian euphemism for rompere le palle (to break one’s balls), or to be more vulgar rompere i coglioni (to break one’s testicles). This idiomatic expression is used with the meaning of “to really annoy someone”: “Basta, mi stai rompendo le scatole!” (“Enough, you’re…
The Machine Gun Soloist: Part 1. Posted by Geoff on Jun 18, 2013
“Un giorno mia zia mi chiese di andare a pagare una bolletta alle poste. Io andai. Ma l’impiegato era lento e detti un pugno sul bancone. Nel movimento si vide la finta pistola che portavo sotto la cintura. L’impiegato credette che fosse una rapina e mi consegnò i soldi. Io pensai: “È così facile?”. E…
Without Title Posted by Serena on Jun 13, 2013
At the moment I’m reading a book by the writer Andrea Camilleri, world famous creator of the fictional detective Salvo Montalbano. The book I’m reading, which was published in 2005, is a historical detective novel entitled Privo di titolo (Without title). It’s set in Sicily, Camilleri’s favourite location for his stories, during the Fascist era…