{"id":107,"date":"2009-03-17T16:22:31","date_gmt":"2009-03-17T20:22:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=107"},"modified":"2009-03-17T16:22:31","modified_gmt":"2009-03-17T20:22:31","slug":"the-human-body","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/the-human-body\/","title":{"rendered":"The human body"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today we are going to study anatomy: il corpo umano <\/strong>(the human body)! The human body in fact presents an incredible array of irregular words in the Italian language, which can be very confusing for a non-Italian speaker when constructing sentences. This is not a comprehensive list of the parts of the body however as I want to concentrate mainly on\u00a0those that cause the most confusion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

OK, let\u2019s start\u00a0with the limbs, in particular the\u00a0hands and arms:<\/span><\/p>\n

La mano, le mani<\/strong> (the hand, the hands).\u00a0Having\u00a0the typical masculine ending of o<\/strong> and i<\/strong> \u00a0\u2018hand\u2019 looks like a masculine word, but is in fact feminine, therefore we say la<\/span> mano destra<\/span><\/strong> (the right hand), and Giovanni ha le<\/span> mani piccole<\/span> <\/strong>(Giovanni has small hands).<\/span><\/p>\n

Attached to the hand there\u00a0are\u00a0le dita<\/strong>. <\/strong>Firstly we have il primo dito,<\/strong> (the first finger) which is called\u00a0il pollice<\/strong> (the thumb), followed by\u00a0il secondo dito<\/strong>, <\/strong>or\u00a0l\u2019indice <\/strong>(the second finger, or\u00a0the index), then\u00a0il terzo dito<\/strong>, <\/strong>or il medio <\/strong>(the third finger, or\u00a0the middle finger), il quarto dito<\/strong>, <\/strong>or l\u2019anulare <\/strong>(the fourth finger, or the ring finger), and last but not least\u00a0il quinto dito<\/strong>, <\/strong>or il mignolo <\/strong>(the fifth finger, or the\u00a0little finger).\u00a0Two or more fingers are le dita<\/strong> (the fingers, feminine plural): Laura ha le<\/span> dita\u00a0lunghe<\/span> <\/strong>(Laura has\u00a0long fingers). However just to confuse matters il<\/span> dito<\/strong> (the finger) is masculine singular!<\/span><\/p>\n

la mano<\/em> of course is attached to il braccio<\/strong> (the arm, masculine singular) but, as with \u2018the fingers\u2019, in the plural form \u2018arms\u2019 becomes feminine: <\/em>le braccia<\/strong>\u00a0e.g. Mario si e\u2019 rotto il<\/span> braccio sinistro<\/span><\/strong> (Mario broke his left arm), but Giovanni ha le<\/span> braccia corte<\/span><\/strong> (Giovanni has\u00a0short arms).<\/span><\/p>\n

Now we move up to la testa<\/strong> (the head,\u00a0which is regular i.e.\u00a0le teste<\/strong>, the heads, if you happen to have more than one!), on the side of which we will find l\u2019orecchio<\/strong> (the ear, masculine singular; the feminine form orecchia<\/strong> is a regional variation).\u00a0Once again this word\u00a0changes gender in the plural:\u00a0\u00a0le orecchie<\/strong> (the ears; the regular masculine form gli orecchi<\/strong> is less used): Pinocchio ha le orecchie lunghe come l\u2019asino <\/strong>(Pinocchio has long ears like a donkey).<\/span><\/p>\n

At the front of la testa <\/em>is\u00a0la<\/strong> faccia <\/strong>(the face, plural le facce<\/strong>). On\u00a0la faccia<\/em>\u00a0we find l\u2019occhio <\/strong>(the eye, plural gli occhi<\/strong>)\u00a0surrounded by le ciglia<\/strong> (the eyelashes, feminine plural): Giulia ha le<\/span> ciglia folte<\/span> <\/strong>(Giulia has thick eyelashes), which in the singular form\u00a0becomes masculine, il ciglio<\/strong> (the eyelash): ahi! mi e\u2019 andato un ciglio nell\u2019occhio<\/strong> (Ah!\u00a0I\u2019ve got an\u00a0eyelash\u00a0in my eye).<\/span><\/p>\n

Above each eye there is il sopracciglio <\/strong>(eyebrow, literally \u2018over the eyelashes\u2019, masculine singular) which, guess what,\u00a0becomes feminine in the plural, le sopracciglia<\/strong>. The English word \u2018supercilious\u2019\u00a0comes from the same root, and implies the notion of raising the eyebrows to express haughtiness or contempt.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Below il naso<\/strong> (the nose)\u00a0t<\/span>here is la bocca<\/strong> (the mouth, a regular feminine word), which is formed by il labbro superiore <\/strong>(the upper lip, masculine singular), il labbro inferiore <\/strong>(the lower lip), or le labbra<\/strong> (the lips, feminine plural): Mario ha il<\/span> labbro inferiore pronunciato<\/span> <\/strong>(Mario has a prominent lower lip), and Laura ha le<\/span> labbra rosse<\/span><\/strong> (Laura has red lips).<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, down\u00a0to the legs and we have il ginocchio<\/strong> (the knee, masculine singular), which can take both forms in the plural, i ginocchi<\/strong> (masculine plural) and le ginocchia<\/strong> (feminine plural).\u00a0Moving inside the body we find\u00a0le ossa<\/strong> (the bones, feminine plural) or l\u2019osso<\/strong> (the bone, masculine singular): Mario si e\u2019 rotto l\u2019osso del braccio sinistro<\/strong> (Mario has broken the bone of his left arm), but mi sono rotta le<\/span> ossa del polso sinistro <\/strong>(I\u2019ve broken the bones of my left wrist). The masculine form ossi<\/strong> is used to describe animal bones: ho dato gli ossi delle bistecche al cane<\/strong> (I gave the bones from the stakes to the dog). As a kid I used to confuse the two words and whenever I had\u00a0the flu\u00a0I used to complain: mi fanno male gli ossi<\/strong> (my bones are hurting), to which my mother would reply: sei una persona o un animale? <\/strong>(are you a person or an animal?).<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today we are going to study anatomy: il corpo umano (the human body)! The human body in fact presents an incredible array of irregular words in the Italian language, which can be very confusing for a non-Italian speaker when constructing sentences. This is not a comprehensive list of the parts of the body however as…<\/p>\n

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