{"id":2704,"date":"2012-12-14T09:56:57","date_gmt":"2012-12-14T09:56:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=2704"},"modified":"2012-12-14T10:42:06","modified_gmt":"2012-12-14T10:42:06","slug":"complicated-hair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/complicated-hair\/","title":{"rendered":"Complicated Hair!"},"content":{"rendered":"

O.k., now that I\u2019ve caught your attention with the cryptic title I suppose I\u2019d better explain myself. There are certain words, or variations on words in Italian that can be infuriatingly difficult to remember. Very often, they are small words that seem like they should be straightforward, such as the dreaded \u2018<\/strong><\/font>ci<\/strong><\/font><\/a>\u2019<\/strong><\/font>. And this only seems to add to the frustration.<\/font><\/p>\n

Take hair for example. Why does hair have to be so darned complicated? Let\u2019s have a look:<\/p>\n

Firstly, hair, as in the stuff I used to have a lot of on my head when I was younger, is plural in Italian: capelli<\/strong> = hairs, hence da giovane avevo i capelli lunghi<\/strong>  (\u2018when I was young I had long hair\u2019, yes, I was a bit of a hippy in the 70\u2019s!), or mi piacciono i tuoi capelli cos\u00ec<\/strong> (I like your hair like that) N.B. Don\u2019t forget to pluralize<\/u> anything that refers to capelli<\/strong>, such as mi piacciono<\/u><\/strong> = \u2018they please me\u2019, or Annalisa ha i<\/u> capelli rossi<\/u><\/strong> (Annalisa has red hair).<\/p>\n

Non-head hairs are peli<\/strong>, e.g. porca miseria, la mia felpa blu \u00e8 ricoperta di peli di gatto!<\/strong> (pig misery<\/em>, my blue fleece is covered in cat hairs!) Yes, dark colours are a nightmare when you\u2019ve got six cats!<\/p>\n

We only use capello<\/strong> (head hair singular) or pelo <\/strong>(non-head hair singular) to refer to a single hair: hai un capello lungo sulla giacca che non \u00e8 il mio, dove sei stato stanotte?<\/strong> (you\u2019ve got a long hair on your jacket and it\u2019s not mine, where were you last night?).<\/p>\n

But confusingly, and there\u2019s always a confusing \u2018but\u2019 in Italian, pelo<\/strong> also means fur or pelt. So, Bella ha un bel pelo morbido<\/strong> means \u2018Bella (one of the six feline culprits) has got lovely soft fur\u2019 rather than \u2018Bella has a single lovely soft hair\u2019 (poor thing!). Speaking of lovely soft fur <\/font>\u2026. block your ears pussy cats and vegetarians \u2026 hmmm, that\u2019s everyone in this house!\u2026. <\/em> una<\/strong> pelliccia<\/strong> is a fur coat.<\/p>\n

We use the colloquial word pelato<\/strong> to mean bald or hairless, however, the word calvo<\/strong> (bald) is more correct.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Well, you\u2019re thinking, that doesn\u2019t seem so complicated. But wait, I haven\u2019t finished yet, we\u2019ve still got:<\/p>\n

cappello<\/strong>, hat, easily confused with capello<\/strong> (a single head hair)<\/p>\n

cappella<\/strong>, which isn\u2019t a female hat or hair but a chapel (hence cantare a cappella<\/strong>, literally to sing in the chapel style, i.e. without instrumental accompaniment<\/em>)<\/p>\n

pelle<\/strong>, human or animal skin, (no relation to the famous Brazilian football player<\/em>). N.B. the skin of fruit and vegetables is called la buccia<\/strong> but although we say sbucciare le patate<\/strong> (to peel the potatoes) we also use pelare<\/strong> (to peel, remove hair).<\/p>\n

pelle<\/strong>, soft leather, as distinct from cuoio<\/strong>, hard leather. Shoes were traditionally made with the uppers in pelle<\/strong>, and the sole in cuoio<\/strong>  (++++++++ Whoops! Mim\u00ec the cat just walked across the keyboard and left her \u2018prints\u2019, grazie per il tuo contributo, Mim\u00ec<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Confused, don\u2019t worry, ci sono passato anch\u2019io!<\/strong> (I\u2019ve been there myself!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

O.k., now that I\u2019ve caught your attention with the cryptic title I suppose I\u2019d better explain myself. There are certain words, or variations on words in Italian that can be infuriatingly difficult to remember. Very often, they are small words that seem like they should be straightforward, such as the dreaded \u2018ci\u2019. And this only…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[619],"tags":[229226,229225,229227],"class_list":["post-2704","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-italian-language","tag-capelli","tag-hair-in-italian","tag-skin-in-italian"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2704"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2707,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2704\/revisions\/2707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}