{"id":913,"date":"2011-08-24T08:40:23","date_gmt":"2011-08-24T08:40:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=913"},"modified":"2011-08-26T07:04:34","modified_gmt":"2011-08-26T07:04:34","slug":"beware-of-the-b-words-a-quiz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/beware-of-the-b-words-a-quiz\/","title":{"rendered":"Beware of the ‘B’ Words – The Easy Version"},"content":{"rendered":"

Firstly, well done Bill Rohwer, you win first prize: a beautiful three month old kitten. Let us know when you are ready to come and collect her.<\/p>\n

Now, here’s the \u2018easy version of my \u2018b\u2019 word quiz:<\/p>\n

In Italian we have a confusing group of words beginning with \u2018b\u2019<\/strong> and ending with groups of vowels.  All of these words sound very similar, and it can take quite a while to begin to differentiate them:<\/p>\n

il boia<\/strong> = the executioner N.B we commonly use the expression \u2018fare un freddo boia\u2019<\/strong> = \u2018to be really cold\u2019<\/p>\n

il buio =<\/strong> the dark N.B. we use the verb fare<\/strong> (see my blog Il Verbo Fare<\/font><\/a>) with buio<\/strong> with the meaning of \u2018to be dark\u2019 e.g. fa buio<\/strong> = it\u2019s dark, faceva buio<\/strong> = it was dark, etc.<\/p>\n

la bua<\/strong> = the pain\/hurt farsi la bua<\/strong> is the child’s equivalent of farsi male<\/strong> = to hurt oneself. For more info see this blog: Fa Male<\/font><\/a><\/p>\n

il bue (plur: i buoi)<\/strong> = the ox (plural: the oxen) N.B. In Italian fried eggs are called uova all\u2019occhio di bue<\/strong> = bull\u2019s eye eggs<\/p>\n

il boa<\/strong> = the boa (boa constrictor, or feather boa)<\/p>\n

la boa<\/strong> = the buoy<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Complete the sentences below by inserting the correct word from the list above.<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Quando ero bambina un giorno ho visto una coppia di          <\/u>che tirava l\u2019aratro<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. One day when I was a child I saw a pair of ____ pulling a plough<\/p>\n

2. La mattina del 16 ottobre 1793 Maria Antonietta fu portata davanti al          <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

2. On the morning of 16th of October 1793 Marie Antoinette was taken before the ___<\/p>\n

3. Giovannino \u00e8 caduto e si \u00e8 fatto la           <\/u>al ginocchio<\/strong><\/p>\n

3. Giovanni fell and ___ his knee<\/p>\n

4. Siamo ormai a met\u00e0 della gara, infatti la prima barca ha appena compiuto il giro di          <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

4. We\u2019re now half way through the race, in fact the first boat has just turned the ___<\/p>\n

5. Mia zia Vicky mi ha raccontato che quando arriv\u00f2 in Inghilterra per la prima volta nell\u2019inverno del 1946 faceva un freddo          <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

5. My aunt Vicky told me that when she first arrived in England in the winter of 1946 it was ___<\/p>\n

6. Quella notte il cielo era coperto, non c\u2019era la luna, faceva molto          <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

6. That night the sky was covered, there was no moon, it was really ___<\/p>\n

7. Dicono che il           <\/u>sia addirittura capace d\u2019ingoiare una capra intera<\/strong><\/p>\n

7. They say that the ___ is actually able to swallow a whole goat<\/p>\n

8. Quando ero bambina avevo paura del          <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

8. When I was a child I was afraid of the  ___<\/p>\n

9. La mamma dice al bambino: \u201cVieni qua che ti do un bacino cos\u00ec ti passa la          <\/u>\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

9. The mother says to the child: \u201ccome here and I\u2019ll give you a kiss so that the ___ will go away<\/p>\n

10. Mia nonna aveva un           <\/u>di piume di struzzo che portava sempre quando andava a teatro<\/strong><\/p>\n

10. my grandmother had an ostrich feather  ___  that she always wore when she went to the theatre<\/p>\n

11. Quando fa pesca subacquea mio fratello usa la           <\/u>per segnalare la sua presenza<\/strong><\/p>\n

11. When he goes scuba fishing my brother uses a ___ to show that he is there<\/p>\n

12. A Geoff piacciono molto le uova all\u2019occhio di          <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

12. Geoff really likes ___<\/p>\n

E per finire, ecco una frase in cui ho usato tre di queste parole misteriose: \u201cEra ormai           <\/u>e il           <\/u>aspettava impaziente l\u2019arrivo del condannato a morte sul carro trainato da una coppia di           <\/u>\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

And to finish with, here is a sentence in which I\u2019ve used three of these mysterious words: \u201cBy then it was ___ and the ___ impatiently awaited the arrival of the cart pulled by a pair of ___ which carried the person who had been condemned to death <\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, is anyone else feeling brave enough to post their answers in the comments section? Su, forza!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Firstly, well done Bill Rohwer, you win first prize: a beautiful three month old kitten. Let us know when you are ready to come and collect her. Now, here’s the \u2018easy version of my \u2018b\u2019 word quiz: In Italian we have a confusing group of words beginning with \u2018b\u2019 and ending with groups of vowels. …<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[619],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-913","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-italian-language"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913","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\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=913"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":914,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913\/revisions\/914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}