Learning Italian WordsLearning Italian Words often is thinking about the new word that you want to study, and making a comparison with the equivalent in English. Sometimes it is the same, they have something in common, sometimes they are totally different. In any case, reflecting over the language and making comparisons among words is a very good way to progress in your knowledge.

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Learning Italian Words

Today I would like to show you some interesting Italian words analysing them one after the other. They are words used frequently.

COPRIRE/SCOPRIRE. Coprire is simply “to cover”, but its opposite? In Italian we use only one word, “scoprire” for indicating “to uncover” and “to discover”.

INVESTIRE. “To invest”? Yes, but in Italian “investire” is not used only for the money, “investire soldi”, “investire denaro”, but also for people: “investire delle persone” means “to run over someone”. This is a totally different meaning.

SU: Have you ever thought that it means “on” but also “up”? “Su e giù” is exactly the Italian expression for “up and down”.

SUCCESSO. Only “success”? Yes it means “success” but it is also the past participle for the verb “succedere”, to happen. So if someone in Italian asks: “Cosa è successo?” it means “what happened?”.

CUCINARE. This is easy, it means “to cook”, but it is not enough actually. In Italian there are two words, one is “cucinare” (this is generic for “preparing food”) the other is “cuocere”. Cuocere is to put something on the stove for cooking it. (From “cuocere”, you have “cotto”, cooked, referred to the “prosciutto cotto” for example, but this is another story).

FINO A/ LA FINE. They are two similar words but with different meanings; “fino a”, “until”, and “la fine”, “the end”.

PERO’ / PERO. One is “but”, equivalent to “ma”, the other is “the pears’ tree”. In one case the accent is on the last syllable, in the other on the first syllable.

FELICE / FACILE. They are really similar words, only one vowel changes, the E and the A in the first syllable, and the consonants C e L are inverted. They are lovely adjectives: “Happy” and “Easy” or “Simple”. Learning Italian makes you happy when it is simple 😉 “Imparare l’italiano vi rende felici quando è una cosa semplice”.

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Learning Italian WordsI must say thank you to all my students because all the words mentioned above are questions and suggestions that came up during our classes. We will continue this topic another time with new suggestions (by the way look here also). But don’t forget the last one, that is just a joke: “SCIVOLARE” to “slip” is made in Italian by “SCI” the “skis” and the verb to volare, ” to fly”. It almost seems done on purpose, isn’t it?

 

Learning Italian Words

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Strange Italian Consonants

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