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Italian slang: Amore a prima vista!

Friday, May 14th, 2010

It’s something so beautiful that can happen in Springtime: how many of you have seen a beautiful girl or a handsome boy and it was “amore a prima vista”? That means literally “love at first sight”! Your eyes widen, your heart starts to beat quickly…

but it can happen to girls also when they go shopping…they see a nice dress or a lovely pair of shoes and they literally fall in love with it…so it was “amore a prima vista”, love at first sight!

Take one of our personalized Italian language courses and discover the many Italian colloquial expressions…there are thousands!!!

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Italian slang: Spettegolare

Thursday, April 1st, 2010

This is something that girls and women usually really like as they start to spettegolare (which means “to gossip”) when they are really young!

First with your classmates, then with your bestfriend, but also with the hairdresser and with the shop assistant…everytime is a good chance to spettegolare – to gossip with someone about somebody else! But be careful not becoming too evil…it may cause bad consequences!

Are you interested in learning more Italian colloquial expressions? Take a look to our Italian fully customizable courses, created according to the student’s requests!

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Italian slang: Avere un chiodo fisso in testa…

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

Literally: to have a nail fixed in the head. But don’t worry, not in reality!

Avere un chiodo fisso in testa means to be fixated on something; to have a mania, something that keeps our mind concentrated just on it. It could be something like “Jane thinks always about her boyfriend…she’s fixated on him!”

This is a common Italian slang! Would you like to learn more and more of them? Take a look to our Italian language personalized courses.

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Italian slang: Essere tra le nuvole…

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

It’s something that happens often in springtime! Have you ever experienced the feeling of being somewhere else than where you actually are? That’s what we define in Italian Essere tra le nuvole, which means to daydream, to be “in the clouds”…but without flying of course! :D

Maybe you’re in love? Maybe you’re bored and you would like to be in a wonderful place? Your eyes look towards the sky and you seem to be asleep…with your eyes open! You’re tra le nuvole…a good thing to feel happy…but mind your steps!

Wanna learn more about Italian colloquial expression? Have a look to our intensive fully-personalized Italian courses.

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Italian slang: tirare un bidone.

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

Don’t worry, we’re not talking about being mad at someone and throwing him a trash can, also if this expression litarally means it! No violence here :D

The expression “Tirare un bidone”  to someone, just means to stand someone up on a dare or appointment; it’s not a polite behaviour, of course, but anyway better than throwing a trash can!

Would you like to learn the funniest and most used colloquial Italian expressions? With our one-to-one personalized courses you can!

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Italian slang: Avere le mani bucate

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

Those who like shopping, and who end up at the end of a day without being able to remember how or where they spent all your money, have definitelly “le mani bucate”, which in English is translated as “they have holes in their hands”!

It is of course a slang, a colloquial expression used to define a person who spends a lot and easily, without being aware of it. Since this period in Florence we have sales, whatch out for the holes in your hands! You could loose all your  money on clothes and accessories :)

The Italian language is full of colloquial expression, which can be well understood only by those who really know the language in all her forms – with the Italian language courses at the Institute Galilei, you will have a personalized program created according to your interests and needs. Colloquial expressions and conversation can, on request, be studied and emphasized.

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Italian slang: Solo “Quattro gatti…”

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

Are we talking about cats? Yes, you can say. The expression in fact means literally “four cats” and it’s used in Italian to indicate that in a particular place or situation were just a few people; an example?

“C’eran giusto quattro gatti al cinema” doesn’t actually mean that suddenly four cats invaded the cinema, but just that there was a little audience :)

No cats around, then!

Wanna learn more colloquial  expressions? Take a look to the fully-personalizable one-to-one Italian language courses at the Institute Galilei

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Italian slang:”Avere la coda di paglia”

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

(Delia Ciccarelli – La volpe dalla coda mozza)

It’s a funny colloquial expression, used in Italian to indicate someone with a guilty conscience in a friendly and light way. Its origin can be found in a popular novel: a young fox was caught by a trap. She could get away, but without her wonderful tail. Now, everyone knows that foxes beauty is represented by the tail,  so the poor fox was really ashamed of her ugly stump. To make her happy, the animals of the wood created for her a  fake tail made of  straw.
None of the animal told this secret but an evil cock, which revealed everything to the farmer.
So the farmer, to keep the fox away from the hen-house decided to light some fire around it…and the fox couldn’t do nothing else than staying away from her beloved chikens.

When someone has a “coda di paglia”, means that he did something wrong and is afraid of being discovered…!

Learn all the Italian slang you want with the Institute Galilei one-to-one courses!

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Italian slang: “In bocca al lupo!”

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

The Italian language is full of typical words and expression that foreigner people usually do not understand. Let’s try to learn some of them!

“IN BOCCA AL LUPO”

Coming to Italy, you will hear for sure this common expression. Literally translated as “in the mouth of the wolf”, it’s the common Italian way to wish good luck. It’s a scaramantic term: to go “into the wolf’s mouth” means, in fact, to go directly into troubles. As answer, the Italians usually say “Crepi il lupo!” (wish that the wolfs dies!).

The origin of this funny expression is not clear; it probably came out from the rural world, where farmers used to consider the wolf as a big danger, because wolves eats the other animals. Another possible origin can be found in the Romolo and Remo story, who were saved by a she-wolf which take them into her mouth.

So, when someone tells you “In bocca al lupo” don’t be scared! He’s just wishing you good luck :)

The Institute Galilei offers personalized programs  for Italian language courses where all the aspects of the Italian language can be axplored, according to the students’ interests and needs.

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