Luckily, many words are similar in English and Italian. Sometimes they mean different things so we call them "false friends," and some of them look and sound similar and also mean similar things. They are our true friends. If they were born of the same original word, etymologically speaking, they are true cognates.
Language nerds throw around the word "cognate" a lot, so it might be nice to look at the origins of this word. Here's what the dictionary says about the word "cognate."
Etymology: 17th Century: from Latin cognātus, from co- same + gnātus born, a variant of nātus, past participle of nāscī to be born. So in plain English, we're talking about words that have the same origin.
But let's get down to the words themselves.
Some words are easy to guess, whether you are translating from Italian into English, or struggling to find a word in Italian.
Here's a partial list of some nouns you don't have to think about too much. These end in à, an A with an accent. In all these cases, that accented à is replaced by a Y in English. Of course, there are other letters in the words that change between the two languages, but they are similar enough that you can probably guess them fairly easily, primarily when you are reading them. You can listen to them in context when you hit "play caption."
l'intensità (the intensity)
Raramente lo schermo ha raccontato
Rarely has the screen told,
con tanta intensità e tanta efficacia
with so much intensity and so much potency
una storia più nuova e più coraggiosa.
a fresher and more courageous story.
Captions 4-5, Trailer ufficiale - La Strada
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la generosità (the generosity)
La generosità di questa terra
The generosity of this land
è celebrata anche nelle specialità della cucina.
is celebrated in culinary specialities as well.
Caption 41, Marche - Opera Unica
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la velocità (the velocity)
Ma lo sai che c'è il limite di velocità qua, ah?
But don't you know there's a speed limit here, huh?
Caption 34, Il Commissario Manara - S2EP6 - Sotto tiro
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la città (the city)
Il fiume Tevere attraversa tutta la città di Roma...
The Tiber river crosses the entire city of Rome...
Caption 12, Anna e Marika - Il fiume Tevere
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la stupidità (the stupidity)
Non mi sembra che la stupidità sia un reato.
I don't think that stupidity is a crime.
Caption 6, Il Commissario Manara - S2EP10 -La verità nascosta
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la libertà (the liberty)
Gestiva il suo tempo in assoluta libertà.
She managed her time in complete liberty.
Caption 12, Il Commissario Manara - S2EP3 - Delitto tra le lenzuola
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la crudeltà (the cruelty)
Quindi senza derivati animali, senza crudeltà.
So, without ingredients derived from animals, without cruelty.
Caption 39, Dolcetti vegan - al cocco e cioccolato
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la familiarità (the familiarity)
Silenzi, che familiarità
Silences, what familiarity
Caption 28, Fiorella Mannoia - Quello che le donne non dicono
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la qualità (the quality)
Al momento dobbiamo privilegiare la quantità alla qualità.
At the moment we have to favor quantity over quality.
Caption 12, La Ladra - EP. 3 - L'oro dello squalo
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la possibilità (the possibility)
E poi, oltre a questo,
And then, beyond this,
ho anche avuto la possibilità di conoscere tantissime persone.
I also had the possibility of meeting huge number of people.
Caption 23, Arianna e Marika - Il Progetto Erasmus
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la probabilità (the probability)
E sappiamo che, con ogni probabilità, c'erano dei riti legati al fuoco.
And we know that, in all probability, there were rituals involving fire.
Caption 56, Meraviglie - EP. 2 - Part 3
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This isn't the only way that Italian words ending in à have cognates. Also, we don't always choose the cognate in English. Instead of "velocity" we say "speed" most of the time in colloquial speech, but you understand the noun "velocity," so you can guess what velocità means. That's the idea anyway. Let us know if this lesson was helpful or not, and thanks for reading.
In a recent video, Marika talks about avverbi di tempo (time adverbs). Some of these are pretty straightforward, but some have multiple meanings, depending on the context. We have already looked at some of the tricky ones in previous lessons: ancora (yet, still, again) and sempre (always, still).
The title of a TV series offered on Yabla is Provaci Ancora Prof. (“Try Again, Professor,” or “Play it Again, Professor”). In this case, ancora clearly means “again,” but as we can see in the following example, it can also mean “still.”
Camilla è ancora in casa?
Is Camilla still home?
Caption 52, Provaci Ancora Prof! - S1E1 - Il regalo di Babbo Natale - Part 1
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And when used with the negative non, ancora means “yet.” In English we usually say “not yet,” and this is true in Italian as well
Sicura? -Be', ho compiuto quarant'anni,
Are you sure? -Well, I've reached forty years,
ma non sono ancora del tutto rimbecillita.
but I'm not yet totally senile.
Caption 57, Provaci Ancora Prof! - S1E1 - Il regalo di Babbo Natale - Part 7
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Ancora can also mean “even” as an adverb modifying another adverb.
Uno si stanca ancora prima di cominciare a...
You get tired even before you begin to...
Caption 4, Provaci Ancora Prof! - S1E1 - Il regalo di Babbo Natale - Part 4
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When sempre means “always,” it’s pretty easy. But sempre also means “still,” which is a bit less familiar.
Sei sempre qua?
Are you still here?
And we might feel even more challenged, because we can also use ancora to mean the same thing.
Sei ancora qua?
Are you still here?
We use sempre when in English we would say “more and more” as an adverb. Semprereplaces the first “more.” To harmonize with the Italian, we could say “ever more.”
Sì, però, volendo si può anche fare la cena a lume
Yes, but if you want to, you can also have dinner
di candela sul Tevere.
by candlelight on the Tiber.
Mh, sempre più romantico.
Hm, ever more romantic/more and more romantic.
Captions 56-57, Anna e Marika - Il fiume Tevere
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Another “time” adverb that can get a bit tricky is mai (never, ever).
It’s basically straightforward, but we need to remember that although English does not allow double negatives, Italian does allow them. So we will usually see non together with mai to mean “never.” It may be helpful to remember that in English we have “never” or “not ever.” They mean the same thing.
Io, in vita mia, non l'avevo mai vista la pizza bianca
Me, in my life, I'd never seen white pizza
e neanche sapevo cosa fosse.
and I didn't even know what it was.
Captions 14-15, Anna e Marika - Pizza al taglio romana
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In questions, where in English we would use “ever,” we still use mai in Italian, but we don’t use the negation non.
Hai mai viaggiato in aereo?
Have you ever traveled by plane?
In the response, if negative, we use mai to mean “never” or “not ever.”
Non ho mai viaggiato in aereo.
I have never/I haven’t ever traveled by plane.
Mai is used in some modi di dire, so take a look at these lessons about them.
Are there particular Italian adverbs of time that confuse you? Let us know, and we’ll see what we can do to help.
Allora (so, then, well) is one of those filler words that’s highly useful when thinking of what to say in Italian. It buys you a little time and tells the listener you’re thinking things over, especially when used by itself, or to introduce a sentence. Used by itself, it can express impatience:
Allora! (Come on!, Hey!)
or can be introductory:
Allora, vediamo. (Well then, let’s see.)
But what does it really mean? The word actually comes from the Latin ad illa horam (at that time). And, not surprisingly, allora can indeed mean “at that time,” when it refers to the past. It’s true that we can use “then” as a translation, but “then” has other meanings as well, so it helps to have an idea of allora’s underlying meaning.
The following example gives you the idea:
Io penso che tu lo sappia che prima di allora...
I think that you know that before that time...
eh, Roma aveva un grandissimo problema proprio per le alluvioni.
uh, Rome had indeed a huge problem with flooding.
Captions 36-37, Anna e Marika - Il fiume Tevere
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In a video series about the recent history Italian cuisine, Chef Gualtiero Marchesi is telling the story of his restaurant. He uses allora twice in the same sentence, but to mean different things: the first instance is the filler that gets used so often; the second instance is a bit more specific.
E allora proponevo questo piatto, il grande antipasto di pesce,
And so I offered this dish, a large fish antipasto,
che allora aveva tre versioni.
which at that time had three versions.
Captions 12-13, L'arte della cucina - L'Epoca delle Piccole Rivoluzioni
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Allora can also mean “in that case.” In fact, the second instance of allora in the above example could also possibly have meant “in that case.” In the following example, the meaning is less ambiguous. You might be asking, can’t we just say “then”? In this case, yes, because it’s clearly an “if/then” situation, but “in that case” helps us understand allora more fully.
Quindi, la differenza è minima, però capirete quando vedete:
So, the difference is minimal, but you'll understand when you see:
è un aggettivo o un avverbio?
is it an adjective or an adverb?
Se io parlo di un avverbio, allora è sempre "bene",
If I'm talking about an adverb, in that case it's always "bene,"
una situazione, se parlo di un aggettivo uso "bello" o "buono".
a situation, if I'm talking about an adjective I use "bello" or "buono."
Captions 24-27, Corso di italiano con Daniela - Le parole: bello, buono e bene
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In place of allora, Daniela could have used in tal caso or in quel caso to mean “in that case,” but since she is speaking informally, she has used allora.
We use allora a lot in speech without even thinking about it, so being aware of where it comes from may give us una marcia in più (“an edge,” literally “one more gear”).
In a nutshell:
Allora is a filler word much of the time (well, so, then).
Allora comes from the Latin ad illa horam (at that time) and means precisely that, when talking about the past. Allora means “then” in several senses of the word (well/so, at that time, in that case).
Just for fun:
Allora, vi racconto un po’ della mia storia. Da bambina portavo una gonna per andare a scuola. Allora era vietato alle ragazze mettersi pantaloni. Il sabato, per giocare, allora potevano mettere anche i pantaloni. Allora! Mi ascoltate? No? Allora, non vi dico più niente.
Well, I’ll tell you a bit about my past. As a girl I wore a skirt to go to school. At that time girls were not allowed to wear pants. But on Saturdays, to play, then (in that case) they could wear pants, too. Hey! Are you listening to me? You’re not? In that case, I won’t tell you anything more.
Learning suggestion:
There are a great many instances of allora in Yabla videos. By doing a search and just scrolling through, now that you’re in the know, you’ll be able to figure out if someone’s thinking of what to say, or if he or she is being more specific.
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