Spring might be a great time for learning Italian. You might be thinking of a vacation in one of the beautiful spots in Italy. The days are getting longer, so there's more time to do things before wanting to climb into bed for the night. You can even study outside if the weather is nice. Spring is a time of growth. So why not cultivate your language skills too?

Let's have a look at some vocabulary related to spring, gardening, and growing vegetables. Even if you are not into plants, some of the words we look at have other, non-gardening meanings that are useful to know. 

➡️ Need some basics? The Italian word for spring is la primavera. For more about the 4 seasons, see this lesson. 

Spring is one of the seasons that are best for visiting Italy. The weather tends to be nice and it's not too hot. 

Il periodo dell'anno migliore per venire in questo luogo incantato è senza dubbio la primavera.

The best time of year to come to this enchanted place is undoubtedly the spring.

Captions 64-65, In giro per l'Italia La Valle del Sorbo

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Orto o giardino?

There is already a lesson about orto vs giardino, but we'll mention the difference here, too. In English, we use the word "garden" to mean a garden with flowers or a vegetable garden. But in Italian, there are two distinctive terms. Il giardino is for flowers and plants, and can also refer to the "backyard," or "yard," a space outside a house where you can enjoy the outdoors. When it comes to fruits and vegetables growing in the ground, we talk about l'orto. An orchard or grove (of fruit trees), on the other hand, is il frutteto, with its -eto ending. The shop or department of a supermarket where fruits and vegetables are sold is often called l'ortofrutta.

Spring is when we plant things, or sow seeds. We tend to use the verb "to plant," even when we are talking about sowing seeds. In Italian, too, there is a difference. 

Mangiamo le mele... -E usiamo i semi. -Questa idea mi piace. -Eccoli qui, Mirò, sono pronti da seminare.

Let's eat the apples... -And we'll use the seeds. -I like this idea. -Here they are, Mirò. They're ready to plant [to sow].

Captions 41-44, Gatto Mirò EP 10 Piantiamo un albero

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➡️ Seminare can also mean to lose someone who is following you:

Ce l'abbiamo fatta, prof. Li abbiamo seminati!

We did it, Prof. We lost them!

Captions 30-31, Provaci ancora prof! S1E1 - Il regalo di Babbo Natale - Part 13

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Here is the literal meaning of piantare (to plant):

Gli ho chiesto quando voleva piantare i nuovi vitigni,

I asked him when he wanted to plant the new vines,

Caption 35, Il Commissario Manara S1EP2 - Vendemmia tardiva - Part 5

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➡️ Piantare can also mean to leave, to ditch, to quit on someone.

Però lei qualche giorno prima delle nozze l'ha piantato.

But a few days before the wedding she ditched him.

Caption 64, Il Commissario Manara S1EP9 - Morte in paradiso - Part 10

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➡️ Piantare can also mean to quit doing something. In this case, it is combined with la (it). 

E piantala, dai, con quella telecamera.

Come on, quit it with that video camera.

Caption 32, Il Commissario Manara S2EP9 - L'amica ritrovata - Part 11

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La pianta (the plant) is a noun related to the verb piantare. 

I pomodori si staccano dalla pianta rigorosamente a mano, seguendo il grado di maturazione dei frutti.

The tomatoes are detached from the plant strictly by hand, according to the degree of the ripening of the fruit.

Captions 36-37, Pomodori Vulcanici Pomodori del Vesuvio - Part 1

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When we buy seedlings to plant, we can use the diminutive form of pianta, la piantina. 

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Questa zappa serve per rimuovere la terra e non fare una crosta intorno alla piantina in modo e maniera che non abbia la forza di crescere, e serve anche per non far nascere l'erba tutta intorno a queste piantine.

This hoe is used to move the soil around and not form a crust around the young plant in such a way that it doesn't have the strength to grow, and it's also used to prevent the grass from growing all around these little plants.

Captions 20-23, La campagna toscana Il contadino - Part 1

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For more examples, see this lesson that also talks about seeds and plants. 

In the previous example, the speaker mentions l'erba.  L'erba is the grass, but he might be implying crabgrass or weeds, commonly called erbaccia. See this lesson about l'erba (the grass), le erbe (the herbs) and l'erbaccia (weeds).

When we go to a vivaio (nursery, greenhouse), we might see a sign that says piante e fiori. When we're just learning, it might be tricky to remember that plants are feminine but flowers are masculine. Go figure! And let's not forget the noun il pianto (the crying), a whole different thing. The verb form is piangere.

...in cui si distingueva chiaramente il pianto di una bambina.

...in which he could clearly distinguish the crying of a little girl.

Caption 65, Il Commissario Manara S2EP10 -La verità nascosta - Part 6

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With all this green vocabulary, are you ready to meet the moment? il momento perfetto per piantare… e imparare (the perfect moment for planting and learning)!

You are probably here because you did the crossword puzzle about Italian nouns that end in a or o.

Here are the answers. Hopefully doing this little puzzle will help you recognize and remember these words.

 

Was the puzzle too easy? Too difficult? Let us know at [email protected]

There has been a request for English translations:

A learner has written in about a curious expression, found in the example below, wondering if it was an error.

It wasn't an error, but it certainly bears looking at. Sometimes learning the origins of an expression can help us make connections to other words we might wonder about. In this lesson we'll talk about a case in point.

In the video clip, young Lorenzo is using the verb organizzare in a slightly different sense from the primary one, which is merely "to organize," or if it's reflexive as in our example, "to get organized." He means that he has figured some things out. He has "organized" his thoughts into something logical and is acting on them. He has gotten his act together.

A ma', te volevo informa' [romanesco: ti volevo informare] che mi sono,

Hey Mom, I wanted to inform you that I've,

come si suol dire, organizzato.

as they say, gotten my act together.

Caption 6, La Ladra - EP. 9 - L'amico sconosciuto

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The expression

If we do a Yabla search, we actually find more examples of come si suol dire. In these examples the expression is clearer than in the one above, because we can see from the context that come si suol dire is being used to introduce a saying or modo di dire (idiomatic expression).

Io penso che Lei dovrebbe, come si suol dire, prendere

I think that you should, as they say, take

il toro per le corna.

the bull by the horns.

Captions 47-48, Il Commissario Manara - S2EP11 - Uno strano incidente di caccia

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Queste galline la mattina,

These chickens in the morning,

che [sic: quando] vengono messe fuori dal pollaio,

get put out of the henhouse,

vanno a razzolare un po' a

they go and scratch about a bit to

destra e a sinistra,

the right and to the left [here and there].

quindi una volta che hanno scoperto queste fragoline,

So once they have discovered these young strawberries,

eh, faranno, come si suol dire, una vera man bassa.

uh, they'll will, as they say, ransack the area.

Captions 25-28, La campagna toscana - Il contadino

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A volte si chiude una finestra, ma si apre un portone

Sometimes a window closes but a door opens

o, come si suol dire, bicicletta nuova, vita nuova.

or, as they say, "New bike, new life."

-Questo, però, non l'ho mai sentito, te lo sei inventato.

-This one, however, I have never heard. You made it up.

Captions 46-48, La Ladra - EP. 4 - Una magica bionda

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Tip: You can memorize come si suol dire and use it in the middle of a sentence without worrying about conjugating it. 

What does suol mean?

Let's discover it together.

You can see the Engiish translation in the video clip, but it's hard to make complete sense of it. What is this suol? We might be wondering, "Is it a verb?" "If so, what kind of verb is it and what does it actually mean?" "Is it reflexive?"

We know from the phrasal verb vuol dire (it means) that a verb will often have its final vowel omitted. Vuole dire > vuol dire. And so it's logical to posit that suol dire is actually suole dire. From this ending we can surmise that the verb is an -ere verb. So let's try out solere. 

Hey! It exists: solere — to be in the habit of, to have the habit of. It's a verb you will rarely hear in any other context but the one we are discussing here.

Solere isn't reflexive, but in the expression si suol dire, the si is an impersonal third person singuar we might translate with an impersonal "they" or "one."

So suol means "is in the habit of."

If we keep in mind that sometimes the combination uo gets transformed into a plain o, we might be reminded of the adjective solito (usual) or the adverbial phrase di solito (usually) and rightly so. Di solito or solito has to do with "being in the habit of." In fact if you go to the WordReference entry on solito, you will find solere towards the bottom of the page.

E di solito, tradizionalmente, il Trullo,

And usually, traditionally, the trullo

è sempre stato utilizzato come ricovero.

has always been used as a shelter:

Ricovero per bestiame, ma anche per attrezzi agricoli.

shelter for livestock, but also for agricultural equipment.

Captions 23-24, Meraviglie - EP. 2

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The verb solere has mostly gone out of fashion except for the expression si suol dire (one is in the habit of saying). But since we are talking about the verb solere, we should mention that some (well-read) people might also say something like:

Solevano rientrare tardi (they used to come home late/they were in the habit of coming home late).

Chiese come in quel paese solevano/solessero fare (He/she asked how they usually did things in that town).

And for those who are interested...

Solere is the kind of verb we might find in Renaissance poetry, where spelling and pronunciation were not yet standardized, and where, in the following cases, it is spelled without the v, becoming solea instead of soleva, just as the verb volere was often written volea instead of voleva in the third person singular imperfetto. 

The first example is from Petrarca, whose poetry was frequently set to music in the form of madrigals.

Mia benigna fortuna e ’l viver lieto,
i chiari giorni et le tranquille notti
e i soavi sospiri e ’l dolce stile
che solea resonare in versi e ’n rime,
vòlti subitamente in doglia e ’n pianto,
odiar vita mi fanno, et bramar morte.

 

My kindly fortune and my life, so happy,
the clear-lit days and all the tranquil nights,
the gentle-flowing sighs and the sweet style
that would resound in all my verses and rhymes—
all of a sudden turned to grief and tears,
make me hate life and make me yearn for death.

This example is from Claudio Monteverdi's opera Orfeo. The libretto was written by Alessandro Striggio.

Pregoti, per quel foco
Con cui già la grand'alma Amor t'accese,
Fa ch'Euridice torni
A goder di quei giorni
Che trar solea vivend'in feste e in canto,
E del misero Orfeo consola 'I pianto.

 

I implore you, by that fire
with which Love set your great soul aflame,
Let Eurydice return
to enjoy those days
that she used to spend in festivity and song,
and console the grief of the wretched Orpheus.

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