Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
Beauty and the Beast is a French 18th century fairy tale. It was written by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve. Her tale, which is as long as a novel, has been adapted numerous times. This nice retelling of the tale is more dependent on the Walt Disney Company.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
The youngest piglet was right all along. Being a kind soul, he forgave his brothers.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
In this telling of the late 19th century British fairy tale, the wolf is bad but not big.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
"The Little Mermaid" concludes with a happy ending if you're a 19th century poet, as Andersen was. The vocabulary review focuses on verbs in the passato remoto.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
Dixieland is left in the dark because Mister Sun has overslept. It's up to Dixi to go and wake him up. The vocabulary review features third person verbs in the passato remoto tense.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid" is translated as "La sirenetta" in Italian. The Italian term sirena covers both mermaids (part fish) and sirens (part bird).
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
Dixi toys with the idea of being a bear. That's before he realizes that it would mean missing out on his daily breakfast cookies.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
The Ugly Duckling realizes that he isn't so ugly after all.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
La luna di traverso (the moon on its side) is a way of saying "bad mood." Dixi got up on the wrong side of the bed, but being a magical little elephant, he has the actual sidelong moon on his hands. What to do?
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
Hans Christian Andersen's classic fairy tale, "The Ugly Duckling", is presented in Italian. These fairy tales are so familiar that they allow us to fully concentrate on the words and spare us the worry of not understanding what's happening in the story.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
"Puss in Boots" underscores what we all know—cats have everything figured out.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
Usually associated with Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm, the tale of "Puss in Boots" was, instead, first written down by Giovanni Francesco Straparola in the 1550s. It is not known whether he invented the tale or whether it reflects an older oral tradition.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
Dixi goes to a party to celebrate spring, where his hungry little tummy gets plenty of attention. In Italian, a hungry tummy growls, using the verb "brontolare." Both a "growl" and a "brontolio" are onomatopoeic.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
In fairy tales, good triumphs over evil in the end. This one's no exception.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
Here's one of the most famous fairy tales of all, "Cinderella." The Italian, "La Cenerentola" comes from the noun la cenere (ash, ashes, cinder). See how much you can understand without the English subtitles!
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