My five favorite Italian words

A friend and fellow blogger of mine Cathy asked me if I wouldn't participate in a blog posting about my favorite Italian words.  The idea started at Italophile.  


When Cathy asked me to do this it wasn't the first time I had pondered my favorite words.  In fact as an English teacher I've come across this question in the reverse "What's your favorite English word?".  I had always thought that it was a silly question, how could you possibly come up with a favorite word!  Then while reading the book Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (the movie will be released this summer starring Julia Roberts) I came across the question again. In the book she says that her favorite Italian word is attraversiamo (ah-trah-vair-tzee-ah-moh) which means let's cross.  Even then I thought that it was a difficult question especially since that is definitely not one of my favorites.  So I have spent the last couple of days thinking over the question and this is what I've come up with.


Some Italian words I like for the way they sound and feel in my mouth.  Yes, strange but some words feel good in your mouth (unlike ones that may be difficult to say and leave you tongue tied in knots), they just flow out so smoothly.  Other words I like for the fact that they are so much better than the English equivalent or embody their meaning so well that you can't put them in to English.


So here they are:


1) sapessi (sah-pe-see) is the imperfect subjunctive of the verb sapere (to know) or in English "I knew"


                  Se io sapessi come funziona, lo userei.  (If I knew how it worked, I would use it)


I like the way it sounds when I say it as well as the fact that it unfortunately isn't used very much in everyday Italian since most Italians aren't very good at using it, so I feel pretty cool about the fact that I can. 


2)farfallina (far-fa-lee-nah) little butterfly.  
I love butterflies and they remind me of the person who convinced me to come to Italy in the first place nearly eleven years ago.


3)furbizia (foor-bee-tzee-uh) cunning or furbacchione (foor-bahk-yo-nay) a sly dog (when referring to people)
I like these so much better than the English equivalents, plus I like the way they sound.


4)basta (bah-stah) (like pasta with a b)- that's enough, stop it
I really like this one because it is straight to the point.


5) un etto (oon- et-o) you use this when ordering 100 grams of something like prosciutto or salami.  If you want more you can ask for due etti (doo-eh et-tea) 200g or un'etto e mezzo (oon et-o eh meds-o) 150g for example. There is just no equivalent for it in English (of course we use pounds in America anyways!)


In closing I would like to say thanks to Cathy for asking me to do this, it was a lot of fun, always a good question for our expat get togethers too!!