Language and Gestures

From Brats to Pimples and Peas, Italian Language for Moms

One of my favorite aspects of the Italian language are the endings ‘ino’, ‘one’, and ‘accio’. You can change the nature of a word just by adding one of those three endings. ‘Ino’ (pronounced eee-no) makes the subject small, ’one’ (pronounced oh-nay) makes it big, and ‘accio’ (pronounced ah-choh) makes it bad.  So a door, …

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Madonna and Eve

According an Italian, whose name is preferable for an exclamation, Madonna or Eve’s? My adolescent daughters have adopted an Italian teenage expression. They pepper their conversations with the exclamation: “‘Maaaa – ddonnnnn– aaaa”. That would be “Madonna”. My Italian, and Catholic husband, Gustavo, does not like this one bit and every time he hears it he …

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