fall (fell, fallen) vs. feel (felt, felt) When you fall, feel the pain. And then stand up. You were born for victory. And failure has no place in your world. Quando cadi, senti il dolore. E poi alzati in piedi. Sei nato per la vittoria. E non c’è posto per l’insuccesso nel tuo mondo. – Robin Sharma ✓… Read More »
dot/full stop/point (comma) = punto For your reference, there are three common ways to translate punto. Example How we say it dot www.bbc.co.uk colin@mistakeitaliansmake.it www dot bbc dot co dot uk colin at mistakes Italians make dot i t i j Two letters have a dot over them: i and j full stop This sentence has… Read More »
practice/practise exercise Practice makes perfect.– Saying ✓ Susan practises playing the piano for two or three hours a day. ✗ Susan *exercises* playing the piano for two or three hours a day. Susan si esercita a suonare il piano per due o tre ore al giorno. If you do something regularly in order to do it better, you… Read More »
I’ll play it first and tell you what it is later. Prima te lo suono e ti dico che cos’è dopo. – Miles Davis I’ll do it later. I’ll do it *after*. Lo faccio dopo/più tardì. We don’t use after as an adverb at the end of a sentence. Use later (or afterwards) instead. Now try the quiz… Read More »
afterwards after All marriages are happy. It’s trying to live together afterwards that causes all the problems. Tutti i matrimoni sono felici. E’ il tentare di vivere insieme dopo che causa tutti i problemi. – Shelley Winters ✓ I’ll answer any questions afterwards. ✗ I’ll answer any questions *after*. Rispondo a eventuali domande dopo. ✓ I’ll answer any… Read More »
difficult vs. difficulty:be difficult (for someone) to do something vs. have difficulty (in) doing something Technological society has succeeded in multiplying the opportunities for pleasure, but it has great difficulty in generating joy. La società tecnologica ha saputo moltiplicare le occasioni di piacere, ma essa difficilmente riesce a generare la gioia. – Pope Paul VI ✓ It’s difficult… Read More »
factory vs. firm (= company) vs. farm vs. fabric Hollywood is a factory. You have to realise that you are working in a factory and you’re part of the mechanism. If you break down, you’ll be replaced. Hollywood è una fabbrica. Devi accorgerti che lavori in una fabbrica e che fai parte del meccanismo. Se ti guasti, verrai… Read More »
almost, nearly quite Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think. E’ raro trovare uomini che si dedicano volentieri a un ragionamento duro e concreto. C’è una ricerca quasi universale di risposte facili… Read More »
by car, in the/my car in car, on the/my car What Paris has done right is to make it awful to get around by car and awfully easy to get around by public transportation or by bike. Quello che Parigi ha fatto giusto è rendere terribile lo spostarsi in auto e terribilmente facile spostarsi coi mezzi pubblici o… Read More »
I don’t think (that) he’ll … I think (that) he won’t … I don’t think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space. Penso che la razza umana non sopravviverà per i prossimi mille anni a meno che non espanderemo nello spazio. – Stephen Hawking ✓ I don’t think (that) he’ll be… Read More »