If you’ve only ever visited Italy in summer before, it can be quite a shock to find out just how cold it can get here in the winter months.

When the cold is really biting, simply saying fa freddo (it’s cold) doesn’t feel like enough.

Today’s expression is used in spoken Italian on those freezing cold days.

Fa un freddo cane!

It’s freezing cold!

The phrase literally translates as “It makes a cold dog”, which doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense. It really means something more like “it’s dog cold!”

You might already know that instead of using the verb essere (to be), Italian uses fare (to do or make) when talking about the temperature. So the phrase fa freddo literally translates as ‘it makes cold’ rather than ‘it is cold’. Same with fa caldo (it’s hot).

But what have dogs got to do with it?

Much like with the English phrase “it’s raining cats and dogs”, clearly no household pets are involved. The ‘dog’ is used here as an intensifier; a (polite) way of emphasising how awfully cold it is. 

Similarly, the French would say Il fait un froid de canard! (It’s duck cold!)

You might also hear the variation fa un freddo da cani. It means exactly the same thing, but uses the plural cani (dogs).

Other ways to comment on the low temperature in Italian include:

Fa freddissimo!

It’s very cold

Si gela

It’s freezing (literally “one freezes”)

Si muore di freddo

It’s terribly cold (literally “one dies of cold”)

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