Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

ITALIAN WORD OF THE DAY

Italian word of the day: ‘Burrasca’

When there's a storm brewing, here's the Italian word you'll need.

Published: 7 December 2020 10:06 CET
Updated: 2 November 2023 12:20 CET
Italian word of the day: 'Burrasca'
Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

Today’s word has become unexpectedly topical again with the wave of bad weather causing floods and landslides in northern Italy: una burrasca literally means ‘a storm’. 

It’s not just a few drops of rain we’re talking about: it implies the kind of thing that has you battening down the hatches.

Il servizio meteo nazionale riporta una burrasca a circa 120 chilometri dalla costa est.
The national weather service is reporting a storm around 120 kilometres off the east coast.

While the term is used interchangeably with tempesta and bufera to describe any kind of storm, sticklers would say it should only apply to strong winds – specifically, those we’d call ‘gale force’ in English.

For any classicists out there, the clue is in the name: burrasca comes from the Greek ‘Boreas’, the ancient god of the bitter north wind.

One of the reasons the word comes up so often in Italian news reports is that it’s used especially to describe strong winds at sea which, as you can imagine, are a particular problem in Italy.

A mare in burrusca is a ‘stormy sea’, which is the Italian title of this well-known painting by Gustave Courbet.

If you hear un avviso di burrasca (‘a gale warning’), it’s time to get off the water and move away from the beach. 


A headline from the Corriere della Sera: ‘Stormy seas turn deluxe cruise into a nightmare: the storm on the first-class deck’.

That said, as one Italian proverb has it:

l buon pilota si conosce alle burrasche.
A good pilot proves themselves in a storm.

… in other words, skill or courage comes through adversity.

As that saying suggests, weather-talk aside, you can also use burrasca figuratively to describe ‘turbulence’ or ‘trouble’, especially the type that looms ominously on the horizon.

C’è aria di burrasca in ufficio.
There’s trouble brewing in the office.

C’è stata burrasca ieri alla Camera, per la discussione della legge.
There was turbulence in parliament yesterday as the law was discussed.

Do you have a favourite Italian word you’d like us to feature? If so, please email us with your suggestion.

Don’t miss any of our Italian words and expressions of the day: download our new app (available on Apple and Android) and then select the Italian Word of the Day in your Notification options via the User button.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

ITALIAN WORD OF THE DAY

Italian word of the day: Metà vs mezzo

These Italian words are both used to talk about 'half' of something, so what exactly is the difference and when should you use them?

Published: 23 April 2024 10:48 CEST
Updated: 23 April 2024 11:49 CEST
Italian word of the day: Metà vs mezzo

It’s often the case in Italy that you’ll find several words that mean something very similar, and it’s not always easy to know which one is appropriate. Our new mini series looks at some of the most common word pairs, and sorts out which should be used and when.

Why do I need to know the difference between metà and mezzo?

Because you’ll need to use both of them in daily conversation if you live in Italy, but the difference in meaning isn’t always clear.

What’s the difference?

When you want to talk about ‘half’ of something in Italian, it may seem as though you have two choices.

Depending on what you’re talking about, you could reach for either metà or mezzo (or mezza, which we’ll come to later) but many language learners say they’re not always sure which one to use in certain situations.

Put simply, the difference between metà and mezzo is much the same as the difference between ‘half’ and ‘middle’ in English.

Metà: a half, as in one of two equal parts of something.

Mezzo: the middle, as in equally distant from two points.

For example:

Ha mangiato metà torta

He ate half of the cake

Facciamo a metà

Let’s split it (in half)

E’ sdraiato in mezzo alla strada

He’s lying in the middle of the street

Non penso che ti dovrebbe mettere in mezzo

I don’t think she should be putting you in the middle of this

READ ALSO: Come stai vs come va

But is anything in Italian ever really that simple?

There are some specific situations where the two words seem to be used interchangeably, or where it’s not clear why one is typically used and not the other.

Confusion arises particularly around telling the time in Italian, as you could say:

Sono le undici e mezzo

It’s half past eleven

Il mio treno arriva alle 5.40: vediamoci dieci minuti prima, alla mezza.

My train arrives at 5.40: let’s meet ten minutes before, at half past.

Why in this case aren’t we using metà for ‘half’? And why is it sometimes mezza rather than mezzo?

The English ‘half past’ doesn’t translate literally into Italian. Mezzo is used here instead, since we’re talking about the ‘middle of’ the hour, the point equally distant between two hours.

This might take some getting used to for English native speakers, but it is pretty logical.

As for why it’s mezza in the second example, this isn’t because it needs to agree with the gender of the noun in the sentence.

In fact, dictionaries tell us it’s always more correct to use mezzo regardless (although many Italians themselves find this rule confusing.)

But, in this case, as the language guardians at Italy’s Accademia della Crusca explain, mezza may (if you prefer) be used instead of mezzo when we already know the time, or at least the hour, being talked about.

So if you had earlier told someone an event would start at 8pm, but it’s now been delayed by half an hour, you could then say:

Comincerà alle otto e mezza

But if you’re inviting someone for the first time, you’d probably stick to:

Alle otto e mezzo

This can be a lot to remember when you’re in the middle of a conversation, but with practice you’ll soon get a feel for which word sounds right in which context. 

Do you have an Italian word you’d like us to feature? If so, please email us with your suggestion.

Make sure you don’t miss any of our Italian words and expressions of the day: download our new app (available on Apple and Android) and then selecting the Italian Word of the Day in your Notification options via the User button.

SHOW COMMENTS