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ITALIAN WORD OF THE DAY

Italian word of the day: ‘Faticare’

This verb needn't be a struggle.

Italian word of the day: 'Faticare'
Photo: DepositPhotos

Learning Italian can feel like a Sisyphean task: for every new word you memorize, you find yourself forgetting two conjugations in the imperfect subjunctive. Or is that just me?

Italian has a word to describe wrestling with such labours: faticare, ‘to struggle’. 

Fatico a capire quel che dici.
I’m struggling to understand what you’re saying.

As you can see above, you specify whatever you’re struggling to do with the construction faticare a or per followed by the infinitive.

You can also use the noun form, una fatica, to say that something is ‘an effort’, ‘a struggle’ or ‘a hassle’.

Ci vuole tempo e fatica.
It takes time and effort.

Che fatica!
What a struggle!

But happily, the clue to overcoming your difficulties lies in the word itself. There’s a second sense to faticare: ‘to work hard’.

The word comes from the same Latin root that gave English the term ‘fatigue’, and the idea is that you’re working so hard you wear yourself out.

It might be that you’re doing a particularly laborious task…

Ho dovuto faticare molto per spostare il mobile.
I had to work really hard to move the furniture.

… or that you’re putting your all into it.

Ha faticato molto per laurearsi.
She worked really hard to graduate.

The two senses are grammatically indistinguishable, it’s just a question of tone.

But hopefully if you faticare (‘work hard’) enough, you won’t have to faticare (‘struggle’) to use them! 

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

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ITALIAN WORD OF THE DAY

Italian word of the day: ‘Rimorchiare’

Here's an Italian word you'll want to pick up.

Italian word of the day: 'Rimorchiare'

If you’ve ever studied for your foglio rosa (provisional driver’s licence) exam in Italy, you’re sure to have come across the word rimorchio (trailer).

Theory test T/F question: ‘The width of the trailer must never exceed that of the vehicle pulling it.’

Credo che dovremo noleggiare un rimorchio per trasportare tutta la merce.
I think we might need to rent a trailer to transport all the goods.

And rimorchiare, along with the more formal trainare, means to haul or tow.

La barca è stata rimorchiata a riva.
The boat was towed to shore.

But rimorchiare isn’t just used to talk about vehicles. It also means to pick or chat someone up, or hook up with them.

Sono usciti per rimorchiare.
They’ve gone out on the pull.

Se n’è appena andata con un tipo che ha rimorchiato.
She just left with some guy she picked up.

A rimorchiatore is a tugboat, but can also mean a player/persistent flirt, and rimorchione/a also describes someone who’s constantly chatting people up.

got talent nina GIF by Italia's Got Talent

In some parts of the country, meanwhile, you might hear someone described as a provolone – a big tryhard or wannabe player.

That’s a wordplay based on the reflexive verb provarci, meaning ‘to try it on with’, and the famous Italian cheese. 

È un gran provolone ma non riesce mai a rimorchiare.
He’s a real tryhard but he never manages to pull.

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

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