As many of you know, there are words that look similar in English and Italian but have different meanings. They’re called ‘false friends’. Here are a couple of examples:

The English addiction equates to the Italian dipendenza or tossicodipendenza when it refers to illegal drugs, and to assuefazione if it’s legal drugs. The similar Italian word addizione means addition/sum.

The common meaning of the Italian word palazzo is building eg il palazzo dove abito io è all’angolo della strada = my (apartment) building is on the street corner. But if we’re talking about a grandiose residence like a royal/imperial palace then the Italian translation is palazzo reale/imperiale.

Also, a reminder of how to differentiate between an action we’ve been doing for a while (and we’re still doing it) and an action we’ve stopped doing. Here are examples:

Vado in Italia ogni anno da vent’anni = I’ve been going to Italy every year for twenty years (and I still do)

Sono andata in Italia ogni anno per vent’anni – I’ve gone to Italy every year for twenty years (but now I’ve stopped going)

Yvette Devlin