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Italian expressions with “mare”

mare aperto – open sea

mare grosso – stormy sea (lit. “big sea”)

mare mosso – rough sea (lit. “wavy sea”)

mare piatto – dead calm sea (lit. “flat sea”)

un mare di [qualcosa] – a lot of [something] (lit. “a sea of [something]”)

i frutti di mare – seafood

la gente di mare – seafaring people

il lupo di mare – sea dog (lit. “sea wolf”)

il riccio di mare – sea urchin (lit. “sea hedgehog” or “sea bur” – both are called riccio in Italian)

(con) vista mare – sea view (adj.)

mal di mare – seasickness

avere il mal di mare – to feel seasick

cercare per mare e per terra / per mari e monti – to search high and low (lit. “to search through sea and land / to search through seas and mountains”)

(essere in) un mare di guai – to be in big trouble (lit. “to be in a sea of troubles”)

essere in alto mare – to be at a loss, to have a long way to go, or, more literally, to be on the high seas

promettere mari e monti – to promise the stars and the moon (lit. “to promise seas and mountains”)

sopra il livello del mare – above sea level

tra il dire e il fare c’è di mezzo il mare – talk is cheap (lit. “between saying something and doing it there’s a sea to cross”)

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Italian expressions with “acqua”

acqua alta – high water

acqua cheta – a seemingly quiet and meek person who actually plots to meet their own ends (lit. “calm water”, “still water”)

acqua corrente – running water

acqua del rubinetto – tap water

acqua di rose – rosewater

all’acqua di rose (adj. or adv.) – low-quality, superficial (when you do something “all’acqua di rose”, it means you do it superficially, poorly)

acqua dolce / acqua salata – fresh water / seawater or salt water (lit. “sweet water / salt water”)

acqua e sapone (adj.) – fresh and natural, simple, without make-up (generally used to connotate someone’s beauty; lit. “water-and-soap”)

acqua naturale / liscia – still water

acqua frizzante / gassata – sparkling water

acqua ossigenata – hydrogen peroxide (lit. “oxygenated water”)

acqua potabile – drinking water

acqua santa – holy water

acqua in bocca! – mum’s the word!, lips sealed! (lit. “water in [your] mouth!”)

affogare / annegare / perdersi in un bicchier d’acqua – to drown in an inch of water (lit. “to drown / get lost in a glass of water”)

avere l’acqua alla gola – to be in a pickle (lit. “to be up your throat in water”)

essere come il diavolo e l’acqua santa – to be incompatible (lit. “to be like the devil and holy water”)

essere due gocce d’acqua – to be like two peas in a pod (lit. “to be like two drops of water”)

essere / sentirsi un pesce fuor d’acqua – to be / to feel like a fish out of water

facile come bere un bicchier d’acqua – a piece of cake [fig.] (lit. “as easy as drinking a glass of water”)

fare acqua (da tutte le parti) – to not hold water (lit. “to leak water [from everywhere]”)

fare un buco nell’acqua – to try and fail (lit. “to make a hole in the water”)

navigare in cattive acque – to be hard up / to be in deep water (lit. “to sail on bad waters”)

è acqua passata! – it’s water under the bridge now!

ne è passata di acqua sotto i ponti! – it’s been a long while and many things have changed (lit. “a lot of water has flown under the bridge!”)

portare / tirare acqua al proprio mulino – to feather one’s own nest (lit. “to bring water to one’s own mill”)

scoprire l’acqua calda – to find out something obvious (lit. “to discover hot water”)

smuovere le acque – to shake things up (lit. “to shake the waters up”)

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آبخست

Transcription: ābxost

Meaning: island

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How to sound more natural in French

1) For questions, use “est-ce que”, or just the plain affirmative form with a question mark/rising tone.

 Où vas-tu ? (correct, but nobody actually speaks like that)

 Où est-ce que tu vas ? (much better) Tu vas où ? (most common) Partez-vous en vacances cet été ? (hello, I’m a robot)

 Est-ce que vous partez en vacances cet été ? (natural)

 Vous partez en vacances cet été ? (what I would probably say) => Note that even though I used the formal “vous” in this last example (could also be that I’m addressing multiple people, but let’s say it’s just one person), it’s still completely ok/common/natural to use these more “informal” question forms. Same goes for all the other tips below. This is how people actually speak, even in slightly more formal situations. 

2) Drop “ne” in “ne pas”

E.x. Je ne sais pas. => Je sais pas.

E.x.  Je n'ai pas faim. => J'ai pas faim.

3) Use “on” (conjugates like the third person) instead of “nous”

E.x. Nous habitons à Paris. => On habite à Paris. 

4) Shorten “tu” to t’ when the verb starts with a vowel of a “silent” H 

E.g. Tu habites où ? => T'habites où ?

5) Drop “il” in “il y a”. It turns into “y'a”

E.x.  Il y a un chat dans le jardin. => Y'a un chat dans le jardin.

E.x. Il n'y a pas de soucis. => Y'a pas de soucis. 

 These are the most important I think. Then there’s obviously vocab, with some words/contractions being more informal to varying degrees (“bouquin” for “livre”, “aprem” for “après-midi”…). 

And then, there’s pronunciation. There are a lot of sounds that can get slurred together, but I couldn’t really tell you the rules. As an example though, “je” followed by “sais” or “suis” will turn into j’, then ch if you’re really slurring.

 "Je sais pas" => “J'sais pas” => “Chaipas” (this last one is not usually written, but you will hear it) 

Some people will tell you that all these things are “incorrect” and “not proper French”, but I think that’s bullshit. You *need* to do all these things if you want to sound like a real person, and not like a textbook. Good luck!

 - with the help of a user from the HiNative App. When you have doubts about anything in particular, using HiNative is a great way to get the answers you’re looking for in a language you’re studying. 

 These were just some helpful tips I got from him/her about sounding more natural and gaining a better understanding of the language.

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Italian Vocabulary: "Sciacallo"

The other day the Italian twitter was very angry. The press had decided to share publicly the video of the Mottarone's cable car's crash in the newscast and the Italian twitter asked the video to be reported and blocked to respect the families and protect the kid who survived the crash.

🐺 LO SCIACALLO [ masc. noun, pl.form: gli sciacalli] is the Italian word for "the jackal", the small canine similar to the wolf [see first pic]. Given its habit of taking advantage of other predators's victims, the word is often used in a derogatory way to indicate people who take advantage of other people's disgrace and difficulties.

I saw a couple of recurring words in my timeline - sciacallo and sciacallaggio - and I thought about sharing with you their meaning.

Specifically it is used to indicate:

Looters who sack abandoned houses in the aftermath of terrible disasters like earthquakes;

Certain journalists who seem to profit from people'sorrow by oversharing and selling news;

People who look for true or alleged scandals in the past life of politicians with the intention of blackmailing them or damaging their reputation.

🐺 The noun indicating this kind of behaviour is LO SCIACALLAGGIO [masc.noun].

Here following, a couple of examples of how Italian twitter accounts used these words the other day:

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𝓛𝓮𝓼𝓼𝓲𝓬𝓸 𝓭𝓮𝓲 𝓷𝓮𝓰𝓸𝔃𝓲

[photo by Heidi Fin from Unsplash]

Negozi e mestieri - Shops and jobs

il supermercato | the supermarket il centro commerciale | the shopping mall il panificio - il panettiere | bakery - baker la cartolibreria | the stationer's that sells books as well la cartoleria | the stationer's la libreria - il libraio | the bookshop - bookseller il barbiere | the barber('s) il parrucchiere | the barber('s)/hairdresser('s) il salone di bellezza | the beauty salon la macelleria - il macellaio | the butcher shop - butcher la farmacia - il farmacista | the pharmacy - pharmacist il negozio di vestiti/di abbigliamento | the clothes shop il fiorista/fioraio | the florist l'agenzia immobiliare (f) - l'agente immobiliare | the real estate agency - real estate agent il fruttivendolo | the fruiterer/fruitmonger la drogheria - il droghiere | (little) grocery shop - grocer la gioielleria - il gioielliere | the jeweller's shop - jeweller l'edicola - l'edicolante/il giornalaio | the newsstand - newsagent il chiosco | the kiosk/stall la sartoria - il sarto | the tailor's shop - tailor la pasticceria - il pasticc(i)ere | the cake shop - pastrymaker il negozio di souvenir | the gift/souvenir shop il vivaio - il vivaista | the nursery (for plants) - nursery man il veterinario | the vet il ferramenta | the ironmonger's shop il negozio di alcolici | the liquor shop il negozio per animali | the pet shop il negozio di scarpe | the shoe shop il tatuatore | the tattoo parlor/the tattoo artist la tabaccheria/il tabacchi(no) - il tabaccaio | the tobacconist's - tobacconist l'enoteca (f) | the wine shop la lavanderia | the laundry il lavasecco | the dry cleaner's shop il negozio di seconda mano | second-hand shop/thrift shop il negozio di elettronica | the electronics shop il mercato | the market

Termini correlati - Related terms

il/la cliente | customer il venditore | seller, monger il proprietario | owner il commesso | shop assistant chiedere aiuto al commesso | ask the shop assistant for help la cassa | cash desk la fila/la coda | queue, line aspettare | to wait fare la fila | to queue, wait in line comprare | to buy vendere | to sell pagare | to pay con carta (di credito) | by card in contanti | in cash i soldi | money la banconota | banknote la moneta | coin restituire | to return il rimborso | refund consigliare | to recommend, advise dare un consiglio | to give advice un articolo | an item fare la spesa/(le) compere | to do the shopping il gestore/manager | manager usato/di seconda mano | used/second-hand lo scontrino | receipt lo scaffale | shelf la vetrina | shop window in vetrina | in the shop window guardare le/delle/un po' di vetrine | window shopping gli orari di apertura | opening hours il bancone | counter il banco (del pesce, del pane) | counter, stall il reparto (animali, elettronica) | department il sacchetto | bag aperto (24 ore su 24) | open (24/7) chiuso | closed i saldi | sales uno sconto (del 20%) | a (20%) discount scontato (del 20%) | discounted (by 20%) l'offerta | offer in offerta | on offer caro/costoso | expensive a buon prezzo/a buon mercato/non caro | cheap fare un pacchetto regalo | to make a gift package l'IVA | VAT

[photo by Ed Robertson from Unsplash]

A little grammar

Italian formation of feminine nouns can be a bit tricky, but it's nothing impossible to learn and in the end it comes down to practise and listening to others speak. To avoid a long grammatical rant, this won't be treating plural nouns and the nouns will be divided into 2 main categories, the second of which is the most complicated.

Nomi di genere fisso - Nouns with fixed gender

The easiest of the two, nouns with fixed gender are always inanimate and they're either masculine or feminine. This rule is key when you encounter certain couples of nouns which have a false gender variation. Among these, the most common ones are:

il pianto - la pianta | the crying - the plant

il colpo - la colpa | the hit - the blame

il caso - la casa | the coincidence/affair - the house

but also some homophones like:

il lama - la lama | the llama - the blade

il fronte - la fronte | the front - the forehead

Esseri viventi - Living beings

This is the most complicated part as there are several rules that further divide the nouns in other categories. Here they'll be divided in 4 categories: nomi mobili, nomi indipendenti, nomi ambigenere, and nomi promiscui (o di genere promiscuo).

1. Nomi mobili - Mobile nouns This nouns keep the same root but change their ending. Noun endings in -o or -e are replaced by -a in the feminine, unless the noun is refers to a job or a title, then usually it's replaced by -essa.

The masculine form is still preferred when talking about jobs and titles that women have been able to obtain only recently (e.g. avvocato, architetto, ministro, sindaco, etc), while the feminine is used for jobs and titles they have been able to do for a long time (e.g. sarta, professoressa, senatrice, infermiera).

2. Nomi indipendenti - Independent nouns These nouns have completely different forms in the masculine and feminine form. Examples of this are padre-madre, fratello-sorella, montone-pecora, etc. and there are no rules so you ought to study them by heart.

3. Nomi ambigenere - Common gender nouns Certain nouns ending in -e and in -a, and nouns ending in -ante, -ista, -cida and -iatra don't change between masculine and feminine. The only way to distinguish the gender is by the associated article and/or adjective. Examples of this are:

il/la nipote | grandchild/nibling

il/la collega | colleague

un/un'artista | an artist

un/un'omicida | a murderer

il/la pediatra | pediatrician

4. Nomi di genere promiscuo - Promiscuous gender These are mostly animals (with the notable exception of gatto/gatto, cane*, lupo/lupa, leone/leonessa, gallo/gallina) and they have only one gender and only one article to refer to both sexes. To specify an animal's gender "maschio/femmina" is added after the noun or the formation "il maschio/la femmina di [animale]" For example:

la tigre (maschio/femmina) | the tiger/tigress

il leopardo (maschio/femmina) | the leopard

il masschio/la femmina della rondine

il medico | the doctor

la spia | the spy

la guida | the guide

la guardia | the guard

[sources: masculine and feminine in Italian, formazione del femminile, "Il buon uso della parole - grammatica e lessico" by Elena Daina and Claudia Savigliano]

[photo: Italian Newsstand, by David Salamanca from Unsplash]

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Music Vocabulary in Italian

A revised and improved version of a post I made a while ago!

Nouns

Musical instruments

l(a) armonica (a bocca) – harmonica l(a) arpa – harp il basso – bass la batteria – drums la chitarra classica / elettrica / acustica – classic / electric / acoustic guitar il clarinetto – clarinet il contrabbasso – double bass il fagotto – bassoon la fisarmonica – accordion il flauto dolce / traverso – recorder / flute l(o) oboe – oboe l(o) organo – pipe organ il pianoforte – piano i piatti – clash cymbals il sassofono – saxophone lo strumento (musicale) – (musical) instrument il tamburello - tambourine il tamburo – drum il triangolo – triangle la tromba – trumpet la viola – viola il violino – violin il violoncello – cello la voce – voice lo xilofono – xylophone

l(a) orchestra – orchestra gli archi – string section / strings i legni – woodwinds gli ottoni – brass le percussioni – percussion

People

il baritono – baritone il basso – bass il / la cantante – singer il contralto – contralto, alto il mezzosoprano – mezzo-soprano il soprano – soprano il tenore – tenor

il direttore / la direttrice d'orchestra - conductor il / la musicista – musician il / la batterista – drummer il / la bassista – bass player il / la chitarrista – guitarist il / la contrabbassista – double bass player il / la fisarmonicista – accordionist il / la flautista – flutist l(o) / l(a) oboista – oboist l(o) / l(a) organista – organist il / la pianista – pianist il / la sassofonista – sax player il / la violinista – violinist il / la violista – violist il / la violoncellista – cellist

il coro – choir l(o) ensemble – ensemble il gruppo / la band – band (as in “rock band”) la banda – band (as in “marching band”) il / la solista – soloist, solo artist

Miscellanea

l(o) accordo – chord l(a) alterazione – accidental l(a) armonia – harmony l(o) assolo (di chitarra, di batteria…) – guitar / drum… solo la battuta / la misura – bar / measure il bemolle – flat il diesis – sharp la chiave – clef la chiave di violino – treble clef la chiave di basso – bass clef il contrappunto – counterpoint la legatura di valore – tie la legatura di portamento – slur la melodia – melody la nota – note il ritmo – rhythm il battere – downbeat il levare – upbeat la scala – scale il solfeggio – solfège / solmization lo staccato – staccato il suono – sound il tasto – key / fret (depending on the instrument) la tonalità – key

il bis – encore la canzone – song il riff – riff il ritornello – refrain, chorus la strofa – verse il testo – lyrics

Adjectives

acuto – high-pitched bemolle – flat classico – classic diesis – sharp grave – low-pitched intonato – in tune lirico – operatic maggiore – major minore – minor musicale – musical stonato – off-key strumentale – instrumental

Verbs

andare a tempo – to follow the beat applaudire – to applaud armonizzare – to harmonize ascoltare musica – to listen to music cantare (una canzone) – to sing (a song) duettare – to duet esibirsi – to perform fare le prove – to rehearse fare un/il bis – to give an encore improvvisare – to improvise suonare (uno strumento) – to play (an instrument)

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Bad*ss Italian Words

lama (n.): blade

incendiare (v.): to set fire to

scoppiare (v.): to explode, to erupt, to burst

cicatrice (n.): scar

tatuare (v.): to tattoo [somebody] (the verb for “to get a tattoo” is “tatuarsi”)

ago (n.): needle

scazzottata (n.): fist fight

cenere (n.): ash, cinder

veleno (n.): venom, poison

distruggere (v.): to destroy, to wipe out, to demolish

sopravvivere (v.): to survive

ribelle (n.): rebel

fiamma (n.): flame

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i just went to college and ditched this blog lol. 2nd semester is gonna be lit tho

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god employers really do be like: attach your cover letter here. now attach your resume here. now re-enter everything you just put on your resume but do it manually and with the least user friendly piece of shit software you've ever used in your life. now you'll never hear from us again. now fucking die ❤️

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what addons do you use for firefox? i've just downloaded it to switch from chrome (derogatory)

firefox (affectionate)

UBlock Origin obviously. out-the-box works just fine but has a bunch of extra privacy/tracking/spam filters you can enable

Decentraleyes protects you against tracking through "free" curated content delivery and works alongside UBlock (or any of the other common adblocking addons)

I Don't Care About Cookies good for EU users where GDPR made it so every site ever in the universe asks you to accept cookies and privacy terms seventeen times a day. will just auto-accept for you. never see an annoying popup again! but only use in conjunction with...

Cookie Auto Delete does what it says on the tin. will automatically flush cookies, cache, and data when you close a tab. those cookies you just auto accepted? they're gone now. whitelist any sites you wanna stay logged in on and let the rest fucking perish

Don't Track Me Google removes that annoying link conversion when you copy google results. you know when it changes from "site.com" to "encrypted.google.com/randomnonsensefor200charactersblahblahblah"? yeah. this stops that happening. fuck off, google.

Don't Accept image/webp blocks sites from using the most useless file extension known to mankind so you can save as .jpg or .gif as god intended. fuck webp. seriously. what even is that.

Bypass Paywalls Clean exactly what you think it is

HTTPS Everywhere automatically adds ecrypted security to any site that supports https (you can do this manually by adding the s yourself to any url but... who can be fuckin bothere amirite? this does it for you)

New XKit ...duh

Google Search Filter allows you to remove domains from your searches forever. pinterest? gone. weheartit? nuked. also works on duckduckgo. never type "-pinterest" into a search again.

Simple Tab Groups allows you to group tabs together and shove them out of sight, which is nice if you're researching something and don't want 50 bajillion jstor tabs clogging up your normal browsing session

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Resources masterpost

Being exposed to French:

Websites, social media

IG accounts with lots of stories

Online courses about French

Online courses in French

French subreddits

Fanfictions

Buzzfeed

Improving your:

Pronunciation

Speaking

Stutter

Things to listen:

Music

Podcasts

Radio stations

TED talks

Things to read:

Graphic novels/comics

News

Ebooks + quizzes (by me)

Short stories

Vikidia - kids Wikipedia

Things to watch:

Cartoons

Kids shows

The Simpsons the movie

True crime

TV programs - sci-fi shows, travelling, etc.

Youtubers

Extra:

Antidote 10 + BonPatron - Grammarly equivalents

Conjugation by le Nouvel Obs

Deepl - very good at translating sentences/expressions

Forbo - natives pronouncing things

Lexicity - about Ancien/Moyen Français

Lingolden - Chrome extension that teaches vocabulary

Linguo.tv (french videos + subtitles)

Reverso - very good alternative to Google translation

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Hi everyone! I wanted to talk about how to use your syllabus to its fullest potential so nothing sneaks up on you and you can feel prepared throughout the semester. This is the method I've been using for the last year to keep myself accountable. If you have any, feel free to add any tips I missed!

The first thing you should do, of course, is read that thing over and over again and make sure to ask for clarification from your professor on any assignment that isn't immediately clear to you. Even if it seems like the stupidest question in the world, ask now, before it gets too late and you still have no idea what to do. Remember: it is their job to help you.

Once you've got the clarification you need, you can map the syllabus out somewhere that's easy for you to get to. A piece of paper, an excel sheet, whatever. I use Notion for this. And what you'll do is make a list of EVERYTHING: readings, assignments, discussions, field trips, optional things like movies and talks, and write down their due dates. If you'd like, you can note down lectures and what their topics will be. You can add other classifiers to them as well - I usually do the due date, the priority, and the energy level to do the task. For readings and videos, I'll take a note of the number of pages or the video's length. Write down any notes the professor left on the syllabus as well - what exactly is this assignment, what is expected?

Then you go through and note when you want to have certain aspects of assignments done. You have a big project due at the end of the semester? Good, then within a few weeks of seeing the syllabus, you want a basic bibliography to be able to draw from, and an outline a few weeks after that, then a draft by x date and have the final ready at least a week before submitting. Use whatever amounts of time you think you'll need, but be sure to give yourself plenty of time. Personally, giving myself these hard due dates helps me to avoid procrastinating them. You can do this with smaller assignments as well :)

Then go through and do this for each of your classes. The reason I do this on Notion is so I can mix all of my classes together and order them by date, but you can do whatever works for you. If it helps to have each class separated, then do that for sure! Keep this list somewhere where you'll see it regularly — mine is integrated into my Notion to-do list. You can also add a calendar view if that visual is helpful for you.

One thing to keep in mind is that sometimes professors will change syllabi because they're running behind or because they've forgotten something, so it's important to be aware of that. Usually professors will let you know that a sylllabus has changed and what exactly was edited, but double check just in case.

And as a parting gift, here is my Notion template! Just duplicate it and feel free to edit and use as you see fit :) thanks for reading!

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attention management

Hi, it’s werelivingarts again. During online school, I find it extremely hard to concentrate on schoolwork since there are so many distractions on laptops, phones and even in your home. Sometimes, you have plan to work but your brain won’t collaborate, so here is some tips to help you with attention management. 😊

This post is based on James Clear’s Guide to Productivity and Real Simple’s Attention Management. I also made a video behind the scene of designing this post, you can see it here.

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free arabic language tools (online)

Desert Sky Arabic

Caravan Languages Tumblr Arabic “Course”

Aratools Arabic-English Dictionary

Arabic Langblr Tumblr Resource List

Arabic Language Masterpost

Arabic to English Transliterator

Transparent Language’s Arabic Language Blog

the best Arabic/English online translator i’ve found tbh

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The ABCDE Method: Accomplish Tasks more Efficiently

I recently came across the ABCDE method that’s similar to what I do to stay productive each day: instead of lumping up all your tasks, sort them into categories and tackle each of them differently. Here’s an outline of the method. Hope it helps :)