English Words in Italian: Not a Pezzo di Torta

Anyone who’s tried to learn another language no doubt has found moments of comedy amidst the hours (scratch that, weeks and months) of slogging through grammar rules. I don’t know about other countries, but the Italians have not only been active exporters of their words (ciao, venti, spaghetti, etc.), more recently they’ve been importing English words as well. Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “Great, less work for me!” And if you’re only planning on reading and writing your Italian, you’d be close to right. If you’re ever planning on speaking or listening to anyone speak, however, you’ve got another thing coming.

Tracie has complied a brief list of some English words the Italians use, along with their phonetic Italian pronunciation. She’s also mentioned a couple words that may look like English, but if you tried them back home in Arkansas you’d be looked at just as strangely as if you were speaking fluent Italian.

Once you’ve read that initial post, there’s another good one from just this month. If it’s this much trouble to just find crackers, I shudder to think of the third degree that comes when you want something that’s actually nutritious.