Purpose

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to recognize and use common Italian idiomatic expressions that do not translate literally from English.

Lesson Explanation

Common idioms built on already-familiar verbs: Avere voglia di + infinitive — to feel like doing something: Ho voglia di ballare. (I feel like dancing.) In bocca al lupo! — Good luck! (literally “into the wolf’s mouth”; the traditional reply is crepi!, “may it die!” — never reply “grazie.”)

Costare un occhio della testa — to be very expensive (literally “to cost an eye from the head,” genuinely parallel to the Spanish idiom costar un ojo de la cara covered in an earlier-built Gabal course). Non vedere l’ora — to look forward to: Non vedo l’ora di vederti. (I can’t wait to see you.)

Prendere in giro — to tease/joke around: Mi stai prendendo in giro? (Are you kidding me? — note this uses the progressive from Part 5, Lesson 5, since it asks about something happening right now.)

A genuinely common structure worth knowing: avere combines with several nouns where English uses “to be” plus an adjective, mirroring the pattern already seen for Spanish: avere fame, avere sete, avere paura, avere ragione (to be hungry, thirsty, afraid, right). Saying “Sono fame” instead of “Ho fame” is a genuinely common learner error, worth memorizing as a set exactly like the Spanish equivalent.

Practice Questions