Sooner or later, you will all eventually have to talk about houses in Italian, whether you want to buy one in Italy, whether an Italian friend comes to visit you at your home, or whether you are renting in Italy and have a problem to explain to someone… and so on. However, knowing all the words for the elements, the items and the various rooms and stuff is not always easy or possible. So, get ready to memorize all of this because that’s what we are going to do in this video!
Italian words for HOUSE
Before starting, a small premise is needed, in order to clarify a doubt that many foreigners have. When we speak of a house in Italian, we do not refer to a specific type, but we indicate a dwelling in a general sense, i.e. the place where a household lives.
How many houses are there in Italy?
Before discovering the characteristics of the inside of a house, here’s a list of the main types of Italian houses: it will be useful to know their names in Italian and their particular features.
Appartamento (flat / apartment): a dwelling that is located within a building that houses more than one. This larger building that includes all the flats is called condominio (condominium / house of blocks).
Baita (a kind of chalet): a typical mountain dwelling.
Casa a schiera (Terraced house): part of a complex in which the dwellings are equal and are arranged next to each other.
Casa singola (single house): an individual dwelling, which is not part of a complex.
Farmhouse: Large rustic and isolated country dwelling.
Cascina (a kind of farm): a typical Italian country house for farmers, with rooms for tools and animals. In Southern Italy, this type of dwelling is generally called ‘masseria‘.
Palazzo (palace): Large building, used as a stately and elegant dwelling or as an office building.
Villa: Large and elegant dwelling, surrounded by a yard.
Villino (mini villa): Single dwelling with a small garden.
Let’s get into a house together
After this necessary list, we can pass to how a house actually looks like. As said before, many houses can have a front yard, with trees, bushes or also a small patio.
An element that is common to any kind of house is the porta d’ingresso (entrance door). Nowadays, it is more and more common to choose a security door (porta blindata), specifically made for preventing intrusion. This door is extremely safe, as its handle (maniglia) and lock (serratura). You can look through a spy hole (spioncino) to see who’s behind the door.
Once the door is open, there usually is an entry (ingresso), a small space with hangers to leave your coat or your keys, or even a mirror to check ourselves before leaving, or a piece of furniture where people usually leave their extra belongings. Personally, I usually leave my bag or my sunglasses. This space isn’t always tidy but it’s very useful anyway. The entrance can also look like a corridor (corridoio), a long and narrow space that leads to all the rooms.
Now let’s look at the rooms of a house.
The rooms of a house: LE STANZE di una casa
After entering the hall and walking down the corridor, you will be ready to explore all the rooms and really feel at home!
IL SOGGIORNO – THE LIVING ROOM
È la stanza della casa più ampia e accogliente delle altre, dove si trascorre la maggior parte della giornata, ci si rilassa, si ricevono le visite degli ospiti. This room is the largest of the whole house, where people spend most of their time relaxing or hosting guests. You can find an armchair (poltrona) and a sofa (divano) where you can chat or have a sit and watch TV. The difference between an armchair and a sofa is that the first one has just one seat, whereas a sofa has two or more seats.
In the living room, in many cases, there’s also a fireplace (camino), ideal for cozy winter nights.
. In many houses, the living room can also be a dining room (sala da pranzo), where you can have your main meals or fancy dinners with guests. If the house is bigger, the dining room is another separated room with a wide table (tavolo) and all the chairs (sedie).
LA CUCINA – THE KITCHEN
This one is my favourite room of the whole house: in the kitchen you can cook and eat food!
In an Italian kitchen, there usually are:
- la dispensa (the pantry), the piece of furniture (or, more rarely, a room called cupboard that has the same name in Italian) where people store long shelf life food that don’t require cold temperatures, such as biscuits, pasta, legumes, spices etc.);
- le ante e i cassetti (the doors of a cabinet and the drawers) where you can find dishes, glasses and cutlery, all the cookware, the table cloth and every other useful kitchen item or tool;
- il forno, for baking pizza, cakes, but also for cooking fish, meat and roasted vegetables. It can be an electric oven or a gas oven;
- il piano cottura (the hob/cooker) and the stoves (i fornelli), which can be gas or induction (induzione);
- il frigorifero (the fridge), the appliance needed to preserve fresh food as vegetables, milk and eggs, by keeping them at a low temperature;
- il lavandino (the sink) and its tap (rubinetto), to wash food or dishes, glasses and cutlery after cooking and eating;
- sometimes there’s also a dishwasher (lavastoviglie, an appliance that automatically washes dishes and cutlery.
- Most modern kitchens have an island (isola). Otherwise, there is a classic table with chairs, for quicker meals.
IL BAGNO – THE BATHROOM
One of the most important rooms… that’s why most of the family quarrels happen because of the bathroom!
What is usually in the bathroom?
- The toilet (the water, pronounced ‘vater’, in Italian, or tazza da bagno, for our basic needs. Don’t forget to flush (tirare lo sciacquone or scarico) after using the toilet. Next to the toilet, there is always toilet paper (carta igienica) and a toilet brush (spazzolone) to clean it;
- il bidet,the toilet’s best friend. The thing we Italians miss most when we are abroad… to be honest, I keep asking myself how can you live without it? And it’s for… well… personal hygiene;
- la doccia (the shower), with a shower plate where you put your feet on, and a handshower (doccino. A shower can we “walk-in” (open) or it can have sliding doors made of glass or plastic. In some bathroom, there’s a vasca (bathtub) where you can have a relaxing bath with hot water and soap.
- il lavandino (washbasin) ,for washing hands, teeth and face. Hand soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, and various facial cleansing products are kept near the sink or on it;
- gli asciugamani (the towels) to dry your hands after washing them;
- lo specchio (the mirror), usually on the bath usually right on the sink If only that mirror could talk…a mirror has to see our beautiful face every single morning, before washing our face.
- un mobile (a piece of furniture) with doors or drawers, to store all the things we may need, like a hairdryer or spare towels, or scented wipes etc.
LA CAMERA DA LETTO – THE BEDROOM
This is the room where we sleep.
What can you find here?
- il letto (the bed), where we sleep every night. On every bed, there’s always a mattress (materasso), some sheets (lenzuola), one or more pillows (cuscini) with their pillowcases (federe), and eventually, a bedspread (copriletto), a blanket (coperta) or a duvet (piumino).
- il comodino (bedside table), on the side of the bed, where we can keep books, some water, our glasses, our mobile phone or anything else on top of it. Then there is usually a small lamp, called abat-jour;
- la scrivania (the desk),a table, often with drawers, designed for studying, working, computer work. Next to the desk there is always a chair;
- l’armadio, the wardrobe, in which we keep our clothes.
LA LAVANDERIA – THE LAUNDRY
Not every home has a specific room for laundry. These objects on this list are, most of the times, all around the house, or on the balcony. Those who have one, however, usually put these objects there:
- la lavatrice (the washing machine), the appliance the automatically washes clothes for us;
- l’asciugatrice (the tumble dryer) to dry clothes in the fastest way, especially during wintertime, after the washing machine. In Italy it’s not an habitude, due to the sunny temperatures that enable to use cheaper and more sustainable ways (right under):
- lo stendino (drying rack), the object used to hang clothes to dry; in homes that have a garden or terrace, there is often also a clothesline (filo da bucato);
- il ferro da stiro e l’asse da stiro (the iron and the iron table), two items used to iron clothes, using steam to remove creases.
LO STUDIO – THE OFFICE
As the name suggests, this is the room used for studying or working (for those who work from home). Here we can find:
- la scrivania (the desk) with all the useful items and a computer. o
Speaking of desks, a special shoutout to FlexiSpot. On their site you can find lots of furniture to renew your home, especially desks, chairs and other products that will make your life easier and more comfortable! All their products are really innovative!
- la libreria, the bookcase, i.e. a shelf, an open cabinet with several shelves (mensole), in which we store books and other useful objects.
IL RIPOSTIGLIO – THE STORAGE ROOM
A small room for storing household items that have no other place, for example the broom, hoover, a shelf with cleaning products, DIY products and so on.
LA SOFFITTA – THE ATTIC
This room is under the roof of the house, if you have a house with a pitched roof. Keepsakes are usually kept there, or old objects that we don’t know where else to store but still don’t want to throw away.
IL GARAGE – THE GARAGE
This room is generally detached from the house: in the garage we leave our car, or bikes and motorbikes in case we have them, and also other objects, like if we do not have the attic.
Then there are those objects that we find more or less in every room of the house:
- le prese elettriche (the electrical sockets) on the walls and allow us to charge or turn on electrical devices (TV, mobile phone, washing machine, fridge, etc.)
- gli interruttori (the switches) to turn the light on or off;
- il lampadario (he chandelier), with light bulbs (lampadine) to light up the room;
- i termosifoni, the radiators that heat the house when the weather is cold.
- il condizionatore, the air conditioner, to cool the house when it is hot. Or, for those without air conditioning, there’s the fan (ventilatore);
- le finestre, the windows, to let in light from outside and to refresh the air of rooms every day. Hoping that the view from the windows (finestre) is good too. Often there are curtains (tende) in front of the windows, which serve to filter the light coming in from outside and hides what’s on the inside. In many houses, the windows open onto a balcony or terrace (balcone o terrazza). Otherwise, they may have a windowsill (davanzale), usually with plants or flowers on it. Windows then have another protection, which can be shutters (tapparelle) or blinds (persiane), made of wood;
- le pareti (the walls), even better with some paintings on them;
- il pavimento, the floor, made of tiles, parquet or carpet, depending on personal taste;
- il battiscopa, the skirting board, to protect the wall from the blows of, precisely, the broom, but actually also from the hoover and other things.
After learning the vocabulary of the house, you will be ready to find out more about the Italian vocabulary of the car too!
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