In today’s video we will talk about something very interesting, especially for the youngest… all the Italian vocabulary on the internet!
VOCABULARY and HABITS of the Italians ONLINE
Internet! What a wonderful invention! So wonderful that in some languages you write it with a capital letter… and in Italian as well, but without the article: “navigo su Internet”.
Now, when we talk about the internet the first thing that comes to mind is probably Google, Facebook and YouTube… am I wrong?
Google is a “motore di ricerca” (browser) that indexes almost all existing websites so we can easily consult them. The address of a website is called dominio (domain). For example, learnamo.com is the domain of our site, you can consult all our lessons to improve your Italian.
Facebook and Youtube, instead, are social media where people can share or post content (photos, videos, comments, etc.)
In Italian we say “postare“! This term can be funny, because it is clearly the Italian version of the English verb “to post”. In Italian, in fact, it is common to hear sentences like:
“Ho postato una foto su Instagram” (I posted a photo on Instagram)
Or
“Ho postato un nuovo post su Facebook” (I posted a new post on Facebook).
Sometimes you can hear also “ho postato un video” (I posted a video), but it’s more common to say: “ho caricato un video” (I uploaded a video) or “ho pubblicato un video” (I published a video).
When a video, a photo or a post is re-shared by many people and gets thousands or millions of views then we sa “è andato (o diventato) virale” (it has gone (or become) viral).
People often share content on social media to get social approval, which means getting “likes” (i “mi piace”) and feeling gratified.
These: 😀 😥 😆 in Italian are called emoticon or emoji, even though are also simply called “faccine” (little faces). People use them to express their emotions or avoid writing long words or phrases.
For example, here you have a text by Rocco:
That translated is:
“Oggi vado a vedere la partita partita di calcio, prendo la macchina perché lo stadio è lontano! Tu quando vai al supermercato con Angela?”
(“Today I go watching the football match, I take the car because the stadium is far away! When do you go to the supermarket with Angela?”)
Have you noticed something odd? Exactly, the abbreviations!
When Italians chat (we say “chattare“, another Italianization from the English verb “to chat”) or send text messages, they often use abbreviations! They were born when, to send text messages, there was a maximum of characters possible to use (do you remember those times?) And now… well, they are used for laziness!
There are many abbreviations and they are mostly used by adolescents, here are the most common:
Cmq = comunque (anyway)
Gg = oggi (today)
Dmn = domani (tomorrow)
Xké = perché (why / because)
Dv = dove (where)
Qnd = quando (when)
Cm = come (how)
Nn = non (not)
Nnt = niente (nothing)
Grz = grazie (thank you)
Msg = messaggio (text message)
Tvb = ti voglio bene (I love you / I care about you)
Xò = però (but)
Sn = sono (I am)
Ke = che (what / that / which)
Bn = bene (good)
Bll = bello (beautiful / good)
Tt = tutto (all / everything)
Cpt = capito (understood)
Qlcs = qualcosa (something)
Qlc1 = qualcuno (someone)
To surf (navigare) the internet in Italy you need ADSL or FIBER (which guarantees a faster connection). These two types of internet connections are reserved for domestic use, that is when you are at home.
If you want mobile internet instead, you will need to purchase a SIM card from a telephone company (the most famous in Italy are: Wind-Tre, Vodafone and Tim).
Usually, with a subscription of around €10 a month you can have enough Giga to always have internet when you’re not at home!
A few years ago the internet for mobile devices was called 3G, today we have LTE or 4G … they say that next year, in 2020, the 5G will arrive, which will be super fast!
Ah, something important! Since sim cards have limited Gigabytes, be very careful to not download (scaricare) very large content such as videos or movies when you’re out!
Now, before concluding, it must be said clearly that many terms related to the Internet are anglicisms: English words that remain unchanged. But pay attention to the gender, which is added in Italian! For example:
E-mail is feminine, in fact we say “un’email” (with the apostrophe!)
(if you have any doubt about when to use the apostrophe, check out our lesson entirely dedicated to the Italian apostrophe!).
Account is masculine, in fact we say “un account” (without the apostrophe).
Wi-fi is controversial, because some people say “la wi-fi”, some others “il wi-fi”! Both forms are accepted!
When it comes to words like mouse, computer, desktop, browser and click, these are all masculine. In fact, we say for example:
“Per navigare su internet devi fare un doppio click sul browser per aprirlo”
(To surf the internet you need to double click on the browser in order to open it)
Password instead is feminine, and remember: do not let the hackers steal it!
Finally, if you like Graziana’s t-shirts you can purchase it on our online shop: LearnAmo Collection!
Let’s see if you’ve mastered the contents of this class. Have a go at completing the exercises!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:04 — 9.2MB)
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