How many Italian words do you know?

a) 0-3; b) 4-7; c) 8-12; d) more than 13

  & Are you really sure? You will be surprise. Watch the video and count the words that you already know

English Words of Italian Origin and English Words in Everyday Italian

Americans use a lot of Italian words in English. More than many might think. Just walk into a Starbucks, and you will probably walk out with something called a ‘LATTE’ (Be careful asking for it in Italy, since all you will get is milk), and if it was a large, you will have asked for ‘VENTI’ or ‘TRENTA’, and you may have a bag with some ‘PANINI’ as well. How many time have you said ‘CIAO’, ‘BRAVO’ or “BELLA’? OK, all pretty obvious, but the list is actually almost endless, especially in two categories that provide a lot of enjoyment for many people: music and food. How many do you know? Clik here for a list of them.

But how about Italian use of English? Actually, there have been English words used commonly in Italian for ages, but recently it has really picked up, to the point that some call it ANGLITALIANO (the Italian answer to Spanglish or Chinglish).

How many English words exist in Anglitaliano?  Who knows? Below are the most significant nouns in this category. Have a look:

assist fashion OK authority fast food outing background fiction outlet band file party backstage fitness PC banner flash pool bestseller footing pop break gay pressing blitz gossip provider boss hacker puzzle box hardware rapper brochure home relax browser home page reporter card internet rock casual jazz server chart jogging sexy chat killer shampoo channel leader shock chip link show clown live slide club location smoking cocktail made spam computer magazine speaker corner manager stage database marketing stretching decoder master team default match tennis design media toner designer meeting topic devolution mixer trash dispenser mobbing tutor display mouse webcam DVD network weekend editor news wrestling fantasy non-stop zoom

The Case of “Computer” Verbs

With the arrival of the WEB and the amazing success of the Social Networks, English is having an incredible influence on Italian. Indeed, Italian has not only adopted a lot of English nouns into its vocabulary, accepting them in their original form (mouse, hacker, etc.), but it has also created a whole class of new verbs by taking English “computer” verbs and giving them an Italian form. A characteristic of these of verbs is that they all acquire the first conjugation suffix -are, so they follow the first conjugation rules. Here is a short list of the most common of them, completely integrated into contemporary Italian (although their original English meaning and form are apparent):

bannare, bypassare, bloggare, cliccare, downloadare, flaggare, formattare, linkare, postare, resettare, spammare, taggare, twittare, uploadare, zippare.