Learn Italian idioms

Hi, everybody! I am Luca and this video-lesson is aimed at those amazing people who are learning Italian. If you are one of them, you've come to the right place!

In this video I would like to talk about 3 epic phrases that you may not know.

The 3 expressions I wanted to discuss in this video have a meaning similar to the phrase "costa tanto". And they can be used to stress the fact that the price of something is excessive. So, if you will, something between "costa tanto" and "costa troppo".

So if we are talking about a very expensive item, we can say that this item "costa tanto", or that it "costa troppo".

If we say "costa troppo", we mean that its price seems excessive to us. That is, we believe that the price of this item is exaggerated.

So, like I said, we can simply say "costa troppo". We can say "costa davvero troppo". We can say "è davvero molto costoso". Or we can use the 3 phrases that I wanted to discuss.

The first expression, which I like a lot, because it is very vivid, is: "costa un occhio della testa".

For example, if someone asks me: "Hai visto il nuovo modello di quel telefono?" I could answer them: "Sì, sì, l'ho visto! Ma costa un occhio della testa".

What does "costa un occhio della testa" mean? It costs a lot, it costs too much, its price is excessive.

There's not much to it. In the sense that you surely know the word "occhio", and you know the word "testa". "Costa un occhio della testa".

Why do people also specify "della testa", I don't know. It would be sufficient to say "costa un occhio". But this phrase has been set like this: "costa un occhio della testa". It is clear that eyes are in one's head, right? We have two eyes in our head.

So, if we say "costa un occhio della testa", that's redundant. But this expression is like this: "costa un occhio della testa". We cannot say just "costa un occhio". I mean, it's not ok to say just "costa un occhio", because the set phrase is "costa un occhio della testa". It's obvious that eyes are located in one's head. But this is how this phrase is.

But let's move on to the second phrase!

The second expression is: "Costa l'ira di Dio".

Alright. Keep in mind that some people double the letter D in the word "Dio". And say "costa l'ira di DDio" (as if there were two Ds).

For example, I could say: "Quel telefono costa l'ira di Dio".

What does "costa l'ira di Dio" mean? It costs a fortune, it costs way too much. Its price is excessive.

You surely know the word "Dio", you may not know the word "ira". Anyways, "ira" essentially means wrath, if you will. This phrase literally means: it costs you the wrath of God. But here we should keep in mind that this is an idiomatic expression which should be used just like this.

This idiom clearly has an origin related to religion, if you will. It probably derives from the Bible. But nowadays it's not used in a religious way. I mean, people who say "costa l'ira di Dio" don't think about God or related concepts.

This is one of those phrases with an origin, so to speak, related to religion or to the Bible, which came into the Italian language and nowadays are used just like that, in a non-religious way. Because everybody knows that "costa l'ira di Dio" simply means that something costs a fortune.

Let's move on to the third expression!

The third idiom I wanted to discuss is: "Costa una cifra!".

What does it mean?

The meaning is the same: it costs a lot.

For example: "Quel telefono costa una cifra". What does it mean? That phone is really high-priced. Its price is excessive.

So, you see, we have at our disposal three phrases. We could say: "Costa un occhio della testa", "Costa l'ira di Dio", or "Costa una cifra".

Lastly, I wanted to talk about a bonus expression, which is: "Costa un botto". For example: "Quel telefono costa un botto".

This is a bonus phrase because in fact not long ago I already made a video about the phrase "un botto". In that video I discussed the expression "costa un botto" and I also talked about other idioms with the word "botto". I'll add a card to it in the top corner. If you want, check it out!