Expand your Italian vocabulary

Hi, everybody! I'm Luca and this is a video for those who would like to learn the Italian language.

To be specific, this video is designed for those amazing people who can understand Italian, but would like to know more words and idiomatic phrases.

I'm referring to those who, when speaking Italian, may realize that they don't know certain words and wished they had a larger active vocabulary.

So, if you are one of them and want to speak Italian fluently, you might wanna subscribe to my channel. As a matter of fact, on this channel I regularly publish Italian lessons on different topics related to the Italian language and grammar.

Having said that, in this episode I wanted to reply to a request I receveid a while ago from one of my subscribers. This person asked me to talk about books considered as concrete objects.

Well, I have a book here with me and in this lesson I wanted to talk about books as concrete objects. That is: I'm not gonna talk about books considered as book content, but rather about books as objects.

In the comments below please let me know if you find these lessons useful. I mean these lessons in which I take a concrete object as a starting point.

I don't know if for you it's the same, but I love smelling books. Books typically have an amazing smell.

Anyway, here with me I have a book.

It is titled: "Dizionario universale di mitologia". I intentionally chose this book, because, given that these lessons are epic, well, it seemed the most suited.

This part of the book is called "copertina". "Copertina" is a feminine noun. "La copertina del libro".

These, instead, are called "le pagine del libro".

If I do this, what am I doing? "Sto sfogliando il libro".

The verb "sfogliare" is very interesting because it can be used to mean this, that is simply doing what I've just shown you. So, now "sto sfogliando il libro".

Alternatively, (the verb) "sfogliare" can be used to mean skimming through a book, without reading it in its entirety. For instance, one can say: "No, non l'ho letto, l'ho soltanto sfogliato". What does it mean? That they just did this, they took a quick look at it just to see what it was about.

Then, something that I want to stress is that with the noun "pagina" you should use the preposition A. So, for instance, if I open this book, right? This is "il numero di pagina", 181. I can say that I have opened the book "a pagina 181", not "sulla pagina 181". So pay attention that with the noun "pagina" you should use A.

If you want, you can also use the verb "andare". For example, somebody could tell you: "Vai a pagina 3!". Again, the correct form is "Vai a pagina 3", not "Vai sulla pagina 3".

Similarly, if somebody asks you "Dove si trova questa cosa?", you can answer: "Si trova a pagina 3". Or: "Si trova a pagina 100".

A very important part of the book is this one, "l'indice". "L'indice" can be either at the beginning or at the end of a book. In this case, it is placed at the end of the book. Basically, "l'indice" is a list of contents. Please pay attention that "indice" is a (grammatically) masculine word, "l'indice".

So, you see?! Here you have the different sections of the book and here you are shown on what page each starts.

Well, then, another interesting part of the book is this object right here. I don't know if you can see it. This kind of ribbon. So, I open it right here. What is this ribbon called? It's called "segnalibro".

So some books have this ribbon. If they don't have it, you can use an object such as this one. What is this? It's "un segnalibro".

"Il signore degli anelli - Calendario 1999". Well, anyway...

"Segnalibro" is an interesting word because it's a compound word, right? The first part is a verb, "segna", then we have "libro", "segnalibro", "il segnalibro, un segnalibro". This word is written all together. It is so called because it acts as a sign reminding us what point of the book we reached.

What I have just shown you are real "segnalibri". In other words, these are objects designed exactly for this function.

If we wanted, we could use any piece of paper as a bookmark.

This is a sheet of paper, specifically a sheet of paper cut in half. So, I could use this sheet of paper as a bookmark.

Similarly, here I have a chit of paper that I could use as a bookmark.

What about this? This is called (in Italian) "una cartolina". Back in the days, these were sent to relatives, friends, ecc. So, I could use "una cartolina" as "segnalibro".

Alright, then. Another thing that I wanted to tell you is this. Basically, there are 2 types of books. I'm not talking about their content, but about the type of bookbinding.

Namely, books like this one are called "rilegati". So we call this "un libro rilegato". Can you see that it has a hard cover? So, this type of book is called "libro con copertina rigida", or "libro rilegato".

By contrast, this is not "un libro rilegato". Or rather, this is called "brossurato". That is: made by means of "brossura". "Brossura" is a method of bookbinding, in other words... - ok, it's just different. Basically, this is glued together.

By contrast, in the other type of books, that is in traditional books, pages are bound together with a string, so to speak, with a thread.

Nowadays this type of books are clearly more common, I mean books "brossurati", which are commonly referred to as "tascabili". So we can say that this is "un libro tascabile", "un tascabile". What does (the word) "tascabile" mean? It means: that fits in a pocket.

Please do pay attention that this word is "tascabile" and not "intascabile". I want to stress this because the verb "intascare" has a negative meaning. If you are wondering what "intascare" means, well, some time ago I made a video exactly about the verb "intascare". Here you can find a card to it. Check it out!

Incidentally, I also made a video about the suffix "abile". In this case, we have an adjective, "tascabile", which has been formed using the suffix "abile". If you want to better understand this suffix and how it works, here you can find a card to a video I made a while ago and in which I discuss this very suffix.

Alright! Going back to our books, this is "un libro rilegato" with a hard cover, and this is "un libro tascabile".

Hardcover books are typically more expensive, whereas paperbacks are cheaper, that is: they cost less.

Just to be clear: this is also "un libro rilegato" with a hard cover.

What's the difference between the two? I mean, talking about books as objects and not about their content...

This one has "una sovraccoperta". This thing here, this cover, this part that you can take off, is called "sovraccoperta" or "sopraccoperta". I prefer saying "sovraccoperta", with double C. If you want, you can take it off. Honestly, I never take it off.

This book has an amazing smell. I don't know if you like sniffing books as well, I definitely do. As a matter of fact, whenever I enter a bookstore, I end up smelling books.

Then, this part of the book is called "costina" or "costa". So this is "la costa del libro", this is "la copertina".

A word that many non-native speakers get wrong is "libreria". Alright. In Italian, "libreria" has 2 meanings. "La libreria" can refer to either the store in which books are sold, or to the piece of forniture in which you put your books. This piece of forniture typically has multiple shelves, right? Books are typically placed upright on the shelves. So, this piece of forniture in Italian is called "libreria". Alternatively, "la libreria" can refer to the store in which books are sold.

You should not mix up (the words) "la libreria" and "la biblioteca". And this is exactly the mistake made by many learners of Italian. They use the words "libreria" and "biblioteca" as if they could be used interchangeably. In fact, "la biblioteca" is a place where books can be read, but not sold. By contrast, "la libreria" is a store in which books are sold.

I hope you have found this video helpful. I hope it helped you learn new Italian words and phrases.

Here you can find a card to another video I suggest that you watch, if you want to improve your Italian. If you want to speak Italian well, then, you might wanna take a look at this video as well. Check it out!

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