Uffa! Italian Interjections. A fun guide to Italian emotions.

Italians are passionate and emotional, and so is our language.

INTERIEZIONI

An interiezione (or esclamazione) is an inviariable part of a sentence (no masculine / feminine, singular / plural) expressing a sudden emotion. It comes from the Latin interiecere, “to throw in the middle”, because it comes suddenly, in the middle of a conversation, usually followed by an exclamation mark.

It is quite difficult to associate a particular emotion with each interiezione, or even translate a single one. I’ll try anyway.

Interiezioni proprie, improprie, locuzioni

Vocabolario

Livello: intermedio


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If you are interested in this topic, you may want to have a look at some Italian “not too bad words”.

I’ll stop here. There are more, of course. Please fee free to book a complimentary Skype class. Ciao.

photo credits

 

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Riccardo
Milanese, graduated in Italian literature a long time ago, I began teaching Italian online in Japan back in 2003. I usually spend winter in Tokyo and go back to Italy when the cherry blossoms shed their petals. I do not use social media.

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Susanna
Susanna
5 years ago

Riccardo, Grazie per quest’informazione . E molto utile per me come insegnante. Stavo cercando queste parole per informare i miei studenti. Grazie e buona giornata!

Kathleen
Kathleen
5 years ago

So Riccardo, are you still on here? I’m an Italian teacher, college level, but currently semi-retired and teaching at a language school, so I’m without the usual crowd of Italians to ask about current usage. If you still use this site, please write back, and I would love to ask you some questions.

Lisa Law
Lisa Law
7 years ago

Ciao Riccardo when would you use ‘che forte!’ and also ‘figurati’ .Grazie tanto. Lisa

Marisa Franca Stewart
8 years ago

I would make a comment like: The economy will get better. Mamma would say: bocca di angelo. Something like “from the mouths of angels” Instead of “magari” it would be bocca di angelo and I was the “angelo”.Although my reference was usually hope that our political leadership would change. Does that make sense? She really did use it a lot. It might have been a term used more frequently around the Trieste area.

Danteadmin
Danteadmin
Reply to  Marisa Franca Stewart
8 years ago

That could be a local version of “parole sante”, very common in standard Italian.

Tim
Tim
Reply to  Danteadmin
6 years ago

More likely it is similar to the English phrase: “when angels speak”. This insinuates that your statement will practically never happen but you are sweet and innocent (angelic) to think it might.

Marisa Franca Stewart
8 years ago

Also my mamma used a term ” bocca di angelo” it was a term she used almost like magari . Have you ever heard the saying?

Danteadmin
Danteadmin
Reply to  Marisa Franca Stewart
8 years ago

No, never heard. Interessante. Puoi farmi un esempio? Grazie.

Marisa Franca Stewart
8 years ago

What about “beh” where does that go?

Danteadmin
Danteadmin
Reply to  Marisa Franca Stewart
8 years ago

Ciao Marisa. “Beh” è una interiezione propria. Depends on the intonation. Beh…”after all…”;
“Beh!” “not too bad!”;
“Beh?” “do you have anything to say?”.

Don`t copy text!