Italian Idioms That Have No English Equivalent

Italian has idioms that go beyond their literal translation. They don’t depend on grammar, but on history, culture and the habits of the people who made them, which is why the words can cross into English while the meaning stays behind.

Some Italian expressions travel into English without losing anything. Battere il ferro finché è caldo is simply striking while the iron is hot. Those are not the expressions this article is about. Every expression on this list passes two tests: it has no real equivalent in English, and Italians use it, today, in ordinary conversation.

Nothing here comes from a proverb collection. You can hear all of it in a week of listening in a bar or around a dinner table.

Italian Expressions Born in the Kitchen

Essere pieno come un uovo (to be as full as an egg): it’s what you say after a long Sunday lunch, when refusing the next course has become a matter of survival. An egg has no empty space inside it, and after four courses neither do you!

Cade a fagiolo (it falls like a bean): something that arrives at exactly the right moment falls like a bean: an unexpected payment when a bill is due, or a friend calling just when you needed some help.

Essere come il prezzemolo (to be like parsley): parsley turns up in nearly every Italian dish, and a person who is like parsley turns up everywhere: every dinner, every photograph. The teasing is affectionate, and it makes people smile when a foreigner uses it well.

Tutto fa brodo (everything makes broth): any scrap in the pot enriches the broth, and any small contribution helps the situation. Italians say it when accepting modest help or minor gains: not what we hoped for, but into the pot it goes.

Rendere pan per focaccia (to give back bread for focaccia): to repay a wrong with something just as bad, or slightly worse. The exchange sounds fair, bread for bread, but focaccia is the richer loaf, and the answer stings more than the offence.

C’entra come i cavoli a merenda (it fits in like cabbages at merenda): merenda is the afternoon snack Italian children eat between lunch and dinner: bread and jam, a slice of cake, biscuits. Small, sweet, predictable. Cabbage is something that an Italian child would never eat, especially at merenda! The expression dismisses anything wildly out of place, a comment with no connection to the conversation, a rule applied to the wrong situation.

Che c’entra? C’entra come i cavoli a merenda!

Animals

In bocca al lupo (into the mouth of the wolf): the Italian way to wish good luck, and a small ritual: the only correct answer is crepi il lupo, may the wolf die, or simply crepi. Saying “grazie” instead is considered bad luck. Nowadays, especially among animal lovers, viva il lupo (may the wolf live) is often preferred.

Conosco i miei polli (I know my chickens): a farmer knows exactly what each hen will do, and an Italian who says this knows exactly how a certain person will behave: the colleague who will be late, the cousin who will ask for money. It is said with a knowing look, halfway between affection and resignation.

Essere quattro gatti (to be four cats): when almost nobody shows up, those who did are four cats. A meeting, a party, a piazza on a rainy Tuesday: eravamo quattro gatti, there was hardly a soul.

Prendere lucciole per lanterne (to mistake fireflies for lanterns): to misunderstand completely, to take one thing for something far bigger. From a distance, in the dark, a firefly and a lantern are both just lights, and the mistake is easy to make and embarrassing to discover.

The Body Tells the Story

Avere le braccine corte (to have short little arms): a person whose arms are too short to reach the wallet at the bottom of the pocket. It means stingy, and the diminutive braccine makes it worse, not kinder: the arms are not just short, they are ridiculously, conveniently short, especially when the bill arrives.

Non avere peli sulla lingua (to have no hairs on the tongue): someone with no hairs on the tongue says exactly what they think, without softening anything. Italians use it about themselves almost with pride, as a sign of honesty.

Avere un diavolo per capello (to have a devil for every hair): not one devil: one per hair. This is fury at its most Italian, visible from across the street. If someone warns you that the boss has un diavolo per capello today, reschedule your request.

Non stare più nella pelle (to no longer fit inside one’s own skin): excitement so strong that the body cannot contain it. Children before a birthday, adults before the keys to the new house in Italy are handed over.

Alzare il gomito (to raise the elbow): the gesture gives it away: the elbow lifts as the glass tilts, and then lifts again. It describes someone who has drunk too much, and it is gentler than the alternatives. Ha alzato un po’ il gomito is what you say about an uncle at a wedding, with tolerance rather than judgement.

Acqua in bocca! (water in the mouth): keep the secret! with a mouth full of water, nothing can slip out. It is usually an instruction, delivered with a raised finger: mi raccomando, acqua in bocca.

Situations, Times and Popes…

Essere in alto mare (to be on the high seas): far from the finish, with no land in sight. A renovation or a bureaucratic procedure: asked how it is going, an Italian sighs siamo ancora in alto mare, we are still on the open sea.

Piove sul bagnato (it rains on what is already wet): fortune piles onto the fortunate and trouble onto the troubled. The rich win the lottery; the man whose car broke down then loses his keys.

Arrampicarsi sugli specchi (to climb up mirrors): to defend an impossible position with increasingly desperate arguments. A mirror offers no grip, and everyone watching can see the climber sliding.

In quattro e quattr’otto (in four and four makes eight): done in the time it takes to say that two fours are eight: instantly, without fuss. Te lo sistemo in quattro e quattr’otto, I will fix it for you in no time.

Ogni morte di papa (every death of a pope). Something that happens almost never happens every death of a pope. Only Italy could produce this unit of time. “Do you two see each other often?” ”Ogni morte di papa.”

Empty Pockets

Essere al verde (to be at the green): broke! candles were once painted green at the base, and a candle burnt down to the green had nothing left to give. Neither does the person who declares, at the end of the month, sono al verde.

Fare i conti senza l’oste (to add up the bill without the innkeeper): to make plans without consulting the person who actually decides. You work out the evening, the cost, who pays what, and then the innkeeper arrives with the real total. It is used for anyone who has planned around an authority they forgot to ask.

Making Them Yours

Expressions like these are how Italians measure a foreigner’s Italian: grammar earns respect, but eravamo quattro gatti dropped naturally into a story makes an Italian smile. Choose three or four from this list, listen for them, and use them when the situation fits.

Reading idioms is the easy part. They settle only when you use them in a real conversation, with someone who can tell you when the timing works and when it does not.

If you want to learn Italian expressions you can actually use, along with everything else that comes from practising with a professional teacher, Italian Teacher’s Italian conversation lessons are built for exactly that. You can start with a free trial lesson!