A Substack bestseller, Italy with Antonio offers honest guides for moving to, traveling in, and understanding Italy from a native Italian. Three articles a week, with deeper resources for paid members (including the print-ready PDF and ePub downloads of this article). Join over 2,000 subscribers!
Italian is becoming increasingly anglicized. People use English words when perfectly good Italian ones already exist.
For example, we say "call" when we could say "chiamata." Or we have a deadline when we could have a scadenza. Or location for luogo or posto.
Some Italians even conjugate English verbs as if they were Italian. So you’ll hear people say “ho skippato la canzone” instead of “ho cambiato canzone” or “non mi spoilerare il film” instead of “non anticiparmi il finale del film.” People in Milan are particularly egregious with this.
Along the way, however, we also managed to incorporate pseudo-anglicisms. Words that are technically English but are not used in the English-speaking world the way we use them in Italy, if they are used at all.
Some of these we invented; others we imported second-hand from France, which had already been reshaping English words for a century.
Italian doesn’t just borrow English. It absorbs it, reshapes it, and occasionally sends it back out into the world as something English speakers barely recognize. So here is a list of a dozen pseudo-anglicisms in Italian. In a couple of instances, the English use sort of exists, but it’s nowhere as common as it is in Italy.
Footing: in English, the noun means foothold or a foundation, and the verb is “to foot,” mostly used in expressions like “footing the bill.” In Italy, “footing” is used as an alternative to the word jogging. Example: “Vado a fare footing.” (I’m going jogging.)
Smart working: working from home in Italian is not working remotely. It’s “smart working.” Example: “La mia azienda non permette lo smart working.” (My company doesn’t allow remote work.)
Box: a private enclosed parking space, like a garage assigned to you in a condo. Also known as “box auto.” Example: “Box auto incluso.” (Garage space included.)
Golf: not the sport. A knitted sweater or pullover. Example: “Ho comprato un golf da Zara” (I bought a golf sweater from Zara.)
Mister: not a courtesy title like “sir” nor a sarcastic one (e.g., “listen up, mister”). Mister in Italy is used for the coach of a soccer team.
Example: “Questa vittoria la dedichiamo al Mister.” (We dedicate this victory to our coach.)Water: pronounced vater. Short for water closet. Yes, the “water” is the toilet. Example: “Devo pulire il water.” (I need to clean the toilet bowl.)
Autostop: not engine brakes or anything specific to the car mechanics. Autostop means hitchhiking. And someone who does is an autostoppista. Example: “Ho perso il treno e sono tornato a casa con l’autostop.” (I missed my train and came home hitchhiking.)
Smoking: nothing to do with cigarettes. A smoking in Italy is a tuxedo. Example: “Ho noleggiato uno smoking per la cerimonia.” (I rented a tuxedo for the ceremony.)
Fiction: a scripted TV show. Example: “Un posto al sole è la mia fiction preferita.” (Un posto al sole is my favorite scripted TV show).
Spot: a TV commercial. Short for “spot pubblicitario.” (English has this one too, but only as advertising industry jargon, as in a thirty-second spot.) Example: “La Barilla ha degli spot commoventi.” (Barilla has moving TV commercials.)
Flipper: a pinball machine. For example, “Ero veramente bravo col flipper.” (I was really good with the pinball machine.)
Tutor: short for Safety Tutor, the Tutor in Italy is the system that checks your average speed on motorways and can get you fined if you exceed the speed limit. Unlike autovelox, which measures your instant speed, the Tutor uses the time and distance to determine your average speed. Example: “Il Tutor misura la velocità media su un tratto stradale.” (The Safety Tutor measures the average speed in a road segment.)
One final tip: even English words used appropriately, like Wi-Fi or Google, are often mispronounced (or more accurately, pronounced the Italian way). Consider pronouncing them the same way when speaking Italian in Italy to help you be better understood.
I know it’s weird, but somehow butchering English will make you a better Italian speaker.
Seen last year in the Barolo region, at a woman-owned restaurant, a sign urging people to report any “lo stalking” in the street.
What I like about these is that at some point they stop being bad English and start being Italian, full stop. Nobody saying smoking or footing is trying (and failing) to speak English; the words have simply acquired lives of their own. Smart working may be the purest case: English speakers don't quite recognize it, Italians don't notice anything foreign about it. A linguistic immigrant, fully naturalised.