My Italian Word of the Week - [Buon] Anno ([Good] n. year)!
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Anno
n. year
from
Welcome to this week's installment of IWOW.
Buon anno, tutti! (Happy New Year, everyone!--translation not literal) This week's word came up a day early since it is the New Year. I'm going to put myself on a limb here and say buon anno is the Italian equivalent of "Happy New Year". The only source I have to back this up are dubbed episodes of How I Met Your Mother (which are hilarious, by the way), so please feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken. Literally, the New Year is il capodanno (m. s.), and New Year's Eve is la notte di capodanno (f.s.).
Anno (n. year) is a word that has given me much grief because I instinctively say per anno instead of all'anno whenever I refer to recurring events. In English, one says "X happens twice per year", which somehow causes per (for) to tumble out of my mouth instead of the correct all'. I'm pretty sure I get corrected on this error at least 3 times a day while classes are in session.
Some useful phrases related to this wordare ogni anno (every year, annually), l'anno scorso (last year), l'anno prossimo (next year), tutto l'anno (all year, year-round), and qualche anno fa (a few years ago). Of course, the romance writer in me zero'd in on the psychological term crisi del settimo anno (seven-year itch).
Disclaimer: I am writing this as a student of Italian. If there is anyone out there who would like to add to or correct my post, please leave a comment. This is a learning process for me as well.
