Salty Italian words

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 16:33:11 +0100

The butcher sliced and wrapped four thin cutlets from a chicken breast for a woman who looked like she knew what she was doing. This seemed a good reason to choose this meat vender from many at the big Mercato Centrale market.

I indicated by pointing, that I, too, wanted a chicken breast. The butcher, with a karate chop gesture and raised eyebrows, asked whether I wanted the breast to be sliced like the previous customer. “Si,” I replied. This quickly became my favorite word to say in Italian. I said it several more times while purchasing vegetables, and again later while shopping in a small grocery store for spices and paper goods.

I looked up the word for salt in my pocket phrase book when the it was hard to locate. “Sale” seemed easy now that I had gained confidence using “si,” With an increase in pitch indicating a question, I asked the store clerk for “Sale?” The clerk smiled and nodded “no.” Now I put two words together and made a longer sentence, “No sale?” “No,” she replied speaking in a shorter sentence than my own.

Later in a different grocery store I tried the new word again. “Sale?” I said to the young man behind the cash register. “Si,” he said, and took me to the salad dressing. Feeling that I had possibly learned the word for salt incorrectly I said “No, uh, salt?” “Oh, sale, si!” he replied and brought me to the salt.

To visit the College of Saint Rose website, click www.strose.edu To visit Lorenzo dé Medici website, click www.lorenzodemedici.it To visit Scott Brodie’s website, click www.scottbrodie.com

Salty Italian words