In this lesson, we study directions in Italian.
A direction in Italian is “un’indicazione.” A map is “una mappa,” and a street is “una via.” Let us look at more vocabulary related to directions in Italian.
The four geographical directions of a compass or “una bussola” are as follows:
| east | estm | south | sudm |
| north | nordm | west | ovestm |
And the four main directions right, left, up, and down are as follows:
| right | destra | up | su |
| left | sinistra | down | giù |
To describe the location of an object with respect to another, one can use one of the following:
| above on top (of) | sopra | there | lì là |
| here | qui qua | to the left of | a sinistra di |
| inside | dentro | to the right of | a destra di |
| near | vicino (a) | far (from) | lontano (da) |
| outside | fuori (da) | toward | verso |
| straight ahead | dritto | under beneath | sotto |
“qui” vs.“qua” & “lì” vs.“là”
There is a subtle difference in Italian between “qui” and “qua,” both translated as “here,” and between “lì” and “là,” both translated as “there.”
The difference is that “qua” and “là” tend to be less specific about the location. However, this subtle difference is not often respected.
“Ecco”
There is also the word “ecco” which is used to call the attention to something and is often translated as “here” in expressions.
For example, “Ecco l’autobus” (Here is the bus), “Ecco le mie domande” (Here are my questions), “Ecco perché” (Here is why), “Eccolo” (Here it is), “Eccomi” (Here I am), etc.
Other lessons in Level III:
