I’m starting a new weekly theme with a short blog post sharing an Italian word, expression, or idiom. Italian is considered to be one of the most romantic languages in the world, so why not share the love?
What I particularly enjoy about learning a language is that it is also a way to see into the culture. By sharing just a word or two every week you might just learn something more about Italy, Italians, and Italian culture. Who knows, maybe you’ll be able to take something away and use it the next time you’re in Italy or share it with someone you know and impress them with how beautifully you speak Italian.
To kick off this series, we’ll start with:
“Ti voglio bene”
“ti voglio bene” doesn’t directly translate into other languages. A literal translation would be “I want good for you” but you don’t really say that to people. This is how Italians say “I love you” in a friendly way. “Ti amo” is the literal translation for I love you but it is used for deep, passionate, romantic relationships.
Friends say to each other ” ti voglio bene” and so do family members. Also boyfriends and girlfriends when they’re maybe not so far along or serious in their relationship first say ti voglio bene.
This expression is often abbreviated as “tvb”. At the end of a letter, an email, or a text message you might tvb scribble or added onto the end. And if you really really care for a person you can add the word “tanto” which means a lot. So you could say Ti voglio tanto bene –> tvtb.
So to all of my blog readers, ti voglio bene!
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