Italian Word of the Day: Orecchio (Ear)

March 15, 2023

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Today we are going to talk about a very important body part: ear!

Before we begin, it’s important to clarify that there are two forms derived from the Latin ear: masculine noun ear and feminine nouns ear.

masculine singular ear is the most common form used to refer to the organ itself. For example:

The ear is the organ of the human body responsible for hearing.

The ear is the organ responsible for the hearing function of the human body.

My right ear was pierced.

My right ear was pierced.

this ear Divided into three main sections: external ear (this external ear), inner ear (this inner ear) and middle ear (this middle ear). It is common for people, especially young children earache (one earache).

Little baby girl looking sideways on white background — **ears of a little girl** = baby girl ears

People new to Italian may be surprised to learn that ear Not one, but two plurals: masculine eara less common form used to denote the ear considered alone, and the more common ear, the feminine form is used to indicate a pair of ears. Consider the following example:

He bought five pig ears for his dog.

He bought five pig ears for his dog.

Here we are referring to five ears, probably taken from different pigs, so use ear.

However, in the second example we are talking about a pair of ears of a person as if they were one entity.For this we have to use the feminine plural ear.

The boy’s ears were red with cold.

The boy’s ears were red from the cold.

Disgusted businessman with finger in ear — **he plugged his ears** = He plugged his ears

Then we come to the single female form ear. Although this form almost never denotes an organ, it is often used to denote something that protrudes in a manner similar to an ear.For example, in the phrase listen page (literally making ears on the page), ear Refers to the corner of a page that is folded into a bookmark.plural form of ear always ear.

Here are the various definite and indefinite articles that should accompany ear, ear and its plural form:

ear = ear
ear = ear
one ear = one ear
ears = (some) ears

ear = ear
ear = (a pair of) ears
one ear = one ear
ears = (some) ears

Funny cute dog flapping its ears — ***dog with protruding ears*** = *dog’s ears are sticky*

Idioms featuring “orecchio”

ear and its masculine plural ear Occurs often in Italian figurative expressions. In fact, ear has more of a figurative meaning than a literal one, and the feminine plural ear Almost always used literally. Let’s take a look at some of the most common idioms, many of which are probably already familiar to you as a native English speaker!

notes: Since the Italian language is rich in ear-related idioms, we have chosen to make a limited selection in this article.Those who are interested can go to Repubblica IT-EN Dictionary.