Common Italian expression
| Literally | To lose the thread |
| Meaning | Used to describe someone who forgets a conversation’s topic |
| IPA pronunciation | /ˈpɛrdere il ˈfiːlo/ |
Perdere il filo
To lose your train of thought
Sometimes you can also find this idiom as perdere il filo del discorso, literally meaning “to lose the conversation’s thread”.
Perdere il filo del discorso
To lose your train of thought
Examples
Ho perso il filo dei discorso. Cosa stavo dicendo?
I lost my train of thought. What was I saying?
Il nostro professore di lettere perde spesso il filo mentre spiega.
Our literature professor often loses track (of his conversation) while explaining.
Where does this idiom come from?
This idiom is related to the old art of weaving, la tessitura. In rug making, you have to be careful to pull the right threads because there is a precise pattern that you must follow for the design to come out well. If you lose the position of these threads… you have to start all over again!
Variations
- fare confusione (to get wrong, mixed up)
- avere un vuoto di memoria (to have a memory lapse)
Related lessons
- perdere (to lose)
- filo (thread)
- definite articles
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