Common Italian expression
| Pronunciation | |
| Literal translation | To lose the thread |
| English translation | To lose your train of thought |
| Meaning | Used to describe someone who forgets a conversation’s topic |
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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