How do you say hot chocolate in Italian?
Cioccolata calda
Cioccolato is the most common translation for chocolate in Italian, but when it comes to the hot chocolate you drink, you have to use cioccolata.
The difference between the two is that cioccolato is masculine while cioccolata is feminine.
Il cioccolato
Chocolate
La cioccolata
Chocolate
Hot is commonly translated as caldo in Italian, and this is the form you will find in dictionaries. However, since we’re talking about a feminine noun, this adjective has to match it in gender and number: that is why we say cioccolata calda, literally hot chocolate.
Ho dimenticato di aggiungere lo zucchero alla mia cioccolata calda.
I forgot to add sugar to my hot chocolate.
Questa cioccolata è troppo calda!
This chocolate is too hot!
You never say cioccolato caldo. You can still use cioccolata to talk about chocolate in general, but you cannot use cioccolato to talk about chocolate in its liquid form.
Talking about hot chocolate in Italian
You will always translate cup of hot chocolate as tazza di cioccolata calda, using cioccolata, and never as tazza di cioccolato caldo.
Tazza di cioccolata calda
Cup of hot chocolate
Mi sono preparato una tazza di cioccolata calda.
I have made myself a cup of hot chocolate.
Tom sorseggiò la sua cioccolata calda in silenzio.
Tom sipped his hot chocolate in silence.
You will need a cucchiaio, spoon, to stir the chocolate. Some people like their hot chocolate very sweet and add zucchero, sugar, or panna, cream, to the mix.
Un cucchiaino di zucchero
A tablespoon of sugar
Cioccolata calda con panna
Hot chocolate with cream
Vuoi della panna montata nella tua cioccolata?
Do you want some whipped cream in your chocolate?
Some people don’t like white sugar and use zucchero grezzo, brown sugar, instead.
Zucchero grezzo
Brown sugar
Often you will also eat some biscotti, cookies, that you dip into your chocolate for a delicious snack.
Ordering a hot chocolate in Italian
I would like to end this lesson with a few sentences you can say to order a hot chocolate in an Italian café if you happen to be on vacation in the country. The bartender will surely appreciate your effort to speak the local language!
To order a hot chocolate in Italian, say:
Vorrei una cioccolata calda, per favore.
I would like a hot chocolate, please.
3-4 assorted cookies (biscotti assortiti) on a small plate are usually included with it unless the place is particularly cheap, but if you want more, you can ask…
Mi può portare qualche biscotto, per favore?
Could you bring me some cookies, please?
And if you want a dollop of whipped cream on your chocolate, you can also say…
Può aggiungerci un po’ di panna montata?
Can you add some whipped cream to it?
More free Italian resources
You might want to keep learning Italian online with these free Italian resources:
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