Birra

Italian word of the day

Pronunciation
English translationBeer
OriginFrom the German word Bier, “beer”

Different forms of birra

Like most nouns in Italian, birra has two articles (definite or indefinite articles) and two numbers (singular or plural).

Una birra
A beer

Delle birre
Some beers

La birra
The beer

Le birre
The beers

Examples

Ti piace la birra?Do you like beer?
Abbiamo finito la birra. Devo andarne a comprare un po’.We ran out of beer. I have to go buy some.
Ci sono ancora tre casse di birra nel seminterrato.There are still three cases of beer in the cellar.
Mi piace bere la birra ghiacciata.I like drinking cold beer.
smiling waitress holding 4 beer glasses

Types of beer in Italian

Two really common beer brands in Italy are Birra Peroni and Birra Moretti, but you will find a number of different beers in Italian to cover each and every taste. Some of these are…

Birra alla spinaDraft beer
Birra chiaraLight beer
Birra artigianaleCraft beer

For example, you can say…

Posso offrirti una birra alla spina?May I buy you a draft beer?
Vorrei una birra artigianale, grazie.I would like a craft beer, please.
glass of dark beer

When ordering a beer at an Italian bar or restaurant (potrei avere una birra, per favore?), you should know that beers come in three sizes:

  • birra piccola (small)
  • birra media (medium)
  • birra grande (large)

Expressions

There are some common idioms featuring the word birra in Italian. For example:

A tutta birraAt full speed, full throttle
Dare la birra a qualcunoTo hand somebody their heads

The place where beer is made is called birreria, brewery.

BirreriaBrewery

For example:

Lavoro in una birreria. Per Natale ho ricevuto una cassa di birra gratis!I work in a brewery. For Christmas, I got a case of beer for free!

When you enjoy a beer, you can use the expression scolarsi una birra, to knock back a beer.

Scolarsi una birraTo knock back a beer, to down

For example:

Michele si è appena scolato mezzo litro di birra.Michele has just downed half a liter of beer.
friends cheering with a beer

More free Italian resources

You might want to keep learning Italian online with these free Italian resources:

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