Italian word of the day
| Pronunciation | |
| English translation | Curious |
| Origin | From the Latin word cura, meaning “thoughtfulness, solicitude” |
Different forms of curioso
Like all other adjectives in Italian, curioso needs to match the gender (masculine or feminine) and the number (singular or plural) of the noun.
| Singular | Plural | |
| Masculine | Curioso | Curiosi |
| Feminine | Curiosa | Curiose |
Examples
| Giovanni è un tipo curioso, ama leggere libri su argomenti vari. | Giovanni is a curious guy; he loves reading books on various topics. |
| Sono curiosa di sapere cosa succederà nel prossimo episodio. | I’m curious to know what will happen in the next episode. |
| Le menti curiose hanno successo nella vita. | Curious minds succeed in life. |
| Una folla di curiosi si era radunata attorno all’incidente. | A crowd of (curious) onlookers had gathered around the incident. |
Curioso also has different meanings:
- a person who is willing to learn about many things
- a nosy person
- something unusual
For example, you can say:
| L’altro giorno mi è successo un fatto curioso. | A curious thing happened to me the other day. |
And if you are a Harry Potter fan like yours truly, you surely remember Mr. Ollivander’s speech in the Philosopher’s Stone movie: Curious! Very curious… You can use curioso as an exclamation in Italian too: curioso, davvero curioso!
Related words
There are a number of synonyms for curioso in Italian that you can use. The most common ones are…
| Inquisitivo | Inquisitive | |
| Appassionato | Passionate | |
| Indagatore | Inquiring | |
| Strano | Strange |
For example, you can say…
| Paolo scrutò Mattia con uno sguardo indagatore. | Paul peered at Matthias with an inquiring gaze. |
| Mio figlio è molto inquisitivo e fa sempre domande. | My son is very inquisitive and always asking questions. |
| Mi è successo un fatto molto strano. Te lo posso raccontare? | A very strange thing happened to me. May I tell you about it? |
From curioso you get curiosità, “curiosity”, and the verb curiosare, which means “to snoop around”:
| Quando viene a trovarci, mia suocera curiosa spesso in giro per casa. | When she visits, my mother-in-law often snoops around the house. |
More free Italian resources
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