Farfalla

Italian word of the day

OriginFrom the Latin word far-far, which is meant to evoke the sound butterflies make when they flap their wings
TranslationButterfly
IPA pronunciation/farˈfalla/

La farfalla
The butterfly

Different forms of farfalla

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

Una farfalla
A butterfly

Delle farfalle
Some butterflies

La farfalla
The butterfly

Le farfalle
The butterflies

how do you say butterfly in italian - black and blue butterfly

Examples

Questo bruco diventerà una bellissima farfalla.
This caterpillar will become a beautiful butterfly.

La vita di una farfalla dura tre giorni.
The life of a butterfly is three days.

Marco afferrò la farfalla tra pollice e indice.
Marco caught the butterfly between his thumb and forefinger.

Farfalla, alongside farfallino, small butterfly, is also the Italian translation for bow-tie. It is so called because its shape resembles a butterfly! It can also be translated as papillon, from the French word for “butterfly”.

Farfallino is a masculine noun.

Il farfallino
The bow-tie
Literally: Small butterfly

Il papillon
The bow-tie

purple bow-tie - how do you say butterfly in italian?

A mio figlio piace indossare i papillon.
My son likes to wear bow ties.

Ho comprato un farfallino a pois rossi.
I bought a red polka dot bow tie.

Farfallone

The one Italian suffix is used to make things bigger. In this sense, farfallone literally means big butterfly, but it actually translates to womanizer. This is because this type of partner has a tendency to “fly away” to other women.

Il farfallone
The womanizer, the flirt
Literally: Big butterfly

man kissing a woman on her cheek and a guy spying on them - how do you say butterfly in italian?

Il mio ex era un vero farfallone.
My ex was a real flirt.

Con farfallone si intende un uomo che corteggia molte donne.
A “big butterfly” is defined as a man who flirts with many women.

There are many adjectives that are used together with butterfly in Italian to describe it. Some of these are…

Farfalla notturna
Night butterfly, moth

Farfalla colorata
Colored butterfly

Farfalla stupenda
Beautiful butterfly

For example, you can say…

Una farfalla notturna continua a svolazzare attorno alla lampada.
A night butterfly keeps fluttering around the lamp.

Ho appena visto una farfalla stupenda sulla pianta di rose in giardino.
I have just seen a beautiful butterfly on the rose plant in the garden.

how do you say butterfly in italian? - brown and purple butterfly

The antennae of a butterfly are called antenne, from the feminine singular word antenna.

The wings are called ali, from the feminine singular ala.

Le ali di una farfalla sono delicatissime.
The wings of a butterfly are very, very delicate.

Butterflies are born from caterpillars, bruchi, from the masculine bruco.

Il bruco
The caterpillar

Un giorno questo bruco si trasformerà in una bellissima farfalla.
One day this caterpillar will turn into a beautiful butterfly.

brown and orange smiling caterpillar

When the metamorphosis (metamorfosi) occurs, they wrap themselves in a bozzolo, a cocoon.

Il bozzolo
The cocoon

I bruchi si trasformano in farfalle quando sono nel bozzolo.
Caterpillars turn into butterflies while they’re inside the cocoon.

A butterfly in Italian can most often svolazzare, to fly about, or simply volare, to fly.

Svolazzare
To fly about

Volare
To fly

La farfalla vola nell’aria e si posa sulla mano del bambino.
The butterfly flies through the air and rests on the child’s hand.

two kids playing with yellow butterflies

A butterfly in Italian can also sfarfallare, which means to flit about.

This verb is also used to translate to flicker when talking about dying lightbulbs.

Sfarfallare
To flit about

La luce sta sfarfallando. È ora di cambiare la lampadina.
The light is flickering. It’s time to change the bulb.

When it’s time for the bruco to come out of its cocoon, the verb uscire dal bozzolo, to come out of the cocoon, is used.

This verb is also used figuratively to describe very shy people who are doing something that requires some courage on their part, like going to a party.

Uscire dal bozzolo
To come out of the cocoon

Dovresti uscire un po’ dal bozzolo, Veronica, e divertirti un po’.
You should come out of the cocoon a little bit, Veronica, and have some fun.

how do you say butterfly in italian? - green cocoon on a branch

People who like to hunt butterflies are called collezionisti, collectors. They hunt down butterflies with a retino, a net, also called acchiappafarfalle. To hunt is translated into Italian as cacciare or andare a caccia (to go hunting).

Andare a caccia di farfalle
To hunt butterflies

Acchiappafarfalle
Butterfly catcher


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