Italian word of the day
| Pronunciation | |
| English translation | Hour, now |
Examples
| Ora devo andare. Ci vediamo domani. | I have to go now. I’ll see you tomorrow. |
| Mia moglie sta preparando la cena proprio ora. | My wife is preparing dinner now. |
| Sta piovendo da tre ore. | It has been raining for three hours. |
| Ha smesso di nevicare un’ora fa. | It stopped snowing an hour ago. |
Using ora in Italian
We’ve said that ora in Italian is both a noun and an adverb. When it’s a noun, it means “hour”. When it’s used as an adverb (it modifies a verb), it means “now”.
Ora is a feminine noun in Italian.
| Mi ci sono volute due ore per tagliare l’erba del giardino. | It took me two hours to mow the grass in the garden. |
| Lasciare la torta in frigo per almeno un’ora e mezza. | Leave the cake in the fridge for at least an hour and a half. |
As an adverb, it means “now”. Now can also be translated into Italian as adesso, which is interchangeable with ora (however, adesso can never be used as a noun).
| Il tuo tè si raffredderà se non lo bevi ora. | Your tea will get cold if you don’t drink it now. |
| Ora che cosa facciamo? | What are we going to do now? |
| Adesso che cosa facciamo? | Now what are we going to do? |
If you want to translate by now in Italian, use ormai.
As an adverb, ora in Italian also means “time”.
| Che ore sono? | What time is it? |
| È ora che mi prenda una vacanza. | It is time for me to take a vacation. |
| È ora di andare a letto. | It’s time to go to bed. |
Expressions
There are a number of idiomatic expressions featuring the word ora in Italian. Some of these are…
- era ora! (about time too!)
- non vedo l’ora! (I can’t wait!)
- ora come ora (as of right now)
- ora o mai più (now or never)
- d’ora in poi (from now on)
- fare le ore piccole (to stay up late)
- quarto d’ora (quarter of an hour, fifteen minutes)
- mezz’ora (half an hour)
For example, you can say…
| Ho fatto le ore piccole stanotte e ora non riesco a concentrarmi. | I was up late last night and now I can’t concentrate. |
| D’ora in poi andrò a letto alle 10 di sera! | From now on I will go to bed at 10 o’clock at night! |
| Non vedo l’ora che arrivi sabato. | I can’t wait for Saturday to come. |
More free Italian resources
You might want to keep learning Italian online with these free Italian resources:
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