How do you say MILK in Italian?

How exactly do you say milk in Italian?

As you will see in this lesson, there are many types of Italian milk. Read on to learn them all!

Latte
Milk

Let’s get started! Iniziamo!

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How do you say milk in Italian?

Latte

Latte is how you say milk in Italian.

It is a masculine uncountable noun, so it has no plural form: il latte (definite, the milk), del latte (indefinite, some milk).

Its pronunciation is similar to laht-teh and it comes from the Latin lacte, “milk”. Make sure the final -e doesn’t have a -y quality, because Italian vowel sounds are clean!

Nella bottiglia è rimasta una piccola quantità di latte.
There’s a tiny amount of milk left in the bottle.

Potrei avere un bicchiere di latte, per favore?
May I have a glass of milk, please?

Elena beve latte ogni mattina.
Elena drinks milk every morning.

Latte macchiato is what you have to ask for to get a latte in an Italian café! If you ask for a plain latte, you will probably get… a glass of milk. Latte macchiato literally means “stained milk”.

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Types of milk in Italian

There’s cow milk, almond milk, goat milk. How do you say these in Italian?

The latte di mucca, literally “milk of cow”, is also commonly called latte vaccino, from the Latin vacca, “cow”. This is where the English word vaccine comes from!

Esistono molte alternative al latte vaccino, come il latte di capra, il latte di mandorla e il latte di cocco.
There are many alternatives to cow milk, such as goat milk, almond milk and coconut milk.

Another common (and delicious) type of milk in Italy is latte di bufala, which is used to make mozzarella di bufala. Try it on your pizza!

Preferisco il latte di bufala a quello di mucca.
I prefer buffalo milk to cow milk.

Other types of milk in Italian based on the animal are:

Latte di capra
Goat milk

Latte d’asina
Donkey milk

Latte di pecora
Sheep milk

Di cosa sa il latte di capra?
What does goat milk taste like?

Il pecorino è un derivato del latte di pecora.
Pecorino cheese is made from sheep’s milk.

If you are a vegetarian, you can drink latte di soia, latte di mandorle or the sweet and savory latte di cocco!

Il latte di soia è un ottimo sostituto del latte vaccino.
Soy milk is a great substitute for cow’s milk.

Sara ha messo un po’ di latte di mandorle nel caffè.
Sara put some almond milk in her coffee.

Hai mai assaggiato il latte di cocco? È dolce.
Have you ever tasted coconut milk? It’s sweet.

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Whole or skimmed milk in Italian?

There are two common types of milk that you can find in Italian supermarkets:

Il latte intero mi crea problemi allo stomaco.
Whole milk upsets my stomach.

Il latte scremato ha meno calorie di quello intero.
Skimmed milk has fewer calories than whole milk.

Other less common, but still widely used, types of milk in Italian are:

Latte a lunga conservazione
Long-life milk

Latte UHT
UHT milk

Latte in polvere
Milk powder

Latte artificiale
Infant formula
Literally: Artificial milk

Latte arricchito con vitamine
Vitamin-enriched milk

A cosa serve il latte in polvere?
What is milk powder used for?

Compriamo sempre latte a lunga conservazione.
We always buy long-life milk.

Freshly milked milk is called latte appena munto or latte fresco di mungitura, where mungere means “to milk”.

Latte appena munto
Freshly milked milk

If you forget to put it in the fridge and the milk goes bad, you can use the verbs andare a male, “to go bad”, or scadere, “to expire”.

Latte andato a male
Spoiled milk

Latte scaduto
Expired milk

Il latte scaduto può causare problemi all’intestino.
Expired milk can cause intestinal problems.

Breast milk is called latte materno, literally “maternal milk”.

Mio figlio non beve abbastanza latte materno.
My son doesn’t drink enough breast milk.

From latte comes the adjective latteo, “milky”. In fact, our galaxy, the Milky Way, is translated into Italian as…

La nostra galassia si chiama Via Lattea.
Our galaxy is called the Milky Way.

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Verbs with milk in Italian

To milk, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, translates to mungere in Italian.

Hai mai munto una mucca?
Have you ever milked a cow?

Raw milk, il latte crudo, is pasteurized, pastorizzato, from pastorizzare, to kill off any pathogen that might harm us.

Il latte viene pastorizzato per evitare contaminazioni.
Milk is pasteurized to prevent contamination.

And of course, milk can be skimmed, scremato, from the verb scremare, “to skim”.

Milk itself can curdle, cagliarsi.

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Other expressions featuring milk in Italian

Let’s wrap up our lesson on how to say milk in Italian with a few expressions and sayings featuring this word.

Dente da latte literally translates to milk tooth.

Quando cominciano a cadere i denti da latte?
When do milk teeth start to fall out?

Dairy products like…

• il burro (the butter)
• il formaggio (the cheese)
• la panna (the cream)
• lo yogurt (the yogurt)

are called latticini.

Now for a couple of sayings featuring milk in Italian:

While piangere sul latte versato can be literally translated into English, avere ancora il latte alla bocca literally means “to still have milk on your mouth” and it’s used to address someone who is still young and naïve about life.

And that’s the end of our lesson on how to say milk in Italian!

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