How exactly do you say moon in Italian?
In this lesson, we will take a look at the different words you can use to talk about the moon in Italian, and you will even learn some expressions featuring this word. Read on to learn them all!
Luna
Moon
Let’s get started! Iniziamo!
How do you say moon in Italian?
Luna
Luna is how you translate moon into Italian.
La luna
The moon
It is a feminine noun, so it uses the articles la (definite, the moon), and una (indefinite, a moon).
Una luna
A moon
Delle lune
Some moons
La luna
The moon
Le lune
The moons
Title: Italian All-in-One For Dummies
Language: English / Italian
Publisher: For Dummies
Pages: 672
Learn to speak Italian like a native? Easy.
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Its pronunciation is similar to loo-nah and it comes from the Latin word luna, “moon”. Make sure the final -a has a clean sound, as Italian vowel sounds are clean!
La Terra ha un solo satellite naturale, la Luna.
The Earth has only one natural satellite, the Moon.
Europa è una delle lune di Giove.
Europa is one of Jupiter’s moons.
Quante lune ha Nettuno?
How many moons does Neptune have?
Non c’è ossigeno sulla Luna.
There’s no oxygen on the Moon.
Moon phases
The phases of the moon in Italian are:
- luna piena (full moon)
- luna nuova (new moon)
- luna crescente (waxing moon)
- luna calante (waning moon)
Luna piena
Full moon
Luna nuova
New moon
Luna crescente
Waxing moon
(from crescere, to rise)
Luna calante
Waning moon
(from calare, to fall)
For example, you could say…
Stasera c’è la luna piena.
There’s a full moon tonight.
La luna sta calando.
The moon is waning.
La luna nuova non è visibile.
The new moon is not visible.
Lunatico
Lunatico is the Italian translation for “moody”. Make sure you don’t translate it as lunatic, because it’s not used to mean a crazy kind of person. It describes someone who often changes moods, just like the moon often changes phases!
Lunatico
Moody
Il mio vicino di casa è molto lunatico.
My neighbor is very moody.
Luna di miele
What’s sweeter than honey? A honeymoon, or luna di miele in Italian!
This literally translates to “moon of honey”, where miele means honey.
Luna di miele
Honeymoon
Dove avete trascorso la vostra luna di miele?
Where did you spend your honeymoon?
Eclissi
A lunar eclipse is translated into Italian as either eclissi lunare or less commonly, eclissi di Luna.
Even though it ends in -i, eclissi is a feminine word in Italian: you say una eclissi, shortened to un’eclissi.
Eclissi lunare
Lunar eclipse
Eclissi di Luna
Lunar eclipse
Quando sarà la prossima eclissi lunare?
When is the next lunar eclipse?
Aiuta Lingookies con un 👍!
The Moon landing
The translation for Moon landing in Italian is allunaggio, also called sbarco sulla Luna, landing on the Moon.
L’allunaggio
The Moon landing
Lo sbarco sulla Luna
The Moon landing
Mio nonno crede che lo sbarco sulla Luna sia stato una bufala.
My grandpa believes that the Moon landing was a hoax.
Lo sbarco sulla Luna è stato un enorme passo avanti dell’umanità.
The moon landing was a great step forward for mankind.
Allunaggio is similar to the words atterraggio and ammaraggio.
Atterraggio comes from terra, which means earth. It’s used for landings on, well… the earth.
Ammaraggio comes from mare, which means sea. When an airplane is forced to land in the sea, this is the word that you need to use.
L’atterraggio è stato più turbolento del previsto.
The landing was more turbulent than expected.
Idioms featuring the moon in Italian
When a person wants too much or asks for something that can’t possibly be done, there’s an Italian saying that goes chiedere la luna, which literally translates to “to ask for the moon”.
Gifting the moon wouldn’t be an easy thing to do, hence this idiom!
Chiedere la luna
“To ask for the moon”
Then there’s avere la luna storta, which means “to be in a bad mood” and literally translates to to have a crooked moon.
Did you know?
In the Italian translation of the Harry Potter books, professor Lupin‘s nickname is Lunastorta!
Avere la luna storta
To be in a bad moon
“To have a crooked moon”
Another popular idiom that features the word for moon in Italian is promettere la luna nel pozzo, literally “to promise the moon in the well”.
It means to deceive someone by making them believe that they can get something they desire. The moon is reflected in the water of a well, but it’s just an illusion. As soon as you move the water, the moon is no longer there.
Promettere la luna nel pozzo
“To promise the moon in the well”
And that’s the end of our lesson on how to say moon in Italian!
What next?
Now that you’ve seen how to say moon in Italian, you might want to keep learning Italian online with these free Italian resources:
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