Longing or Desire

In Italian, if you want someone or something badly, you can say: "desiderare" or "bramare".

"Bramare" is an interesting verb, though. A sort of magic and obscure desire for someone or something.

In English, apart from "to desire", you can always say "to long for".

And "to long for" gives you the exact idea of the sweet and neverlasting pain of desiring someone or something.

Manage or Run?

In Italian, you would say: "Io dirigo una società".

It means that you manage a company: you are sitting in your office and give orders to the workers by phone.

But in English you would say "I run a company". This means that you are sweating to make it work, you are running together with your partners and workers to make things right.

A slightly different point of view, but with a whole world of meanings underneath.

Marbles in Marmo

I was just thinking about the slight difference in the meaning of marble and the corrispondent translation in Italian marmo.

Marmo makes you think of the hardness and coldness of the surface (maybe because we use to say "hard like the marmo" (duro come il marmo) and "cold as the marmo" (freddo come il marmo). Marmo is also the most common material used for tombstones. These are very common expressions in day-to-day language.

Marble makes you think instead of the shining surface of the marble, maybe because in English "marbles" are also the shining little glass balls which young boys use to play with ("biglie").

Fascinating, isn't it?