Il corpo (the body)

From head to toe

You already know the odd couples of Italian anatomy — la mano, le mani; il braccio, le braccia — and the head-words la testa, l'occhio, l'orecchio, il labbro. This lesson completes the body:

After the irregular plurals of the last lesson, these behave: le spalle, le schiene, i piedi — and la bocca keeps its hard c in the plural with an h: le bocche.

Where it hurts

You can already say ho mal di testa. The same mal di pattern now stretches across the new words: mal di gola (a sore throat), mal di stomaco (a stomachache), mal di schiena (a backache). Italian usually skips the possessive with body parts — the article is enough:

On your feet

With il piede comes the phrase Italian uses for to stand: stare in piedi — literally to stay on feet, always in the plural.

With all your heart

il cuore beats at the center of Italian feeling, and con tutto il cuore is how you love: wholeheartedly.