Quanto pesano le parole in cucina
B1 Italian listening practice · Italian · Curated for intermediate learners
What does “quanto pesano le parole” mean in Italian?
After a contestant is told her dish still isn’t as good as one from a famous chef, she reacts with ahia... quanto pesano le parole — “ouch... words really do have weight.” It’s Italy’s version of “words can hurt”: a way of saying that even a casual comment can land like a physical blow when it touches something you care about.
The saying works because Italian treats peso (weight) as something abstract feelings can have too — you’ll also hear una parola pesante (a heavy/harsh word) or pesare le parole (to weigh your words, i.e. choose them carefully) as the advice version of the same idea.
Vocabulary frequency
How common is the vocabulary in this B1 Italian listening practice listening practice?
General Italian frequency
Spoken Italian frequency
Words above this video’s level
Quick glosses for vocabulary that goes beyond this video’s B1 level.
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · OpenSubtitles 2018 (HermitDave) (spoken). Buckets approximate; exact ranks not stored.