What does “prontezza” mean in Italian?
La verità sulla caffeina e l'energia
B1 Italian listening practice · Standard Italian · Curated for intermediate learners
Prontezza means “readiness” or “quickness” — the mental alertness to react fast. It’s built by taking the adjective pronto (“ready”) and adding -ezza, a suffix that turns qualities into abstract nouns, much like English “-ness.” In this clip about caffeine’s effects, migliorare prontezza, tempo di reazione e forza lists sharper prontezza — quicker reflexes — among the benefits of a well-timed cup of coffee.
-Ezza is one of Italian’s most reliable building blocks: bello → bellezza (beauty), dolce → dolcezza (sweetness), ricco → ricchezza (wealth), grande → grandezza (greatness). Learn the pattern once, and any adjective you already know can be turned into its matching abstract noun.
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Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · OpenSubtitles 2018 (HermitDave) (spoken). Buckets approximate; exact ranks not stored.