Are you attending an Italian language course?

During your Italian language course, trying to watch Italian TV series and movies is a great idea to be exposed to the Italian language and culture.

Inspector Montalbano is a great Italian TV serie, based on the books written by Andrea Camilleri.

Every story is incredibly captivating and all the characters are perfectly outlined, so that they became extremely popular.

This is why it is very successful either in Italy and abroad!

Depending on your level in Italian, you might find it quite difficult to follow though.

This is due not only to the speed and complexity of the topics, but also to a specific feature of Montalbano.

The Italian language they use is not exactly what you study during your Italian language course!

In fact, even though the TV serie is in Italian, they use a lot of Sicilian words and expressions.

Therefore it is quite hard to understand!

Nonetheless, watching it is absolutely a great idea: we just need to explore some vocabulary!

Let’s go through the most common Sicilian words they use!

picciotto –> guy

spiare –> to ask

orata –> hour

camurria –> nuisance

babbiare –> to kid

amminchiarsi –> to be obsessed over something

ammucciare –> to hide

appattarsi –> to agree

ammazzatina –> murder

arrubbatina –> theft

sciarratina –> argument

inzertare –> to guess right

carusi –> children

finire a schifìo –> to have an unhappy ending

macàri –> also

zito/zita –> boyfriend/girlfriend

farsi persuaso –> to convince yourself

a tinchitè –> a lot

essere una stampa e una figura –> to look the same

A word that you will hear a lot is the typical exclamation “minchia!“.

Well, apart from its original meaning (it refers to the male genitalia), it is used to express amazement, contempt, wonder and much more.

That is why it is the most common Sicilian exclamation and Montalbano uses it a lot!

Try to watch an episode now, isn’t it better?

Obviously subtitles will help you understand as there are some dialogues in pure Sicilian dialect.

And if you love Montalbano, you can also read this article.