Italian Vocabulary on Quantities and Containers

Ciao! In this lesson you will expand your Italian vocabulary by learning words that describe containers and quantities. In this way the next time you come to Italian you can go food shopping and ask for things like:

“un etto di prosciutto, una fetta di torta , un quarto di vino!”

If you are curious to know more watch the video or read on! You can also download all this information for free by clicking on this link!

So first thing… how do you say shopping list? 

In Italian you would say: “La lista della spesa” 

Spesa is the Italian word for the shopping related to food. 

So if you say : “Vado a fare la spesa” you are saying that you are going food shopping. if on the other hand you are not buying food but other goods… you can say:

• “vado a fare acquisti” 
• “vado a fare compere” 
• “vado a fare shopping”

So you can have containers like:

• una bottiglia di (latte, vino, olio) – a bottle of (milk, wine);
• una lattina di (coca-cola, birra) – a can of (coca cola);
• un cartone di (latte, succo) – a carton of (milk, juice);
• un barattolo di (marmellata) – a jar of (jam); 
• un vasetto di (yogurt) - a pot of (yogurt) 
• una scatola di (biscotti) – a box of (cookies);
• una confezione di (pasta, biscotti, formaggio) – a pack of (pasta, cookies, cheese);
• un sacchetto di (patatine) - a bag of (chips)
• una scatoletta di (tonno) – a tin of (tuna);
• una barretta di (cioccolata) – a bar of (chocolate);
• una cassa / una cassetta di (arance, birra, mele) – box of (oranges, beer, apples);
• un tubetto di (dentifricio) – a tube of (toothpaste);
• un mazzo di (fiori) – a bunch of (flowers);
• un casco di banane – a bunch of bananas;
• un trancio di (pizza) – a slice of (pizza);
• una fetta di (torta) – a piece of (cake);

Now let’s look at quantities. 

• un etto di – one hundred grams of…;
• due etti di – two hundred grams of…;
• tre etti di - three hundred grams of…

Be sure to remember to mach singular and plural:

un etto - ends with “o” and it’s singular

due etti - ends with “i” and it’s plural

• mezzo chilo – half a kilo of…;
• un chilo – a kilo of …;
• un quarto di … – a quarter of … ;
• un mezzo (litro) di … – half (a liter) of …;
• un litro di … – a liter of … ;
• una dozzina – a dozen of…;
• una mezza dozzina – half a dozen of … ;
• un pezzo – one piece;
• un paio di … – some pieces of … (usually 2-4).

Now… look at your grocery list and tell me in Italian what you will buy this week! Write a comment under the video!

Io comprerò due etti di prosciutto crudo, una barretta di cioccolato 4 cartoni di latte e un tubetto di dentifricio!

Remember that practicing by writing short sentences will boost your Italian in a soft and easy way! I will check and give you feedback on your comments! 

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