Italian Vocabulary to talk about food and flavours

In this lesson I will teach you some common words that you can use to talk about the things you eat! So everything that deals with taste.

Download here this lesson in PDF format!

I think that the senses are very powerful and they can be a tool for us to link new vocabulary to feelings and memories. So we can use these nouns, verbs and adjectives to create a link that will allow for you to never forget their meaning and so use them correctly in your Italian language journey. 

Let’s start with SAPORE. Sapore means taste - IL SAPORE means the taste.

If you change one little letter you will have the verb SAPERE. The verb SAPERE means to know, and in this case you can use this verb to talk about flavor.

If I bite into a delicious piece of cake I might tell you: SA DI CIOCCOLATO, SA DI MANDORLA, SA DI PISTACCHIO. to talk about what I think the flavor of the cake is.

You have 4 main flavors that your tongue can usually “pick-up” easily. 

4 sapori: 4 flavours

• il dolce - sweet
• l’amaro - bitter 
• l’acido - sour
• il salato - salty 

You can say, 

• La torta ha un sapore dolce - This cake tastes sweet.
• Hai messo troppo sale, è molto salato! - You put too much salt, it's too salty!
• Bevo il caffè amaro, senza zucchero! - I drink my coffee bitter, without sugar.
• Questo yogurt è molto acido! - This yoghurt is too sour!

Now we will learn to associate some fun words to the quality of what you are tasting. 

Try to think of some of your favorite food and let’s describe that food with these words. I can’t stress this enough… make your own sentences to remember the words and their meanings, associate them with things that are close to your choices and your habits… in this way learning is a lot easier and it simply will make more sense!

• piacevole - nice / pleasant
• buono - buono 
• delicato - delicate
• squisito - delicious
• aromatico - aromatic
• cattivo - bad
• disgustoso - disgusting
• sgradevole - disgusting (makes you vomit)
• nauseante - nauseating / disgusting
• aspro - sour
• saporito - tasty
• insipido - bland
• piccante - spicy
• agrodolce - bitterweet 
• stomachevole - really disgusting / makes you vomit

Here are some of my sentences! Write your sentences and use a dictionary if you need to! Write them in the comments and I will help you to correct the sentence and create some fun ones! 

• Ho mangiato un piatto di pasta alla norma delizioso. - I are a delicious plate of "pasta alla Norma"
• Il la salsa del ristorante cinese è agrodolce - The sauce of the Chinese restaurant is bittersweet.
• Il cibo indiamo è troppo piccante per me - Indian food is too spicy for me.
• La pizza della zia è squisita. - My aunt's pizza is delicious.