Teaching students who live outside the country whose language they are learning is a rich but demanding challenge. You cannot take anything for granted — not even the most seemingly simple vocabulary. Take household chores, for example. In my experience, this is a topic that often gets overlooked in language courses, yet it is deeply embedded in daily life, culture, and even identity. So today, that is exactly what we are going to explore.
But before we dive in, let me share a small anecdote that I think perfectly captures why Italian — like all living languages — is so endlessly fascinating.
I have a dear friend from Naples, and one day, chatting away, we got onto the topic of housework. She referred to it as i servizi — and I must admit, it stopped me in my tracks. Coming from the North, I had never heard the expression used that way. For me, it has always been le pulizie or i lavori di casa. Same concept, different word, different region. Like when I used turacciolo instead of tappo (cork) and saw her puzzled this time. Two Italians, both speaking Italian, occasionally speaking past each other.
This is the beauty of it. Italian is not one monolithic block — it is a mosaic of regions, histories, and voices. And that is something worth bringing into the classroom.
But let’s get back to our chores 😊
The Vocabulary of everyday household chores:
Let’s start with the most common chores. In Italian, most of these use just two verbs: fare (to do) and lavare (to wash).
General terms
Here the verb is fare for all, fare le pulizie, fare le faccende, etc.
- Le pulizie
- Le faccende domestiche
- I lavori di casa
- I lavori domestici
- I servizi (regionale)
Related to cleaning the house
- Fare la polvere – to dust
- Spolverare – to dust
- Passare l’aspirapolvere – to hoover/vacuum
- Fare l’aspirapolvere – to hoover/vacuum
- Lavare per terra – to wash the floor
- Lavare il pavimento – to wash the floor
- Lavare i vetri – window cleaning
Related to the kitchen
- Fare la spesa – grocery shopping
- Cucinare – to cook
- Lavare i piatti – to do the washing up
- Fare la lavastoviglie – to send the dishwasher
- Svuotare/riempire la lavastoviglie – to empty/fill the dishwasher
Related to clothing
- Fare il bucato – to do the laundry
- Fare la lavatrice – to do the laundry
- Stendere il bucato – the hang the washing
- Stirare – to iron
Also
- fare il letto — to make the bed
Other household chores
These are most important, especially the first one, to all my dog-lover students, who are struggling for words to describe this activity:
- portare fuori il cane — to walk the dog
- portare fuori la spazzatura — to take out the trash
What to do with this list
Start small — choose just three
When you encounter a new vocabulary list, don’t try to learn everything at once. Instead:
Pick three words or phrases that feel most useful or most relevant to your life right now — and focus only on those.
Why three?
Research in vocabulary acquisition suggests that deep learning of a few items beats shallow exposure to many. You want to reach the point where a word comes to you automatically, without thinking — and that takes repetition, context, and time. That cannot happen if you are juggling twenty new words at once.
How to choose your three
- Which words describe something you actually do at home?
- Which ones surprised you or made you curious?
- Which ones do you think you will need soonest?
Then do something with them
Once you have your three:
- Use them in a sentence about your own life
- Say them out loud
- Try to use at least one of them in your next class
Not in a class yet, or your class doesn’t allow you to develop speaking, join one of our speaking classes on Zoom starting soon, see here, or email me for a free trial: laura@parlaitaliano.co.uk
