sale

salt

noun SAH-leh Less Common

Origin: Latin sal

Usage Note

Sale is masculine (il sale), despite the seed indicating 'f' — it is one of the few monosyllabic nouns learners misgender. Sale grosso is coarse salt; sale fino is fine salt. The idiom non avere sale in zucca (literally 'to have no salt in the gourd') means to lack common sense. The plural sali refers to chemical salts or smelling salts.

Examples

"Aggiungi un pizzico di sale alla pasta."

Natural Translation

Add a pinch of salt to the pasta.

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