ispirare
inspire
verb ees-pee-RAH-reh Less Common
Origin: from Latin 'inspirare', to breathe into
Usage Note
Ispirare means to inspire, and the reflexive ispirarsi a means 'to be inspired by', as in il film si ispira a una storia vera. Note the initial 'i', not 'in', a regular Italian spelling shift before 's' plus consonant. Colloquially non mi ispira means 'it doesn't appeal to me'.
Examples
"La natura ispira molti artisti."
Natural Translation
Nature inspires many artists.
Literal Translation
The nature inspires many artists.

Free starter pack
Building your Italian vocabulary?
Get the 100 most common Italian words as a free PDF — one email, no spam.
Related Words
Explore Italian by topic
ItalianNow
5 min read