spaventare

to frighten; to scare

verb spah-ven-TAH-reh Rare

Also means

to terrify

Usage Note

Spaventare takes avere as auxiliary. The reflexive spaventarsi means 'to get frightened' — mi sono spaventato (I got scared). The related noun is spavento (fright) and the adjective spaventoso means 'frightening' but colloquially can mean 'amazing' (like terrific in English), so context matters.

Examples

"Il cane grosso ha spaventato i bambini."

Natural Translation

The big dog frightened the children.

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