"abitare" and "vivere"
What is the difference in meaning between 'abitare' and 'vivere'?
As far as I understand, they both means "to live"
Search from various English teachers...
Corrections · 2
1
"abitare" and "vivere"
Abitare is related to the place that you will call either house or home.
Vivere is related to the activities, experiences and events that will make the
meaningful thread in your life.
Sometimes the difference in meaning is not important, for instance for the many people
that live and work in the same place.
Examples:
Abito a Monza, ma vivo a Milano. (a commuter who has the house in 'Monza' and their main activities in Milan)
Abito a Cerenova, ma vivo a Roma. (same as above, but around Rome)
Molti italiani che vivono a Nord di Milano abitano in Italia, ma lavorano e vivono in Svizzera. Ogni giorno
attraversano la frontiera due volte.
(Many Italians that live north of Milan dwell in Italy, but work and live in Switzerland. Every day they cross the Swiss-Italian border twice)
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Back to the tiny bits of Latin I know:
Note that 'abitare' comes from the Latin 'habitare' which is a kind of 'enhanced' form of 'habere' (to have).
The place where you have the house (habitare), is usually also the place where you 'have' most of your belongings (habere). (The correct term would actually be: 'habitare' is the 'frequentative form' of 'habere').
0
Hi Cindy. Yes they both mean “to live” but you use “abitare” when you want to say “where”
Abito in un appartamento
Abito in via Roma
Abito a Londra
Anyway in all these cases you can also use “vivere” ..it’s not uncorrect.
“Vivere” (and not “abitare”) is ok for all the others meaning of “to live”
Vivere la vita
Vivere un’esperienza
Vivere un momento difficile
...all about “life”
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