You’ve Probably Eaten a Spaghetto

A single strand of spaghetti is called a “spaghetto.”

That’s right — “spaghetti” is actually the plural form of the word. So if one lonely noodle ends up on your fork, you’re officially holding a spaghetto.

In Italian, the suffix “-etti” means “little ones.” So “spaghetti” loosely translates to “little strings.” And just like in English, the singular form drops the plural ending. One string? Spaghetto.

It’s not just spaghetti that gets this treatment, either. The singular of confetti is confetto — one tiny piece of celebratory paper. And that cheesy appetizer called panini? That’s actually the plural of panino. So if you order just one, you’re technically eating a panino, not a panini.

These Italian word rules make pasta sound like a grammar lesson — a tasty one. And while you’re twirling your spaghetto around your fork, consider this: if you lined up every strand of spaghetti Americans eat in a year, it could wrap around the Earth almost 300 times. That’s a lot of carbs... and a lot of plurals.

Also fun: spaghetti was originally eaten with just hands — no forks. It wasn’t until the 18th century that pasta-eaters switched to using utensils. Imagine tackling a bowl of spaghetti with your fingers!

Try this at home: The next time spaghetti’s on the dinner menu, challenge your kids to talk about what other Italian plurals they can guess. Start with gelati, zucchini, and cannoli!