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B2🔤 Letters O & P

Italian word

paletta

small spade/shovel; paddle (for ping-pong); lollipop sign (road police)

Looks like

palette / pallet

palette: artist's board for mixing colours; pallet: wooden platform for goods

⚠️ The trap

In Italian 'paletta' is a small shovel (beach toy, coal shovel) or the round paddle used by traffic police to signal cars. It is NOT an artist's palette ('tavolozza') or a warehouse pallet ('bancale').

To say "palette: artist's board for mixing colours; pallet: wooden platform for goods" in Italian:

tavolozza (artist's palette); paletta (small shovel/paddle)

"paletta" in English means:

small spade/shovel; paddle (for ping-pong); lollipop sign (road police)

Example

"Il vigile ha alzato la paletta per fermare il traffico."

"The traffic warden raised the lollipop sign to stop the traffic."

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