What is the difference between Camera and Stanza?

Hi James, 

Thanks for your question :) 

In Italian, we have two somehow similar terms: "Stanza" and "Camera".

"Stanza" is the generic term to refer to any type of room of the house (except for the bathroom). 

For instance, I could say "La mia casa ha 6 stanze" (my house has 6 rooms) to indicate how many rooms there are in my house.

Usually, this term is used on its own. 

E.g. 
Where can I put my luggage? You can leave it in this room.
Dove posso mettere la mia valigia? Puoi lasciarla in questa stanza.

I painted the walls of this room on my own.
Ho dipinto i muri di questa stanza da sola.


Camera is used to refer to bedroom. You will rarely hear someone say "camera da letto" - it's usually abbreviated to "camera".

Please note that while you could say "stanza" instead of "camera" when you refer to a bedroom, you cannot use "camera" to refer to other rooms of the house.

E.g.
La mia stanza è piccola. = My bedroom is tiny.
La mia camera è piccola. = My bedroom is tiny.

Questa stanza della casa è piccola. = This room of the house is tiny.
Questa camera della casa è piccola. = This bedroom of the hous is tiny.


Hope this helps :) 

Hi sebongela, 

I totally agree, languages are just incredibly fascinating!

Hi James, 

Thanks for your comment! Indeed, in that example "camera da letto" is definitely not wrong. However, in an informal real-life context (e.g. when you have friends over and you wish to show them around the house) you would usually just say "questa è la mia camera" (this is my bedroom) instead of the extended version "questa è la mia camera da letto" :)