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Italian/Week 1

Greetings, courtesy, numbers 1–20

Almost everything this week is a fixed chunk. Greetings are learned whole, not taken apart.

Greetings and courtesy

Say every one of these out loud. Italian vowels are pure and short — exaggerate them and you will sound better immediately.

  • [Ciao]Hi / bye

    Informal, and it works both arriving and leaving. Not for strangers or shopkeepers.

  • [Buongiorno]Good morning / good day

    say: bwon-JOR-noThe polite default until mid-afternoon.

  • [Buonasera]Good evening

    From late afternoon onward.

  • [Arrivederci]Goodbye

    The polite goodbye. ArrivederLa is even more formal.

  • [Per favore]Please
    Un caffè, [per favore].A coffee, please.
  • [Grazie]Thank you

    say: GRAHT-see-eh — three syllables, and the last one counts

  • [Prego]You're welcome

    Also: after you, go ahead, help yourself, what can I get you. Extraordinarily versatile.

  • [Sì]Yes
  • [No]No
  • [Scusi]Excuse me (formal)

    Scusa to someone you would call ciao.

  • [Signora]Madam

    The safe default for any adult woman.

  • [Signore]Sir
  • [Come sta?]How are you? (formal)
    — [Come sta?] — [Bene, grazie.]
  • [Bene, grazie]Well, thank you
  • [E lei?]And you? (formal)

What the colours above mean

4 of 10 colours so far
Nounnew

A thing, a person or a place.

Verbnew

An action or a state — what is happening.

Pronounnew

Stands in for a noun — I, you, he, it.

Fixed chunknew

Learn it whole. Do not take it apart.

Articles arrive in Week 2, and there are rather a lot of them — il, lo, la, l', i, gli, le. Numbers stay plain all week.

Numbers 1–20

Watch the stress in the teens: UN-dici, DO-dici, TRE-dici — it falls early, not where an English speaker expects.

Sentence frames

Blue and green appear for the first time here: mi is a pronoun, chiamo is a verb.

  1. 1

    [Buongiorno,] mi chiamo name.

    Good day, my name is ___.

    Literally I call myself ___.

  2. 2

    Un caffè, [per favore].

    A coffee, please.

  3. 3

    — [Come sta?] — [Bene, grazie. E lei?]

    — How are you? — Well, thanks. And you?

Daily mini-tasks

Listening this week

Coffee Break Italian, Episode 1

YouTube or Spotify

The same team as the French series. Play at 0.75× and shadow the speaker.

Open in YouTubeFind on Spotify

The gear icon in the player sets the speed — 0.75× is the one to start with. Nothing from YouTube loads until you press play.

What stuck?

Check it before you close the page.

Up to 10 of this week's words and frames. Say each one out loud before you look, and say whether you think you have it. Guessing first and then checking is what makes it stick — reading the answer feels better and does less.

Check what stuck