Did you land the perfect job in an Italian design firm? Do you want to start expanding your business in Italy? Are you applying for a job in Rome and need to update your CV and interviewing skills with the proper Italian business language?

We know that workplaces, job interviews, and starting a new job can be stressful. And what about talking on the phone with a client or boss? Not to mention the art of writing the perfect email or a convincing CV. Now imagine having to manage all of this in Italian… 

If you want to succeed in any of these activities, you’ll need to master the basic Italian business phrases and vocabulary.

Let’s do business with style!

But don’t worry! We’ve put together this practical guide on how to succeed in the Italian business world. We’ll guide you through all you need to know to be at your best in the most common business situations.

Table of Contents

1. First Things First
2. Business Words and Phrases
3. Nail a Job Interview
4. Interacting with Coworkers
5. Sound Smart in a Meeting
6. How to Handle Emails and Business Phone Calls
7. Go on a Business Trip
8. Conclusion

1. First Things First

In any social situation, the first code that you have to learn is how to greet and address others. In a work or business situation, this is even more important. So let’s start by going over the correct way to meet and greet in Italian.

1 – Greetings

First of all, you’ll need to say hello. The best Italian business greetings for this are:

• Buongiorno (“Hello,” but literally “Good day”) 
  • This can be used in formal and informal settings, and it’s the appropriate greeting to use until the early afternoon.

• Buonasera (“Good evening”) 
  • This is the greeting that you start using in the late afternoon.

• Ciao (“Hello”) 
  • This is a very informal way of greeting, and it can be used only in situations where everybody is very informal, or if you know everybody very well.

Now, if you’re in a business meeting and need to introduce yourself for the first time, here are the most common formulas:

• Piacere (“Nice to meet you,” but literally “Pleasure”)
  • It’s actually the shorter version of the next phrase.

• Piacere di conoscerla (“It’s a pleasure to meet you”)

• Molto piacere (“Really nice to meet you”)
  • This is just another version of the same formula.

In professional settings, you’re expected to use the appropriate title to address professionals. Some examples include: 

• Dottore / Dottoressa (“Doctor”) – This one is also used for anybody with a university degree.
• Avvocato (“Lawyer”)
• Ingegnere (“Engineer”)
• Architetto (“Architect”)

When it’s time to leave the office, just use the most common goodbye phrases:

• Arrivederci (“Goodbye”) is the best way to bid farewell in Italian, since it can be used in both formal and informal situations. Additionally, it can be used to address a single person or a crowd, as it literally means “We’ll see each other.”
• If you want to be more formal, use Arrivederla, which is the same formula, but using the Lei form (which we’ll review below).
• Ciao (“Bye”) is a good option if you’re very familiar with your coworkers. In Italian, it means both “hello” and “bye.”

Arrivederci!

2 – “Tu” or “Lei”?

Like other Romance languages, Italian has two different forms for addressing people in the second person, depending on the degree of familiarity or informality of the situation.

In professional settings, it’s normally expected for you to address everybody with the formal “you” (lei). Notice that while it looks like the pronoun for “she,” lei agrees with the gender of the person.

• Signor Rossi, Lei è mai andato in barca a vela? (“Mr. Rossi, have you ever sailed?”)

The rule of thumb is that you formally address all people that are older than you, those who are hierarchically higher than you, and unfamiliar people in formal settings.

Nowadays, especially in typically younger workplaces (startups, design firms, new-economy, etc.), it’s becoming more and more common to address everybody informally. But just to be sure:

• See if the people around you use tu or lei and do the same.
• Wait for your interlocutor to ask: Possiamo darci del tu? (“Can we switch to informal you?”).

2. Business Words and Phrases

Here is the most basic Italian business vocabulary you should know.

1 – The Company

Depending on your line of business, you probably work in one of these places:

• Una società / Un’azienda / Un’impresa (“Company”)
• Un’agenzia (“Agency”) – usually refers to marketing, advertising, or a generally creative workplace
• Un ufficio (generic “Office”)
• Una fabbrica (“Factory”) – not to be confused with fattoria, which means “farm”
• Un laboratorio (“Laboratory”)

Because there are many different types of companies, you’ll probably hear the following definitions to describe a specific Italian business:

• Società per Azioni (Spa) is a company with shares in the stock market.
• Società a Responsabilità Limitata (Srl) is a company with limited responsibility.
• Cooperativa (“Cooperative”)
• Multinazionale ( “Multinational”)
• Azienda familiare (“Family business”)
• Un’associazione (senza fini lucrativi) (“A non-profit organization”)

2 – Let’s Talk About Work

Here’s a basic Italian business vocabulary list with the basic words and expressions for talking about work.

• Lavorare (“To work”)
• Lavoro / Mestiere / Occupazione (“Job”)
• Professione (“Profession”)
• Cercare lavoro (“To look for a job”)
• Annuncio di lavoro (“Job listing”)
• Assumere (“To hire”)
• Assunzione (“Recruitment”)
• Lavoretto [Casual] (“Job”)
• Posizione  (“Position”)
• Carriera (“Career”)
• Contratto di lavoro (“Contract”)
• Licenziare (“To fire”)
• Licenziamento (“Dismissal”)

Sono stato licenziato… (“I was fired…”)

3 – The Workplace

Here are some business Italian words and phrases regarding various elements in a typical workplace. For example, different positions and responsibilities, management, and the place of work itself.

• Il personale (“The staff”)
• Impiegato/a (“Employee”)
• Funzionario/a (“Employee of a public service”)
• Stagista (“Intern”)
• Il capo (“The boss”)
• Amministratore delegato (“CEO”) 
• Direttore / Direttrice (“Director”)
• Datore di lavoro (“Employer”)
• Consiglio di amministrazione (“Board of Directors”)

• Risorse umane (“Human Resources”)
• Il capo del personale (“Chief of Staff”)
• Area di marketing (“The marketing department”)
• Area di vendita (“The sales department”)
• Area tecnica (“The technical department”)
• Ufficio contabilità (“The accounting department”)

4 – Talking About Money

Talking about money is inevitable when discussing jobs or business, so here’s the essential vocabulary for money talk:

• Lo stipendio (“The salary”)
• L’aumento di stipendio (“The salary increase”)
• La busta paga (“The payslip”)
• Un anticipo (“An advance payment”)
• Detrazioni sullo stipendio (“Payroll deductions”)

Let’s talk about money, shall we?

• Le tasse (“The taxes”)
• Il budget (“The budget”)
• Il bilancio (“The financial statement”)
• I ricavi (“The revenues”)
• Il costo (“The cost”)
• Il margine (“The margin”)
• Il profitto (“The profit”)
• Il volume d’affari (“The turnover”)
• Gli affari (“Business,” as in doing business)
• Un affare (“A deal,” as in closing a deal)
• Le azioni (“The stocks”)
• Il mercato azionario (“The stock market”)
• Le azioni salgono (“Stocks are rising”)
• Le azioni scendono (“Stocks are declining”)
• Le azioni sono crollate! (“Shares have collapsed!”)

3. Nail a Job Interview

So, you’ve sent your curriculum (“CV”) and have made it to a colloquio di lavoro (“job interview”) for your lavoro ideale (“dream job”) in Italy. And now? Well, you already know how to greet, introduce yourself, and properly address your interlocutor. Now it’s time to prepare for typical job interview questions and start talking about you and your past experiences!

• Mi parli di lei. (“Tell me about yourself.”)
• Quali sono le sue esperienze lavorative? (“What are your work experiences?”)
• Ha esperienza professionale in questo campo? (“Do you have professional experience in this field?”)

Be prepared to answer questions about your good qualities and shortcomings:

• Quali sono le sue migliori qualità? (“What are your best qualities?”)
• Faccia la lista di tre suoi difetti. (“List three shortcomings.”)
• Racconti un suo successo professionale. (“Tell me about a professional achievement.”)
• Parli di un problema lavorativo e come lo ha superato. (“Talk about a professional problem and how you got over it.”)
• Qual è il suo punto forte/debole? (“What is your strength/weakness?”)

Another important factor in job interviews is to show your motivation and willingness to be a team player!

• Perché ha deciso di cambiare lavoro? (“Why have you decided to change jobs?”)
• Perché pensa di essere la persona giusta per questa posizione? (“Why do you think you are a good fit for this position?”)
• È abituata al lavoro di squadra? (“Are you used to teamwork?”)

What are your hobbies?

But none of this matters if you don’t leave a good impression on your interviewer. So, be prepared to have something fun to say when you’re asked:

• Come passa il tempo libero? (“What do you do in your free time?”)
• Mi parli dei suoi hobby. (“Tell me about your hobbies.”)

And last but not least, don’t forget to show decisiveness in your stretta di mano (“handshake”).

4. Interacting with Coworkers

Ottimo lavoro! (“Good job!”) 

Now you’re the neo-assunto (“newly hired”) at an Italian company and it’s time to meet your colleghi (“coworkers”). 

Like in many offices around the world, it’s probable that your scrivania (“desk”) will be in an open space, with no walls (and no privacy!). This means that fare amicizia (“making friends”) with the other employees will happen a lot faster than in closed office environments, and you can help out (and ask for help) more often. 

Here’s some useful Italian for business conversations with coworkers:

• Possiamo darci del tu? (“Can we switch to informal you?”)
• Posso chiedere un favore? (“Can I ask you a favor?”)
• Hai bisogno di aiuto? (“Do you need help?”)
• Ho un problema con la stampante. (“I have a problem with the printer.”)
• È finita la carta della fotocopiatrice. (“We are out of photocopy paper.”)
• Facciamo una pausa caffè? (“How about a coffee break?”)
• Ti va un’apericena dopo il lavoro? (“Are you up for a drink after work?”)

5. Sound Smart in a Meeting

Riunioni (“Meetings”) are an important part of every job. Sometimes they are brief and to the point (called briefing in Italian, too), and sometimes they are endless and pointless… But still, you need to prepare yourself for them, right?

Here are some useful phrases to help you out in Italian business meetings:

• A che ora comincia la riunione? (“What time is the meeting?”)
• È pronta la presentazione / il powerpoint? (“Is the slideshow ready?”)
• In questa slide presento il grafico del 2019. (“In this slide, I show a 2019 graph.”)
• Vorrei suggerire una modifica. (“I would like to suggest a change.”)
• Vorrei sentire la vostra opinione. (“I would like to hear your opinion.”)
• La riunione si farà in video-conferenza. (“The meeting will be on a video conference.”)
• Puoi condividere lo schermo? (“Can you share your screen?”)
• Sono d’accordo. / Non sono d’accordo. (“I agree.” / “I disagree.”)

And of course, you’ll need to talk about projects and deadlines, as well as negotiate with your supervisors:

• Le diverse fasi del progetto (“The different stages of the project”)
• Quando è la scadenza? [Leri!] (“When is the deadline?” [“Yesterday!”])
• La scadenza è dietro l’angolo. (“The deadline is around the corner.”)
• Il progetto sta andando benissimo. (“The project is going very well.”)
• Qual è la mia funzione / il mio compito nel progetto? (“What is my role / my task in the project?”)

Sometimes it’s necessary to raise concerns:

• Non c’è abbastanza tempo. (“There is not enough time.”)
• Non abbiamo il budget per ___. (“We don’t have the budget for ___.”)
• Non abbiamo le risorse per ___. (“We don’t have the resources for ___.”)
• L’obiettivo non è realistico. (“This goal is not realistic.”)
• C’è un errore in questi dati. (“There is a mistake in this data.”)
• Chi prepara la documentazione? (“Who is in charge of the documentation?”)

Thank you for your attention…

You might even need to apologize from time to time. Don’t be afraid of it! 

• Mi dispiace. (“I’m sorry.”)
• Non si ripeterà. (“It won’t happen again.”)
• Scusate il ritardo. (“Sorry I am late.”)

And at the end of the business meeting, thank and congratulate everybody:

• Grazie della partecipazione. (“Thanks for the attendance.”)
• Ottimo lavoro! (“Great work!”)
• Bel lavoro di squadra! (“Good team work!”)

6. How to Handle Emails and Business Phone Calls

Among the most useful Italian business phrases are those for business phone conversations and letters/emails.

First, once and for all, let’s clear a doubt that most Italians still have: The Italian dictionary considers the forms e-mail or mail to be correct (though many people also write email…). And, in case you were wondering, it’s a feminine noun: un’e-mail / la mail. Note that some people still call it la posta elettronica. Very retro, isn’t it?

Here are a few Italian business email phrases that are sure to come in handy:

• Devo rispondere a un mare di e-mail. (“I have to answer a ton of emails.”)
• Mi dai la tua e-mail? (“Can you give me your email address?”)
• Il destinatario (“The recipient”)
• Il mittente (“The sender”)
• L’oggetto (“The object”) 
• il corpo della mail (“The body of the email”)
• Ho dimenticato l’allegato… (“I forgot the attachment…”)

Emails and formal letters tend to use many of the same formulas for addressing the recipient: 

• Spettabile (“Esteemed”) is used when we are addressing a company or firm.
• Gentile (“Dear,” but literally “Kind”) is used when we are addressing a woman. It can be followed by her title and name.
  • Gentile Sig.ra Maria Rossi
  • Gentile Dott.ssa Anna Verdi
  • Gentile Arch. Carla Bianchi
• Egregio (“Dear,” but literally “Egregious”) is used when we are addressing a man. It can be followed by his title and name.
  • Egregio Sig. Mario Rossi
  • Egregio Prof. Luca Verdi
  • Egregio Avv. Gino Bianchi

You can write whatever you want in your letter or email, but make sure the closing follows the conventions of Italian business correspondence. Here are some formulas for a proper Italian business email sign off or letter closure that you can copy-paste (copia e incolla) in your emails/letters. We’ll start with the most formal and end with the most relaxed and friendly:

• In attesa di un Suo riscontro, voglia gradire i miei più cordiali saluti. (“Pending your feedback, please accept my best regards.”)
• La ringrazio per l’attenzione e La saluto cordialmente. (“Thank you for your attention and best wishes.”)
• Distinti saluti. (“Yours sincerely.”)
• Cordiali saluti. (“Best regards.”)
• Grazie e a presto. (“Thank you, see you soon.”)

When using formal language, you’re supposed to capitalize the initial letter of the personal pronoun (Suo, La, etc.). But nowadays, some people consider it to be very archaic and prefer not to. (Like me, for example!) 😉

The good thing about writing an email is that you have time to think about what you want to say and to make corrections before sending it. Not so for phone calls, where you have to be on your toes and prepared to improvise. 

To help you out, here are the essential phrases for handling any phone call with no stress at all!

• Pronto? (“Hello?”) – Literally, it means “ready,” and you better be ready for what comes next…
• Con chi parlo? (“Whom am I talking to?”)
• In cosa posso aiutarla? (“How can I help you?”)
• Posso parlare con ___, per favore? (“May I please talk to ___?”)
• Può/puoi passarmi ___, per favore? (“Can you please pass me [to]  ___?”)
• Un attimo. / Resti in linea. (“One moment.” / “Hold on.”)
• Al momento non è al suo posto / alla scrivania. (“At the moment, he/she is not at his/her desk.”)
• Vuole lasciare un messaggio? (“Do you want to leave a message?”)
• Disturbo? / È occupato/a? (“Am I bothering you?” / “Are you busy?”)

Just one more email…

7. Go on a Business Trip

Many job descriptions include the need for traveling (disponibilità a viaggiare). Business trips can be a lot of fun, but let’s face it: sometimes they turn out to be nightmares. But let’s stay positive and prepare for a really nice viaggio di lavoro (“business trip”).

When you go on a business trip, you might go to visit other offices of your company:

• La sede (“The head office”)
• La succursale (“The branch”)
• La filiale (“The subsidiary”)

You might go to an event:

• La conferenza (“The conference”)
• Il convegno (“The convention”)
• Un corso di aggiornamento (“A refresher course”)
• Una fiera internazionale (“An international fair”)

No matter the reason or location, you’ll need to get organized and make a few arrangements:

• Prenotare il volo / l’albergo (“Book the flight / the hotel”)
  • Hai prenotato il volo per Roma? (“Did you book your flight to Rome?”)
  • Ho prenotato l’albergo a nome Rossi. (“I booked the hotel on behalf of Rossi.”)
    
• Il check-in (“Check-in”)
  • A che ora apre il check-in? (“What time does the check-in open?”)
    
• Un pranzo di lavoro (“A business lunch”)
  • Ho incontrato il cliente ad un pranzo di lavoro. (“I met the client at a business lunch.”)

• Incontrare all’aeroporto (“Meet at the airport”)
  • Possiamo incontrarci all’aeroporto e prendere un taxi insieme? (“Can we meet at the airport and share a taxi?”)

And then it’s time to go back home:

• Comprare un souvenir all’ultimo minuto (“Buy a last-minute souvenir”)
• Conservare gli scontrini (“Saving the receipts”)
• Chiedere il rimborso spese (“Ask for reimbursement”)

8. Conclusion

How do you feel about Italian business language now? Are you ready to plunge into business letters and emails, phone calls, and coffee breaks? In this guide, you’ve learned the most common and useful business phrases in Italian, and you’re now ready to go to work and get down to business in Italian!

Are there other phrases or expressions that we missed? If you have any questions or suggestions, please leave us a comment below!

And don’t forget to take advantage of all the free resources on ItalianPod101.com. Here, you’ll find grammar lessons, vocabulary lists, and tons of audio and video material to get you ready to spend the time of your life in Italy.

Do you need more? With our Premium PLUS service, you can have unlimited access to a teacher and one-on-one coaching. With MyTeacher, you’ll learn at your own pace with fast, fun, and easy lessons, and at the same time get personalized feedback and advice.

Keep up the good work!

When you’re meeting someone for the first time or joining a new group, it’s normal to worry about what you’re going to say. While one can argue that the entirety of a conversation is important, there are two key elements that are crucial to making a good impression: the beginning and the end. Lucky for you, we’ve already written a great article about how to say hello in Italian—and today, we’ll show you how to say goodbye in Italian, too! 

If you’ve been keeping up with our blog, you’ve probably been practicing how to greet people, introduce yourself, exchange pleasantries, and talk about the weather. But what do you say when it’s time to leave? 

There are many ways to give an Italian goodbye, each suited to a specific context. In this article, we’ll do our best to cover all of them! Start with a bonus, and download the Must-Know Beginner Vocabulary PDF for FREE!(Logged-In Member Only)

Table of Contents

1. The 2 Most Common Ways to Say Goodbye in Italian
2. Other Ways to Say Goodbye in Italian
3. Conclusions and Arrivederci!

1. The 2 Most Common Ways to Say Goodbye in Italian

In Italian, there are two very common ways to say goodbye. In fact, they may be two of the most widely known Italian words (setting aside words such as pizza, lasagna, and espresso…). 

“Bye” in Italian is Ciao or Arrivederci.

Have you already guessed what they are? Of course you have…

1. Arrivederci

Arrivederci is literally “to see each other again.” Its formal version is arrivederla, where we substitute the informal personal pronoun ci (“us,” “one another”) with the formal third person pronoun la (“you,” formal).  

Arrivederci is the perfect goodbye expression because it works as either a formal or informal farewell, and it can be used to address a single person or a group.

2. Ciao

This is another versatile form of greeting, as it can actually be used for both arrival and departure. Italian students often find this a little confusing at first because there are very few languages where this happens. Most languages have different formulas for one’s arrival and departure. I, personally, can’t think of any other language that has a formula that works for both hello and goodbye, can you? If you do, please leave us a comment below; we’re eager to learn new things about languages!

Nowadays, ciao is commonly used in many languages around the world (mostly to mean “goodbye” and not “hello”), often with a different spelling. But do you know where this word comes from? (To summarize, it comes from Venetian and it meant: “I’m at your service.”)

Ciao is an informal Italian word for “bye,” so you can use it with friends, family, young people, and in other informal contexts. Nowadays, addressing people informally is becoming more and more common, even in professional settings; this is especially true in areas related to the new economy or the world of creativity. And sometimes, you might hear the “doubled-up” form: Ciao, ciao! This usually indicates that someone is going away in a hurry. 

2. Other Ways to Say Goodbye in Italian

Don’t worry, there are many more Italian phrases to say goodbye! Here are a few commonly used options and how to use them. 

3. Ci vediamo!

Ci vediamo is used less frequently than arrivederci, but it means exactly the same thing (“we’ll see each other again”). So, the emphasis of this phrase is not on the fact that we’re going away, but that we’re going to see each other again. I guess it’s the philosophy of the glass being half-full, right?

Ci vediamo is another way to say Arrivederci.

Now that you’ve seen how arrivederci and ci vediamo literally mean “until we see each other again,” we’ll introduce some other ways to say goodbye in Italian. Some of these phrases indicate when you’ll be seeing each other again, a very useful bit of information to include when you’re departing. 

4. A + [Adverb of Time]

Whether you’re leaving a party, heading off to work, or going separate ways after a day out with your Italian friend, you might want to use a goodbye formula like this one:

• A presto. → (“See you soon.”)
• A dopo. → (“See you later.”)
• A fra poco. → (“See you in a little.”)
• A domani. → (“See you tomorrow.”)
• A stasera. → (“See you tonight.”)

5. A + Article + [Generic Date] + Prossimo/a 

Let’s say you go running in the park with a friend every Saturday morning, or you see your Italian family only once a year for Christmas. In situations like these, you can say goodbye by saying that you’ll see each other la prossima volta (“next time”). Some common examples are: next week, next year, or next month.

• (Arrivederci) alla settimana prossima. → (“See you next week.”)
• (Arrivederci) al mese prossimo.           → (“See you next month.”)
• (Arrivederci) all’anno prossimo.           → (“See you next year.”)

Naturally, when you join the preposition a (or most simple prepositions, for that matter) and the article, you get the preposizione articolata—a single word combining the two parts. Do you want to learn more about it? You’ll see and hear these used all the time in Italian…

6. A + [Day of the Week] (+ Prossimo/a)

Now, if you want to be specific as to what day of the week you’ll see each other again, you just need to say a and the day of the week. In this case, you don’t have to worry about the article. However, if you add prossimo at the end, keep in mind that one of the days of the week is feminine and will require the feminine form prossima. Can you guess which day it is? Yes, of course, it’s domenica. (And by the way, adding prossimo/prossima at the end is optional.)

• (Arrivederci) a lunedì (prossimo). → (“See you next Monday.”)
• (Arrivederci) a martedì (prossimo). → (“See you next Tuesday.”)
• (Arrivederci) a mercoledì (prossimo). → (“See you next Wednesday.”)
• (Arrivederci) a giovedì (prossimo). → (“See you next Thursday.”)
• (Arrivederci) a venerdì (prossimo). → (“See you next Friday.”)
• (Arrivederci) a sabato (prossimo). → (“See you next Saturday.”)
• (Arrivederci) a domenica (prossima). → (“See you next Sunday.”)

This is the perfect opportunity to practice the days of the week, isn’t it?

7. Alla Prossima!

This is one of the most versatile Italian goodbye phrases, perfect for any occasion. It’s a generic “to next time,” where you could mean next Monday, next class, next week, next time you do something together, etc. 

8. Buon… (“Have a good…”)

Buon (“good”) is a useful adjective in Italian, one that we use in many different contexts. It can mean: 

• good to eat  → La pizza è buona. (“Pizza is good.”) 
• good quality  → Ho letto un buon libro. (“I read a good book.”) 
• well-behaved → Bambini, state buoni!  (“Kids, be quiet.”) 
• And much more… I’ve counted fifteen definitions in this dictionary!

Buono is also used to wish someone a good…whatever they’re planning to do next. So, if it’s around Christmas, Easter, New Year, etc., you can use Buon… to wish your interlocutor or group a good one.

• Buon Natale. (“Merry Christmas.”)
• Buona Pasqua. (“Happy Easter.”)
• Buon anno. (“Happy New Year.”)
• Buone vacanze. (“Have a good holiday.”)
• Buon viaggio. (“Have a nice trip.”)

Traveling with style… Buon viaggio!

But unfortunately, not everything in life is fun. You may have to use this formula to bid farewell to people who are working, studying, recovering, or just going about their business.

• Buon lavoro. (“Have a pleasant time at work.”)
• Buona permanenza. (“Have fun staying here.”)
• Buona continuazione. (“Have fun doing this.”)
• Buon riposo. (“Have a good rest.”)
• Buona lezione. (“Have a good class.”)
• Buona guarigione. (“Have a quick recovery.”) There are other formulas that you can use to say goodbye to someone who’s sick (malato/a) or not feeling well (che non si sente bene):
  • Riguardati. (“Take care of yourself.”)
  • Abbi cura di te. (“Take care of yourself.”)
  • Guarisci presto. (“Get well soon.”)
  • Stammi bene. (“Be well [for me].”)

And then there are my personal favorites: the Italian goodbye phrases you say when leaving someone or a group of people who are going to do something fun, go on an adventure, or have some great food. (Or even better, all of the above!)

• Buon appetito! (“Enjoy your meal!”)
• Buon divertimento! (“Have fun!”)
• Buona fortuna! (“Good luck!”) 

Another way to wish someone good luck is: In bocca al lupo! It literally means “in the mouth of the wolf” and it is the English equivalent of “Break a leg!” Neither expression seems to make sense, but apparently in certain situations (like in the performing arts or before exams) it’s bad luck (sfortuna) to wish good luck! 

Ah, and don’t forget: The appropriate reply to the In bocca al lupo farewell is Crepi il lupo! or simply Crepi! (“May [the wolf] die!”). This part isn’t so common anymore, though. In fact, there’s currently a big campaign in Italy to support native wolves, beautiful animals that are coming back to live in our mountains and forests. So now we say: Viva il lupo! (“Long live the wolf!”)

In bocca al lupo! Viva il lupo!

The final typical Italian farewell with buon… is a simple wish to have a good day, evening, or night.

• Buona giornata*! (“Have a good day!”) → You use this formula if there is still lots of daytime left.
• Buona serata*! (“Have a nice evening!”) → You use this formula if you foresee a long evening still ahead.

*Did you notice how this formula uses giornata/serata instead of giorno/notte? This is because these terms better convey the idea of duration, the passing of time. On the other hand, as a greeting when you arrive, you can only use Buon giorno / Buona sera (“Good morning” / “Good evening”). 

• Buona notte! (“Good night!”) → This is a typical farewell formula when you (or the person you’re talking to) are going off to bed. There are also other ways to say this:
  • Dormi bene! (“Sleep well.”)
  • Sogni d’oro! (Literally, “Golden dream” = “Sleep well.”)

A final note on using buon: 

1. It has to agree with the noun (masculine, feminine, singular, plural).

2. When it comes before a noun, it changes according to the first letter of that noun. And it works exactly as the indefinite articles un, uno, una, un’.  

9. Variations of Arrivederci 

We said before that arrivederci literally means “to see each other again.” Well, what if you’re talking on the phone and you’re not actually “seeing” each other? In this case, you can use a similar formula that means “until we hear each other again.” It’s quite a long sentence in English, but in Italian, it’s a simple:

• A risentirci!

And a few variations of this are:

• Fatti sentire. (“Get in touch.”)
• Restiamo in contatto. (“Let’s stay in touch.”)
• Ci sentiamo. (“Let’s hear from one another.”)
• Telefonami. (“Give me a call.”)

And what if you’re bidding farewell and have to leave in a hurry? Unfortunately, this is a situation that’s more and more common nowadays, since we’re all running here and there (di qua e di là) all the time. But, don’t worry, we have a formula for that, too:

• Scusa, devo scappare. (“Sorry, I have to run off.”)
• Devo andare. (“I have to go.”)
• Devo correre. (“I have to run.”)
• Scusa, non ho tempo. (“Sorry, I have no time.”)

10. Addio 

Rather appropriately, the final way to say goodbye in Italian is Addio. It’s a rather dramatic way of saying goodbye, because A Dio = To God. So it literally means “We’ll see each other again in front of God.” It’s not used a lot anymore, but there are still a few occasions where it comes in handy: after a tragic breakup, when you bid farewell to someone going to war, or to tell someone that you don’t want to see them ever again (or maybe just in an afterlife…). 😉

Addio… going off to war.

• Addio, domani parto per la guerra. (“Goodbye, tomorrow I’m leaving for the war.”)
• Ti odio! Addio per sempre! (“I hate you! Goodbye forever!”)
• Mi avete scocciato, addio! (“I’ve had it with you, goodbye!”)

3. Conclusions and Arrivederci!

Are you ready to face any Italian conversation and leave with style? In this article, you’ve learned how to say goodbye in Italian formally, informally, before going to sleep, before eating, and even in case you go off to war! 

What do you usually say when you leave your Italian friends? Let us know in the comments, and we’ll answer any questions you have.

Keep having fun with Italian and ItalianPod101.com! Don’t forget to check out our website. Here, you’ll find a great selection of resources, such as vocabulary lists, grammar lessons, and even mobile apps!

And by the way, did you know that with our premium service you get access to your own teacher? That’s right! With MyTeacher, you’ll have personalized exercises and one-on-one lessons. So…

Arrivederci!

In this article, we’re going to dismantle some common misconceptions about learning a new language, with a focus on Italian. We’ll start with a big question: “Is Italian hard to learn?”

Table of Contents

1. Is Italian a Difficult Language to Learn? (Spoiler…the answer is “No”)
2. What are the Hardest and Easiest Parts of Learning Italian?
3. This is Why Learning Italian is Easy!
4. Here’s Why Italian is Hard to Learn
5. I Want to Learn Italian. Where Should I Start?
6. Why is ItalianPod101 Great for Learning Italian?
7. Conclusion

1. Is Italian a Difficult Language to Learn? (Spoiler…the answer is “No”)

So, you’ve finally decided to jump into learning a new language, and your first choice is Italian (a great choice, by the way). Now, with your foot in the door, you’re wondering whether Italian is a hard language to learn. 

The short answer here is “No!” Anybody can learn Italian, especially after getting through our quick and definitive guide on how to succeed. And our first piece of advice is this: Independent of your goal, learning a new language is a journey, so have fun with it!

Of course, there are some variables that have an impact on how easily or quickly you’re going to master Italian, but the good news is that you’ll definitely get there—and you’ll have great fun in the process.

First, let’s take a brief look at the main factors that affect the way one learns and perceives a new language:

• → predisposition: We all know that learning a language just comes easier to some people than it does for others. They have that something…it’s like having a good ear for music or a good sense of direction. But don’t worry, even if that might give them a little jumpstart, there are lots of other variables that contribute to one’s perceived difficulty of a language.


• → motivation: Whether you were born with a knack for languages or not, being very motivated can help you learn quickly and with ease. Imminent moves to Italy, the prospect of a job abroad, or an Italian boyfriend/girlfriend have always been fantastic motivators!


• → how close your native language is to Italian: of course, if you speak another of the Romance languages (French, Spanish, or Portuguese, for example), Italian will be easier for you because you’ll find many similarities.

Learning a language is a journey. Have fun with it!

2. What are the Hardest and Easiest Parts of Learning Italian?

But what if you don’t speak one of the Romance languages? Is Italian hard to learn for English-speakers?

We have good news: The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) considers Italian to be one of the easiest languages for English-speakers to learn. In fact, they estimate that you just need twenty-four weeks (or 600 hours) to acquire basic fluency. So after that amount of time, you should be able to sustain a simple conversation and get by in various Italian language situations.

Well, in the end, these are just numbers and everybody has a different learning pace and different needs. But that said, let’s see in full detail what the easiest and hardest parts of learning Italian are—and what strategies you can use to tackle any Italian difficulty you face.

Let’s start with the good news:

3. This is Why Learning Italian is Easy!

Here are a few aspects of the Italian language you can rejoice about as a new learner. 

1 – Pronunciation 

Italian pronunciation is not only beautiful and very musical, but it’s also easy! 

Why? Mainly because everything is pronounced the same way it’s written, and there are no strange exceptions as there are in languages like English or French. In Italian, there are clear and basic rules to follow, and the most important thing to remember is that every letter is pronounced (except for “h”). In addition, almost every word ends with a vowel, which is what makes the Italian language so beautiful. 

2 – Simple Tricks to Easily Guess the Italian Word

Italian, like all other Romance languages, comes from Latin. It’s actually the one language among them that’s closest to Latin.

Can I borrow these words? Please…?

Since the Middle Ages, English has borrowed a great number of words from Latin and incorporated them into everyday language. You might not realize it, but there are lots and lots of English words that you use every day that come from Latin. Thus, these words are very similar to the corresponding Italian word.

This means that you can reverse the process and guess the Italian word, starting from a Latin-derived English one. And this process is super-easy because there are simple tricks for translating suffixes (the final part we attach to a word to slightly change its meaning) and getting the correct Italian word every time. 

Let’s see how easy it is:

English Ending	Italian Ending	English Word	Italian Word
-ity	-ità	“ability“	abilità
-tion -ption -ction	-zione	“station“ “action“ “corruption“	stazione azione corruzione
-ly	-mente	“legally“	legalmente
-ism	-ismo	“alpinism“	alpinismo
-ist	-ista	“dentist“	dentista

3 – Do You Know Another Romance Language?

If you’ve already studied another Romance language, such as Spanish, French, or Portuguese, learning Italian will be much easier for you. Just consider these factors: 

• the alphabet is the same (and it’s also the same as English’s alphabet, by the way)
• the vocabulary has a lot in common
• the use of some tenses is similar across the board
• the concept that everything has a gender remains intact
• the concept of agreement also remains 

Are you ready for some Romance…languages?

Here are a few examples:

Italian	Spanish	Portuguese	French
cantare (“to sing”)	cantar	cantar	chanter
dormire (“to sleep”)	dormir	dormir	dormir
luna (“moon”)	luna	lua	lune
mare (“sea”)	mar	mar	mer

So, if you know any of the words above, you’ll definitely have a much easier time learning Italian than those not familiar with other Romance languages. Knowing another Romance language will give you a great advantage! 

4. Here’s Why Italian is Hard to Learn

Like any other foreign language (I’m putting a little stress on the “foreign” part), Italian also presents some challenges to the learner. 

But I’m sure that you’ll overcome these challenges with little problem. 

The important thing here is not to become overwhelmed because, with just a little study and practice, things will get much easier for you. Having said that, here are some of the things that make Italian hard to learn for some people, and that require a little more effort on the learner’s part.

1 – Everything Has a Gender 

This might drive an English-speaker crazy, but it’s quite common in many languages (and not only Romance languages, mind you!). Everything in Italian has an assigned grammatical gender, either masculine or feminine. 

We can all agree that it’s hard to make sense of the criteria behind the assigned gender. Why is la sedia (“the chair”) feminine, while il tavolo (“the table”) is masculine? And if it makes sense that i pantaloni (“the pants”) is masculine while la gonna (“the skirt”) is feminine, can someone please explain why il vestito (“the dress”) is masculine, but la giacca (“the blazer”) is feminine?

The good news, however, which you might have already noticed, is that it’s not too difficult to guess the gender of a word because the ending generally gives it away. 

• If it ends in -o, it’s masculine.
• If it ends in -a, it’s feminine.

2 – Everything Has to Agree 

Once you’ve gotten the hang of word gender, you have to start paying attention to all the other elements of the sentence that need to agree with it: articles, adjectives, past participles, etc.

It might seem like a lot of work at the beginning, but it’s actually quite automatic after a while. You just remember that most of the ending vowels must be the same (unless it’s one of those names or adjectives ending in -e):

La mia bella casa è spaziosa e colorata (ma mi è costata carissima).
“My beautiful house is spacious and colorful (but it cost me a lot).”

3 – Double or Nothing!

For a non-Italian speaker, it’s always a bit difficult to hear the difference between a single or double consonant. They are very frequent in the Italian language, and sometimes missing the double can change the meaning of a word. For example:

• pane (“bread”) vs. panne (“breakdown”)
• cane (“dog”) vs. canne (“canes”)
• copia (“copy”) vs. coppia (“couples”)

But even if it appears that only Italians are able to hear the difference, and they immediately know if it’s one or the other, this is a minor mistake. One that we can all live with!

4 – The Subjunctive (And How to Survive Without It)

Many Italian students consider the subjunctive a true bestia nera (literally “black beast,” referring to something nightmarish, something that everybody is afraid of). 

This is mainly due to the fact that it’s virtually nonexistent in English. And besides, the rule on how to apply it isn’t always crystal-clear. Basically, the subjunctive is used to express subjectivity, uncertainty, doubt, will, desire, etc. The subjunctive is very often introduced by the conjunction che (“that”).

I bet he needs a Subjunctive Survival Kit!

But don’t worry! Even in this case, there are little tricks you can implement to make life easier, such as:

• Learning a few prefabricated sentence patterns:
  • Credo che sia giusto. (“I think it’s fair.”)
  • Penso che tu abbia ragione. (“I think you are right.”)
  • Bisogna che i ragazzi si sveglino presto. (“It’s necessary that the kids get up early.”)

• Learning the little tricks to avoid using the subjunctive altogether! 🙂
  • Credo che sia giusto. >> Secondo me è giusto.
  • Penso che tu abbia ragione. >> Per me hai ragione.
  • Bisogna che i ragazzi si sveglino presto. >> I ragazzi devono svegliarsi presto.

5 – What About the Rolled R?

Why haven’t we included the rolled R among the challenging parts of Italian? Well, even if it stresses out some students, this is actually not a problem at all. Even some Italians can’t roll their R (it’s called erre moscia). And, don’t worry, everybody will understand you, whether you roll it like a pro or just use your basic anglophone R.

5. I Want to Learn Italian. Where Should I Start?

So, now that we’ve got the challenging parts of learning Italian out of the way, it’s time to give you some basic strategies to help you learn Italian in a quick, easy, and fun way.

1 – Learn the Basic Structure

You can start taking a course, going through a textbook, or using a great variety of free online resources, but from the very beginning, you should start paying attention to the basic patterns of the Italian language and practice with them. Start easy and keep adding more and more features as you go on. This way, you can go from making basic sentences to more complex ones. 

2 – Memorize the Top 100 Basic Words

One way to quickly get a grasp of Italian is to memorize the top 100 basic words. This will help you build simple sentences and start a conversation, and it will also make it easier to understand what you’re hearing and reading. The best way is to learn words divided into categories that are related to your immediate environment. For example:

• family
• school
• work
• food
• hobbies

3 – Learn the Basic Conjugations

Verbs are the cement that keeps sentences together, so you might want to tackle them right away. It’s true that, for an English-speaker (who virtually doesn’t have to bother with conjugations in his/her language at all), Italian conjugation might seem like a lot of work. But you can start gradually, concentrating on what’s most important. Here it goes, start with the present and past tense conjugations of: 

• auxiliary verbs: essere and avere (“to be” and “to have”)
• modal verbs: 
  • volere (“to want”) 
  • potere (“to be able to”) 
  • sapere (“to know how”) 
  • dovere (“to have to”) 

Okay, you’re right, they’re quite irregular and might be a bit complicated to memorize. But once you have them in your head, you’ll be able to start speaking tons of different phrases right away. 

4 – Don’t Be Shy

To learn a language, you have to practice, and to practice, you have to speak. So, once you’ve learned the basic structure, memorized the first 100 words, and are familiar with auxiliaries and modal verbs, it’s time to take the plunge. 

So what if, in the beginning, you’re using the wrong verb or mispronouncing a word? That’s just part of the learning process! So, lose your inhibitions and shamelessly dive into a conversation with the first Italian you meet.

5 – Have Fun with it!

Learning a new language is like assembling a puzzle: it can be a very entertaining mental exercise. And the most fun part is that you get to “play” with a great variety of materials and media.

Time to lose your inhibitions and have fun learning Italian!

From the very beginning, you should try to read and listen to authentic material as often as possible: being exposed to the language is the best way to memorize vocabulary and patterns. And the best part is that you don’t even realize that you’re learning!

These are some excellent ways to get authentic Italian content: 

• Italian movies
• Italian songs
• Newspapers
• Magazines
• Italian literature
• Italian news

And don’t worry if, at the beginning, you only understand about ten percent of what you’re reading or listening to. Try to focus on keywords, pay attention to the articles, look at verbs and how they conjugate, look for words that are similar to English, and finally, listen or watch for the basic words you’ve recently learned. It’s just like a Lego building: you keep adding different little bricks until you get the result you want.

6. Why is ItalianPod101 Great for Learning Italian?

Finally, what are the best tools for solving this wonderful puzzle? To put together all the pieces that, combined, will give you basic fluency? Because this is a complex task, the best strategy is to use all the tools you have available to you. 

And guess what? We have just the right tools to make your Italian-learning experience fast, easy, and fun. 

ItalianPod101.com is a great place to learn Italian, because we offer you a great variety of tools to ensure that you learn at your own pace, in your own time, and with an approach that’s tailored to your needs and goals.

• →  An Integrated Approach
  One of the distinguishing traits of ItalianPod101 is that we offer an integrated approach. This means that each lesson combines activities based on the four basic language skills (listening, reading, writing, and speaking) using podcasts, videos, texts, and practice exercises. This combination allows you to learn in a very effective way because it’s a natural approach—and much more fun than traditional learning methods!

• → A Great Variety of Free Content
  ItalianPod101 offers so many resources for learners at every level that you’re sure to find the tool that’s best for your specific needs. You’ll find grammar lessons, vocabulary lists, customizable flashcards, texts, videos, and audio lessons. It’s all available on your computer, your smartphone and, in the case of our downloadable lessons, offline.

• → Premium Personal Coaching
  If you’re looking for something more personalized, ItalianPod101 has the perfect solution for you! With our Premium service, you’ll enter the Fast Track to Fluency program and gain access to your own teacher and guided learning system.

Besides the regular lessons, you’ll have direct interaction with your personal teacher, weekly assignments, and ongoing assessment of your progress. 

7. Conclusion

In this article, I wanted to show you that, even though there are some challenges when you start learning Italian, anybody can reach basic fluency with a little practice, no inhibitions, and—especially—the right tools.

How do you feel about trying to learn Italian now? More confident, or do you still have questions or concerns? Reach out to us in the comments, and we’ll get back to you! 

We’ve selected for you a great variety of free resources covering all aspects of Italian grammar and vocabulary to help you in this adventure. We also provide flashcards to help you learn words in context and mobile applications so you can always have ItalianPod101 at hand.

So, don’t be shy. Jump right into it, because learning Italian is easy with ItalianPod101!

Conversation isn’t a one way street. Hopefully, it is more like a tennis match: you ask something, get an answer and ask another question, you answer and ask something else, and so on. Questions are the fundamental building blocks to getting to know someone, establishing common ground, finding out something new or interesting and, simply, getting the flow of conversation going.

Questions in Italian follow no particular pattern—no word order inversion, and no adding of extra words. You simply change your intonation and make it sound like a question. For example,

Sei matto! (“You are crazy!”)
Sei matto? (“Are you crazy?”)

Just a little change in the punctuation (and in the intonation) here makes all the difference.

And then, of course, you have some typical Italian gestures that underline and strengthen the emphasis on the question.

In this guide, you’ll learn all the basic questions in Italian, the question words, and how to ask questions about the most common topics with lots of useful examples. So, let’s start learning how to ask questions in Italian and how to answer them!

Table of Contents

1. Basic Italian Question Words
2. The Eight Most Common Question Topics
3. Conclusion

1 – Basic Italian Question Words

Let’s start with the main interrogative pronouns. These are short but very important words that serve to introduce questions (direct or indirect). They are mostly static words (that do not need to be changed) and can substitute things or people.

Cosa Che (“What?”)	Cosa/Che facciamo stasera? (“What are we doing tonight?”)
Cosa and Che mean exactly the same thing as interrogatve pronouns. But note that cosa literally means “thing” and it’s a very useful word to use when you forget the word for something…
Chi (“Who”)	Chi ha mangiato la marmellata? (“Who ate the jam?”)
Come (“How”)	Come ti chiami? (“What’s your name?”)
Quale/i (“What/Which”)	Quale preferisci? (“Which one do you prefer?”)
Quanto/a/i/e (“How many,” “How much”)	Quanti gatti hai? (“How many cats do you have?”)
Dove (“Where”)	Dov’è la fermata del tram? (“Where is the tramway stop?”)
Quando (“When”)	Quando torni in Italia? (“When do you come back to Italy?”)
Perché (“Why”)	Perché non mi rispondi? (“Why don’t you answer me?)
Perché means both “why” and “because”: Perché non mi rispondi? Perché non voglio! (“Why don’t you answer me? Because I don’t want to!”)

➜ Do you want more examples of common Italian questions, starting from… Dov’è il bagno? (“Where is the bathroom?”) then make sure you check out our free list of The Top 15 Questions You Should Know for Conversations on ItalianPod101.com.

We have so many questions…

2 –  The Eight Most Common Question Topics 

In this section, we are going to list all the most common topics that might come up in a conversation, and we will give you examples of the most typical questions (and answers) in Italian. 

For each topic, you’ll find examples of possible answers so that you can start imagining how you would deal with it yourself. A good exercise is to try and come up with answers of your own, using the vocabulary and structures you’ll learn today.

1 – What’s Your Name & Personal Questions

The first questions that you want to ask and answer are probably going to be personal questions when you are first introduced to someone. You might also want to know how to spell someone’s name and their age. However, asking for someone’s age might be a sensitive topic for some people…

• Come ti chiami? (“What is your name?”)
  ► Mi chiamo / Sono Beatrice. (“My name is / I am Beatrice”)
  
  
• Come si scrive il tuo nome? (“How to spell your name?”)
  ► Ti faccio lo spelling. (“I’ll spell it for you.”)
  ► Attenzione, devi mettere l’acca. (“Attention, you have to put the H.”)
  ► Si scrive con la doppia T. (“You spell it with a double T.”)

Italians don’t usually need to ask for word spelling, as in Italian every single letter is clearly pronounced and so it is immediately clear what the exact spelling is. For a foreigner, the most complicated Italian sounds to recognize are a few diphthongs (combination of letters) such as CI vs. CHI (the sounds tch vs. ki), SCI (the sound sh), GI vs. GHI (the sounds dj vs. hard G as in “give”) and—of course—double consonants.

• Come si pronuncia il tuo nome? (“How do you pronounce your name?”)
  ► Si pronuncia … (“It is pronounced …”)

• Come ti chiami di cognome? (“What’s your last name?”)
  
  
• Quanti anni hai? (“How old are you?”)
  ► Ho 27 anni. (“I’m 27.”)

➜ For more vocabulary and sentence structures, make sure to visit our complete guide on How to Introduce Yourself!

Quanti anni hai? (“How old are you?”)

2 – Where Are You From?

Next up, let’s look at a very common topic in conversation among foreigners: questions about origin and whereabouts:

• Di dove sei? (“Where are you from?”)
  ► Sono americano/spagnolo/portoghese. (“I’m American/Spanish/Portuguese.”)

• Di che paese sei? (“What country are you from?”)
  ► Francia. (“France.”)
  


• Di che città sei?
  ► Sono di Palermo. (“I am/come from Palermo.”)
  


• Da dove vieni? (“Where do you come from?”)
  ► Vengo da New York / dal Brasile. (“I come from New York / from Brazil.”)

• Dov’è il tuo paese? Dove si trova il tuo paese? (“Where is your country? Where is your country located?”)
  ► Il mio paese si trova in Asia / nel sud America. (“My country is located in Asia / South America.”)
  


• Qual è la tua nazionalità? (“What is your nationality?”)
  ► Ho la nazionalità americana/spagnola/portoghese. (“I have American/Spanish/Portuguese nationality.”)
  

• Sei stato in / a? (“Have you ever been to?”)
  The use of prepositions is not necessarily similar in different languages. Remember that, in Italian, we use in to talk about being in or going to a country >> Sono, vado in Italia. (“I am in / I go to Italy.”) while we use a to talk about being in or going to a city >> Sono, vado a Roma. (“I am in / I go to Rome.”)


• Hai visitato la Toscana? (“Have you visited Tuscany?”)
  ► No, ma voglio andarci l’anno prossimo. (“No, but I want to go next year.”)
  


• Sei mai stato in Cina? (“Have you ever been to China ?”)
  ► Ci sono stato tre anni fa. (“I was there three years ago.”)
  


• Sei già stato a Roma? (“Have you already been to Rome?”)
  ► Certo! È la mia città preferita. (“Of course! It is my favorite city.”)
  


• Conosci il Giappone? (“Do you know Japan?”)

➜ For more country names in Italian, check out our free vocabulary list on ItalianPod101.com.

3- Do You Speak…?

If you are travelling, or living, working, or studying abroad, one of the very first questions will be about the languages spoken, and whether people speak English. This conversation will also let you learn important information on where and how to study languages.

Parlo 6 lingue.  (“I speak six languages.”)

• Parli (bene) l’italiano? (“Do you speak Italian (well)?”)
  ► Parlo bene l’italiano. (“I speak Italian well.”)
  ► Parlo un poco il francese. (“I speak a little French.”)
  ► Sono fluente. (“I am fluent.”)
  ► Così così. (“So-so.”)
  ► Solo qualche parola. (“Only a few words.”)

• Che lingua si parla nel tuo paese? (“What language is spoken in your country?”)
  ► In Tunisia, si parla arabo e francese. (“In Tunisia, we speak Arabic and French.”)


• Quante lingue parli? (“How many languages do you speak?”)
  


• È difficile imparare il [ ]? (“Is it difficult to learn [ ]?”)
  ► Un po’, soprattutto la grammatica. (“A little, especially the grammar.”)
  ► È facile! Io ho imparato con ItalianPod101. (“It’s easy! I learned with ItalianPod101.”)

• Da quanto tempo studi l’italiano? (“How long have you studied Italian?”)
  ► Da due anni. (“Two years.”)
  ► Ho cominciato due anni fa. (“I started two years ago.”)
  ► L’ho studiato per tre anni. (“I studied it for three years.”)

• Dove hai studiato l’italiano? (“Where did you study Italian?”)
  ► Ho studiato italiano all’università / in una scuola di lingue / con l’app ItalianPod101!
  (“I studied Italian at the university / in a language school / with the ItalianPod101 app!”)


• Quando hai imparato a parlare l’italiano? (“When did you learn to speak Italian?”)
  ► Ho imparato da piccola. (“I learned when I was a kid.”)

4 – Do You Like… ?

You can learn a lot from people, just by asking what they like and listening to their answers. In order to do that, you first might want to practice the particular construction of the Italian verb mi piace (“I like”). It is an impersonal verb that literally translates to “it pleases me”. So you have to remember to change the verb, depending on what you like. 

Mi piace la pizza. (singular, “I like pizza.”)
Mi piacciono gli spaghetti. (plural, “I like spaghetti.”)

• Ti piace Roma? (“Do you like Rome?”)
  ►Mi piace, anche se è un po’ caotica. (“I like it, even if it’s a bit chaotic.”)


• Come ti sembra Milano? (“How do you like Milan?”)
  ►La trovo bella e dinamica. (“I find it beautiful and dynamic.”)
  


• Preferisci la birra o il vino con la pizza? (“Do you prefer beer or wine with pizza?”)
  ►Preferisco la birra con la pizza e il vino con gli spaghetti. (“I prefer beer with pizza and wine with spaghetti.”)

• Ti piace la cucina italiana? (“Do you like Italian food?”)
  ►Tantissimo. Mi fa impazzire! (“A lot. It drives me crazy!”)
  


• Ti piacciono le spiagge italiane? (“Do you like Italian beaches”)
  ►Moltissimo, e adoro le isole! (“A lot, and I love the islands!”)
  

• Ti piacciono le canzoni napoletane? (“Do you like Neapolitan songs?”)
  ►Sono belle, ma non capisco le parole… (“They’re beautiful, but I don’t understand the words … “)

Cosa preferisci?  (“What do you prefer?”)

5 – What Do You Do?

Nowadays, we tend to identify ourselves and other people with the professional activity. It might not be the best way, but it is what it is…

People’s jobs and professions are an important part of their life, so it is natural to ask about it. Just remember that, in Italy, you are not supposed to ask about money and people’s salary.

• Che cosa fai? (“What do you do?”) 
• Di che cosa ti occupi? (“What is your occupation/activity?”)
  ► Sono medico. (“I’m a doctor.”)
  Notice how in Italian you don’t normally put the article before your occupation:
  Sono medico. (“I’m a doctor.”)
  Sono professoressa di italiano. (“I’m an Italian teacher.”)
  Sono giornalista sportivo. (“I’m a sport reporter.”)
  
  
► Mi occupo di  progetti multimediali. (“I manage multimedia projects.”)
► Faccio l’insegnante. (“I am a teacher.”)

• Che cosa studi? (“What do you study?”)
  ► Studio musica barocca. (“I study baroque music.”)


• Qual è la tua specializzazione? (“What is your major? / What do you specialize in?”)
  ► Mi sto specializzando in biologia marina. (“I am specializing in marine biology.”)
  


• Quale sarà il tuo prossimo progetto? (“What will be your next project?”)
  ► Ho in programma di scrivere un blog sulla lingua italiana. (“I plan to write a blog about the Italian language.”)

➜ If you want to know other names of professions in Italian, don’t miss our free vocabulary list on Jobs.

6 – What Do You Like to Do in Your Free Time?

Sure, asking about jobs and careers might be interesting… but the real fun questions and answers are in people’s hobbies and activities during their free time.

Finding out what others do will help you find common ground and common interests. So, let’s start asking the really important questions. 

• Cosa fai nel fine settimana? (“What do you do in the weekends?”)


• Come passi il tempo libero? (“How do you spend your free time?”)
  ► Mi piace andare al cinema / leggere / giocare ai videogiochi. (“I like going to the movies / reading / playing video games.”)
  ► Preferisco passare del tempo con i miei bambini. (“I prefer spending time with my kids.”)
  


• Hai qualche hobby? (“Do you have any hobbies?”)
  ► Colleziono / faccio la collezione di farfalle e francobolli. (“I collect butterflies and stamps.”)
  


• Qual è il tuo hobby preferito? (“What’s your favorite hobby?”)
  ► Mi piace fare composizioni floreali. È molto rilassante. (“I like making flower arrangements. It is very relaxing.”)
  


• Fai / Pratichi sport? (“Do you practice any sports?”)


• Che sport fai / pratichi? (“What sports do you do?”)
  ► Faccio sport estremi. (“I do extreme sports.”)
  ► Vado in palestra tutti i giorni. (“I go to the gym every day.”)
  ► Sono pigro/a, non faccio molto sport. (“I am lazy, I don’t play any sports.”)
  


• Che tipo di [musica / libri / film / serie] preferisci? (“What kind of [music / books / movies / series] do you prefer?”)
  ► Mi piacciono i romanzi storici. (“I like historical novels.”)
  ► Adoro le serie coreane. (“I love Korean series.”)
  ► Il mio genere preferito è il jazz, e il tuo? (“My favorite music is jazz, and yours?”)
  


• Chi è il tuo artista / scrittore / attore / musicista preferito/a? (“Who is your favorite artist / writer / actor / musician?”)
  ► Mi piacciono gli artisti contemporanei, ma non sopporto l’arte astratta. (“I like contemporary artists, but I can’t stand abstract art.”)
  ► Ascolto ogni genere di musica, ma il mio musicista preferito è… (“I listen to all kinds of music, but my favorite musician is…”)
  


• Che [libro / film / serie] mi consigli? (“What [book / movie / series] do you suggest?”)
  ► Ho appena visto… Te lo consiglio. (“I just watched… I recommend it.”)
  ► Hai visto l’ultimo [film / serie] di…? È bellissimo/a! (“Have you seen the latest [film / series] of …? It’s beautiful!”)

Cosa fai nel tempo libero? (“What do you do in your free time?”)

7 – What’s Wrong?

Sometimes things get complicated, and not all questions can be about fun and travel. An important role of friends is to understand if something is not right, and asking about it might be the first step to finding a solution to the problem or simply a way to make the other person feel better.

• Che / Cosa c’è? (“What’s up?/What’s wrong?”)
• Che / Cosa succede? (“What happens?/What’s the matter?”)
• Ci sono problemi? (“Any problems?”)
• Qualcosa non va? (“Something wrong?”)
  ► Va tutto bene. (“Everything is fine.”)
  ► Ho un problema, possiamo parlare? (“I have a problem, can we talk?”)
  ► È tutto a posto. (“It’s all right.”)

8 – How Much Is It? 

And last but not least, here is a list of very useful questions, especially if you are going around markets and mercatini and want to buy or bargain with someone.

• Quanto costa? (“How much does it cost?”)
• Quant’è?  (“How much is it?”)
• Quanto viene al chilo / litro?  (“How much is it per kilo / liter?”)
• Posso avere uno sconto?  (“Can I get a discount? “)
  ► Costa … euro. (“It costs … euros.”)
  ► È … euro. (“It’s … euros.”)
  ► Viene … euro al chilo / litro. (“It’s … per kilo / per liter.”)
  ► È caro. Costa troppo. (“It’s expensive. It costs too much.”)
  
  ► È economico. Costa poco. (“It’s cheap. It doesn’t cost much.”)
  ► È conveniente. (“It’s convenient.”)
  ► Vale la pena. (“It’s worth it.”)
  ► È già scontato. Non posso fare un ulteriore sconto. (“It’s already discounted. I can’t apply more of a discount.”)

➜ Interested in knowing more words to go shopping in a supermarket? Check out our free vocabulary lists  on ItalianPod101.com.

3. Conclusion

In this guide, you’ve learned the most common questions in Italian, from the question words to the most common topics, and now you are ready for any type of conversation with friends and colleagues.

Did we forget any important topic you’d like to learn about? Do you feel ready to get out there and express yourself using everything you’ve learned today?

A good way to practice is to take each of the questions we’ve covered today and imagine how you would answer them. Maybe you’ll need to do some research on the sentence structures or key words, but it will be a great way to learn how to talk about yourself. 

Learning how to talk about personal topics is always worth the time, as you can use this knowledge in any situation, with your friends or people you’ve just met.

Make sure to explore ItalianPod101, as we have plenty of free resources to help you practice your grammar and learn new words. Our vocabulary lists are also useful for revisiting new words and practicing their pronunciation.

Remember that you can also use our premium service, MyTeacher, to get personal one-on-one coaching. Practice questions and answers in Italian with your private teacher so they can give you personalized feedback and advice, and help you with the pronunciation.

About the Author: Jessica Barbagallo grew up on the sunny island of Sicily, in the south of Italy. She has lived in Florence, Milan, New York, Vancouver, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo. After a career in digital marketing, she went back to what is most fun to her: teaching languages! 

Have you ever asked yourself how we learn our native language when we’re kids? We keep hearing and repeating the same simple sentences over and over. That’s the only trick! 

As an adult, it works the same way: You memorize a sentence structure, then you start changing the elements a little, and in the end, you start making the sentences more complex. 
With this simple guide on forming sentences in Italian, we’ll help you memorize the most basic and useful Italian sentence patterns; with those, you’ll be able to generate hundreds of natural sentences. And in no time, you’ll be holding complex conversations with ease and confidence.

Table of Contents

1. A is B: L’italiano è bello!
2. Voglio imparare l’italiano con ItalianPod101.com!
3. Love is all you need…
4. Mi piace l’italiano!
5. Bella Ciao and the Reflexive Verbs
6. Asking politely: Scusi, posso…?
7. Asking Questions
8. Conclusion

1. A is B: L’italiano è bello!

In Italian, if you want to describe a person or an object, you need to be able to say that A is B. Nothing’s easier! The only thing is that you need to know how to use and conjugate the verb essere (“to be”). And once you master that, you need to keep in mind that everything in Italian needs to agree in number (singular/plural) and gender (masculine/feminine).

• Mario è mio fratello. (“Mario is my brother.”)
• Maria è mia sorella. (“Maria is my sister.”)

There are already a lot of things you can say using this pattern:

• (Lei)* È professoressa di italiano. (“She is an** Italian teacher.”)
• (Voi) Siete molto simpatici. (“You are very nice.”)
• Gli amici sono americani. (“The friends are American.”)

*Notice how, in Italian, you don’t need to express the personal pronoun when it’s the subject of the verb (io, tu, lui/lei, noi, voi, loro), **and when you say someone’s profession, you can omit the article:

• (Io) Sono avvocata. (“I’m a lawyer.”) [for a female speaker]
• (Tu) Sei ingegnere. (“You are an engineer.”)
• Carlos è studente. (“Carlos is a student.”)

But what about when you want to say that A is not B? No problem. Anytime you need to express a negative statement, you just add the negation non (“not”) in front of the verb, as in:

• Maria non è mia sorella. (“Maria is not my sister.”)
• Questo orologio non è un regalo. (“This watch is not a present.”)

Notice also how the basic Italian sentence structure doesn’t change with most of the tenses (past, future, etc.).

• Giovedì sarà il mio compleanno. (“Thursday will be my birthday.”)
• Mario non era un bravo calciatore. (“Mario wasn’t a good soccer player.”)

And finally, if you need to ask a question, remember that, in Italian, you don’t need to do much. Just change your intonation, and you’ll have a perfect question.

• Sei ingegnere? (“Are you an engineer?”)
• Mario non era un bravo calciatore? (“Wasn’t Mario a good soccer player?”)

When we use adjectives to describe a person, a thing, or a situation, the structure stays exactly the same, including in the negative form or in other tenses:

• (Tu) Sei bellissima! (“You are very beautiful!”)
• La lasagna era deliziosa. (“The lasagna was delicious.”)
• Il museo che abbiamo visitato ieri era molto interessante. (“The museum we visited yesterday was very interesting.”)

The rose is red…[A] is [B]

2. Voglio imparare l’italiano con ItalianPod101.com!

Voglio (“I want”) is one of the Italian modal verbs (verbi servili) that are constructed by directly preceding the infinitive. 

• Voglio imparare l’italiano con ItalianPod.101! (“I want to learn Italian with ItalianPod101.com!”)
• Devo parlare. (“I have to speak up.”)
• Posso fare. (“I can do it.”)
• So suonare. (“I know how to play.”)

You can probably guess by now what the pattern is for the negative and interrogative forms. Yes, you’re right! For the negative form, you just put non (“not”) in front of the verb; if you want to ask a question, you just change the intonation:

• Non voglio andare a scuola domani! (“I don’t want to go to school tomorrow!”)
• Sai suonare il sassofono? (“Can you play the saxophone?”)

Italian phrases change a little when we start using direct or indirect personal pronouns, which we can put in front of the conjugated verb (as usual): 

• Lo voglio dire. (“I want to say it.”)

Or, we can attach it to the end of the infinitive: 

• Lo voglio dire; = Voglio dirlo;  (“I want to say it.”)
• Ti devo parlare; = Devo parlarti; (“I have to talk to you.”)
• Lo possiamo fare; = Possiamo farlo; (“We can do it.”)
• La so suonare; = So suonarla; (“I can play it.”)

3. Love is all you need…

Although it might be true that “All you need is love,” in the real world, outside of dreamy songs, we need a lot of things. In Italian, “to need” translates into avere bisogno di. It’s a slightly different structure than in English and you’d better get familiar with it, because when you travel to Italy, or when you’re in the company of Italian friends, you might need to say one of the following:

• Avete bisogno di informazioni? (“Do you need information?”)
• Hai bisogno di cambiare i soldi. (“You need to change the money.”)
• Il bambino ha bisogno di mangiare subito! (“The kid needs to eat right away!”)

Abbiamo bisogno d’amore! (“We need love!”)

Let’s take a look now at this Italian language sentence structure. 

You’ve probably noticed that we’re conjugating the verb avere (“to have”), which means that the literal translation of avere bisogno di is “to have the need for.” The noun bisogno (“need”) never changes, regardless of who the subject is, or who or what you need. 

Another important thing to remember is that the thing you need is introduced by the preposition di (“of”). When prepositions meet the article, they usually merge into a preposizione articolata_.

• Ho bisogno del (=di + il) bagno. (“I need the bathroom.”) 
• Hai bisogno della (=di + la) macchina? (“Do you need the car?”)

When what you need is expressed by an action (and therefore a verb) you can change the sentence by replacing avere bisogno di (“to need”) with dovere (“to have to”). Like in English, the final meaning in Italian is basically the same, with maybe just a slight difference:

• Ho bisogno di mangiare altrimenti svengo. (“I need to eat, otherwise I’ll faint.”) >> It’s necessary.
• Devo mangiare altrimenti svengo. (“I have to eat, otherwise I’ll faint.”) >> I have no choice.

4. Mi piace l’italiano!

In Italian, the verb piacere expresses the concept of “liking” something, and of showing tastes and preferences. Piacere uses a particular sentence structure: What you like (or don’t like) is the subject of the verb, while the person who likes (or dislikes) someone/something is expressed with an indirect personal pronoun. 

If you try to translate it literally into English, you’ll have to change the order of the words a bit. Take a look:

• Mi piace la pasta. (Mi = a me) > “I like pasta.”
• Ti piace la pasta. (Ti = a te) > “You like pasta.”
• Le piace la pasta. (Le = a lei) > “She likes pasta.”
• Gli piace la pasta. (Gli = a lui) > “He likes pasta.”
• Ci piace la pasta. (Ci = a noi) > “We like pasta.”
• Vi piace la pasta. (Vi = a voi) > “You like pasta.”
• A loro piace la pasta. > “They like pasta.”

Can you see what happened here? In the Italian translation, the grammatical subject is no longer “I” (io); it turned around to be the pasta! So if we go for the literal English translation, it would be “Pasta (subject) pleases (third person plural verb) me.”

If the thing you like is plural, you use piacciono (“they please”).

• Mi piacciono gli spaghetti. > “I like spaghetti.”
• Ti piacciono i fumetti di Diabolik? > “Do you like Diabolik comic books?”
• Non ci piacciono le brutte notizie. > “We don’t like bad news.”

The verb piacere can also be followed by an infinitive.

• Non gli piace guidare. > “He doesn’t like to drive.”
• Ti piace ballare? > “Do you like dancing?”
• Mi piace camminare a piedi nudi. > “I like to walk barefoot.”

Many other verbs use the same Italian sentence construction as piacere. For example:

• Dispiacere (“to be sorry”) >> Mi dispiace per la confusione. (“I’m sorry for the mess.”)
• Bastare (“to suffice”/”to be enough”) >> Ci basta poco. (“We don’t need much.”)
• Mancare (“to miss something or someone”) >> Mi manca molto. (“I miss it a lot.”)
• Servire (“to need”) >> Gli servono due pomodori. (“He needs two tomatoes.”)
• Interessare (“to be interested in”) >> Ti interessa la storia? (“Does history interest you?”)
• Sembrare (“to seem”/”to appear”) >> Ci sembra molto bello. (“It seems very nice to us.”)
• Dare fastidio (“to annoy”/”to bother”) >> Mi dai proprio fastidio. (“You really bother me.”)

5. Bella Ciao and the Reflexive Verbs

Lately, the traditional hymn of freedom and resistance Bella Ciao has become very popular. But have you ever realized how it’s also a hymn to the power of reflexive verbs? Just look at the very first lyrics:

Is it a protest or a bank robbery…? 😉

Una mattina mi son(o) svegliato,
o bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao!
Una mattina mi son(o) svegliato
e ho trovato l’invasor.

One morning I awakened,
oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao!
One morning I awakened
And I found the invader.

One very common structure in Italian is to use reflexive verbs. These verbs express that the subject and the object of the action are the same: 

• (io) mi sono svegliato. (“I woke up.” Literally: “I woke myself up.”)
• (io) mi lavo le mani. (“I wash my hands.” Literally: “I wash myself the hands.”)

As you can see from the examples above, the reflexive verb is always preceded by a reflexive pronoun. So the pattern is always:

[subject] [reflexive pronoun – same person as the subject] [verb]
[Maria] [si – (lei)] [sveglia]

Further, an Italian sentence that uses reflexive verbs requires the auxiliary essere (“to be”) in the past and all compound tenses. It also needs the consequent agreement of the past participle with the subject, as usual.

• Si sono sposati l’anno scorso. (“They got married last year.”)
• Carla, ti sei arrabbiata con me? (“Did you get angry at me?”)
• Ieri non mi sono rasato. (“Yesterday, I didn’t shave.”)

In Italian, many common reflexive verbs are those related to routine daily actions. Reflexive verbs, in the infinitive form, will have the third person reflexive pronoun -si attached to the end, which can be a little confusing. Let’s see a few examples to clear things up.

Svegliarsi (“to wake up”) > Mi sveglio alle sei. (“I wake up at six.”)

Alzarsi  (“to get up”) > Ti alzi? (“Do you get up?”)

Lavarsi (“to wash up”) > John si lava solo la domenica. (“John washes up only on Sunday.”)

Vestirsi (“to dress up”) > Mi vesto per andare alla festa. (“I dress up to go to the party.”)

Mettersi (“to wear”) > Non ti metti il vestito rosso? (“Don’t you wear the red dress?”)

Pettinarsi (“to comb”) > Jessica non si pettina mai. (“Jessica never combs her hair.”)

Radersi (“to shave”) > Si rade un giorno sì e un giorno no. (“He shaves every other day.”)

Truccarsi (“to put on makeup”) > Le bambine si truccano a Carnevale. (“Girls put on makeup for Carnival.”)

Addormentarsi (“to fall asleep”) > Mi addormento a mezzanotte. (“I fall asleep at midnight.”)

Reflecting on reflexive verbs…

Many Italian verbs that express a physical state or a state of mind are also reflexive:

Annoiarsi (“to get/be bored”) > A teatro ci annoiamo. (“We get bored at the theater.”)

Arrabbiarsi (“to be angry”) > Perché ti arrabbi? (“Why do you get angry?”)

Chiamarsi (“to be called”) > Ciao, mi chiamo Elena. (“Hi, I’m called Elena.”)

Divertirsi (“to have fun”) > Sono sicura che vi divertiete. (“I’m sure you’ll have fun.”)

Innamorarsi (“to fall in love”) > Mi sono innamorata di te. (“I fell in love with you.”)

Lamentarsi (“to complain”) > Si lamentano sempre. (“They complain all the time.”)

Preoccuparsi (“to worry”) > Non ti preoccupare. (“Don’t worry.”)

Rilassarsi (“to relax”) > La domenica mi rilasso in famiglia. (“On Sunday I relax with my family.”)

Sedersi (“to sit down”) > Ci sediamo un poco? (“Shall we sit down for a while?”)

Sentirsi (“to feel”) > Non ti senti bene? (“Aren’t you feeling well?”)

Sposarsi (“to get married”) > Si sposano a maggio. (“They get married in May.”)

Vergognarsi (“to be ashamed”) > Mi vergogno di quello che ho fatto. (“I’m ashamed of what I’ve done.”)

6. Asking politely: Scusi, posso…?

1- Posso?

There are many situations where you need to politely ask to go someplace, or to get information or a service. Here’s the correct Italian language sentence pattern for you to use in order to make the best impression with your politeness.

Posso andare al bagno? (“May I go to the bathroom?”)

As in English, Italian uses the verb potere (“can”/”may”), followed by an infinitive, to ask for permission to do or get something.

• Posso entrare? (“May I come in?”)
• Posso andare in bagno? (“Can I go to the bathroom?”)
• Posso alzarmi da tavola? (“Can I be excused?” Literally: “Can I leave the table?”)
• Posso avere il tuo numero di telefono? (“Can I have your phone number?”)

2- Scusa… Scusi…

Often, before asking for something, Italians say Scusa… (informal) or Scusi… (formal). But what does that mean? It’s actually a short version for saying “Excuse me,” and in some situations, it can also be used to say “Sorry.” But going back to the sentence pattern for politely asking for something, scusa is a way to draw the attention of the person you’re about to ask permission from.

• Scusi, posso entrare? (“Excuse me, may I come in?”)
• Scusa, posso avere il tuo numero di telefono? (“Excuse me, can I have your phone number?”)

A common situation where you should use this structure is when you’re at a coffee bar or a restaurant, and you want to draw the waiter’s or bartender’s attention before making your request:

• Scusi, posso avere un cappuccino? (“Excuse me, can I get a cappuccino?”)
• Scusi, possiamo avere il conto? (“Excuse me, can we have the bill?”)

Or, if you’re lost in Milan or Rome and you need directions (or the time):

• Scusi, può dirmi come arrivo al Duomo? (“Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to the Duomo?”)
• Scusi, può dirmi che ore sono? (“Excuse me, can you tell me the time?”)

Remember to use the formal version, scusi, when you talk to an older person, someone you don’t know, or anyone you want to show respect to (and with waiters and bartenders). The informal scusa is for young people, friends, and family.

3- Potrei…?

Finally, another way to ask politely for something in Italian is to use the present conditional. This shows that you’re asking something, but you’re not ordering. You’re rather expressing a wish.

• Potrei avere un cappuccino? (“Could I have a cappuccino?”)
• Mi farebbe un cappuccino? (“Could you make me a cappuccino?”)
• Mi potresti dire l’ora? (“Could you tell me the time?”)

7. Asking Questions

1- About things: Che cos’è …?

Cosa (“thing”) is the most indeterminate and comprehensive word in the Italian language. With the word cosa, you can indicate anything that exists, whether in an abstract sense or in reality. It’s also the interrogative pronoun we use to ask about things when we want to know what they are, what they do, etc.

Cosa? Dove? Quando? Too many questions!!!

It’s interesting to notice how there are different ways to say “what” in Italian:

• Che
• Cosa
• Che cosa

These pronouns are always followed by a verb, either essere (if you’re asking what things are), or any other verb (if you’re asking about any other thing).

• Che fai stasera?
• Cosa fai stasera?
• Che cosa fai stasera?

What’s the difference between the above sentences? None whatsoever. They all mean: “What do you do tonight?” Similarly, the following sentences all mean: “What is an interrogative pronoun?” (By the way, if you want to know more about interrogative pronouns in Italian, you can review all about pronouns on ItalianPod101.)

• Che è un pronome interrogativo?
• Cos’è un pronome interrogativo?
• Che cos’è un pronome interrogativo?

Did you see what happened with cos’è (in cos’è successo)? When you have cosa + è, the final “a” is dropped, and you add an apostrophe (‘) to indicate that there was an elision. This is quite common in Italian, and we’ll see more examples of this in the next chapter.

2- Asking about a location: Dov’è …?

It might be true that all roads lead to Rome, but when you’re in Rome and you need directions to get around, what do you do? For that, you simply use the adverb dove (“where”). Remember what happened with cosa + è = cos’è (elision). The exact same phenomenon happens here: dove + è = dov’è.

• Dov’è il bagno? (“Where is the bathroom?”)
• Dove si prende l’autobus? (“Where do we take the bus?”)
• Dove va questo treno? (“Where does this train go?”)

All the roads lead to Rome, but you can still get lost…

Another common way to ask where things are is by using the verb trovarsi. It’s a reflexive verb meaning “to find oneself” / “to happen to be” / “to be situated.”

• Dove si trova il bagno? (“Where is the bathroom?”)
• Dove mi trovo? (“Where am I?”)

And finally, you can hear Italians use the verb stare (literally “stay”) to indicate where things are (especially within Rome):

• Dove stanno i miei calzini? (“Where are my socks?”)
• Stanno nel primo cassetto, come sempre! (“They are in the first drawer, as always!”)

3- Asking about time: Quand’è?

Tell me Quando Quando Quando…

This old Italian standard from the ‘60s is the perfect soundtrack to introduce the final basic Italian sentence pattern: Asking about time. Quando (“when”) is used pretty much the same way as the other interrogative words, including the trick quando + è = quand’è.

• Quand’è il tuo compleanno? (“When is your birthday?”)
• Quando arriva il treno? (“When does the train get in?”)
• Quando cominciano le vacanze di Natale? (“When does the Christmas vacation start?”)

Obviously, you use quando if you mean to ask a general question about time, but you can change the formula if you want to be more specific:

• In che anno sei nato? (“What year were you born?”)
• A che ora arriva il treno? (“What time does the train get in?”)
• Che giorno cominciano le vacanze di Natale? (“What day do the Christmas vacations start?”)

8. Conclusion

Do you think you know enough about the most useful Italian sentence structures now? Do you feel confident about diving into a conversation in Italian, using basic sentences, questions, and polite requests? What about discussing your likes and desires?

Let us know if there’s any other topic or sentence pattern that you would like to learn more about. And make sure to explore our site, ItalianPod101.com, to take advantage of our free resources, vocabulary lists, and mobile apps to practice whenever and wherever you want.
Remember that you can also use our premium service, MyTeacher, to learn Italian with your own teacher. You’ll also continue to study at your own pace with fast, fun, and easy Italian lessons, including 220+ hours of audio/video courses, study tools, and more!

Verbs are everywhere! Whatever you’re trying to say or write in Italian, you’re going to need to use a verb and a subject. And guess what? Right there, you already need to conjugate the verb to use it correctly. 

• Vado al cinema. Vieni con me? Cosa dici? 
  “I go to the movies. Will you come with me? What do you say?”

For example, in this simple sentence, you’ll have to know the conjugations of the verbs andare (“to go”), venire (“to come”), and dire (“to say”).

Italian verb conjugation might seem tough at first, but with a few tips (and ItalianPod101’s resources), you’ll learn how to conjugate Italian verbs and become a real pro!

Table of Contents

1. What Does Conjugation Mean?
2. Verb Groups
3. Conjugation Examples
4. Irregular Verbs and Their Conjugations
5. Quiz
6. Tips to Improve and Practice Your Italian Conjugations

1. What Does Conjugation Mean?

What is a conjugation and what do you need it for? A conjugation is a basic process—common to most languages—by which you change the verb ending in order to indicate who is doing the action (me, you, he/she, we, you, they), with what intention (realistic, wish, opinion, order, etc.), and when (present, past, future, etc.).

Who? When? What intention? Ask questions to start conjugating.

Also, in Italian verb conjugation, you may have to:

• Conjugate auxiliary verbs (avere/essere = “to have”/”to be”) 
• Conjugate modal verbs (verbi servili: potere, dovere, volere, ecc. = “can, must, want, etc.”) 
• Add a participio passato (“past participle”) 
• Watch out for Italian irregular verbs and irregular verb forms (dire, fare, andare, stare, venire, perdere, chiudere, and a few more…)

Let’s look at this in more detail:

1- Who?

1st person singular	Io	“I”
2nd person singular	tu / Lei*	“you” (casual) / “you” (formal)
3rd person singular	lui / lei	“he” / “she”
1st person plural	noi	“we”
2nd person plural	voi	“we”
3rd person plural	loro	“they”

*It’s important to remember that the polite form of address is in the third person singular feminine. So, for example, the phrase “What do you eat?” can be:

• Tu cosa mangi? (informal)
• Lei cosa mangia? (formal)

It can be a little confusing at the beginning, but since the formal way of address is extremely common in Italian, it’s a good idea to practice using it from the very beginning.

Remember that the person who is doing the action is very important because, in Italian verb conjugation, every person of the verb has a different ending. But we’ll see that in a little bit.

2- With what intention?

In every sentence, you can ask “What is the intention of this action?” This intention is called il modo (“the mood”), and it reflects whether the intention is realistic, possible, or uncertain, or if it’s a wish, an opinion, or an order. 

Let’s look at this Italian conjugation table and study the moods to determine what they mean.

Indicativo (“Indicative”)	Mangio una pizza. (“I eat a pizza.”)	Used to express a real and certain fact. This is, by far, the most common mood in Italian.
Conjuntivo (“Subjunctive”)	Credo che sia meglio. (“I think it is better.”)	Used to express an opinion, a possibility, a desire, or something uncertain. It’s usually supported by certain verbs and conjunctions.
Condizionale (“Conditional”)	Vorrei andare. (“I would like to go.”)	Used to express a probability or a hypothesis. Usually, one fact depends on another.
Imperativo (“Imperative”)	Fai i compiti! (“Do your homework!”)	Used to give an order.
The examples above are called modi finiti (“finite moods”) because they define the action in a precise way, and they’re conjugated according to the person and the time. The following ones, on the other hand, are modi indefiniti (“indefinite moods”) as they don’t have a specific subject. They usually depend on other verbs, and—very good news—they don’t change!
Infinito (“Infinitive”)	Mangiare (“To eat”)	It’s an undetermined action, used as the basic form of the verb.
Gerundio (“Gerund”)	Sto dormendo. (“I am sleeping.”)	Often used in combination with stare, it can have many intentions.
Participio (“Participle”)	Serata danzante (“Dancing night”)	A word formed from a verb and used as an adjective.

3- When?

Every action takes place in a specific time, called tempo (literally “time,” or “tense” in the context of a conjugation). The Italian tenses are presente, passato, and futuro, and they can be tempi semplici (“simple tenses”) when they’re made of just one word, or tempi composti (“compound tenses”) when they’re formed by the auxiliary (essere/avere) and the past participle.

Io amo, tu ami… (“I love, you love…”) The best conjugation of all!

Let’s look at the full Italian conjugations chart of all possible moods and tenses with the best Italian verb: amare (“to love”).

MODI		TEMPI SEMPLICI	TEMPI COMPOSTI
Finiti	Indicativo	Presente | Amo	Passato prossimo | Ho amato
		Imperfetto | Amavo	Trapassato prossimo | Avevo amato
		Passato remoto | Amai	Trapassato remoto | Ebbi amato
		Futuro semplice | Amerò	Futuro anteriore | Avrò amato
	Congiuntivo	Presente | Che io ami	Passato | Che io abbia amato
		Imperfetto | Che io amassi	Trapassato | Che io avessi amato
	Condizionale	Presente | Amerei	Passato | Avrei amato
	Imperativo	Presente | Ama!
Indefiniti	Gerundio	Presente | Amando	Passato | Avendo amato
	Participio	Presente | Amante
		Passato | Amato
	Infinito	Presente | Amare

It’s true that there are quite a lot of tenses! But keep in mind that the Italian conjugations you’ll really have to master are the ones that are in bold, as they are by far the most common. They’re also the most practical ones for meaningful communication up to an intermediate Italian level. That sounds better, doesn’t it?

2. Verb Groups

In the Italian conjugation of verbs, there are three basic groups, divided according to the verb ending in the infinitive:

• 1st with the infinitive in -ARE
• 2nd with the infinitive in -ERE (verbs ending in -arre, -orre, and -urre belong to this group)
• 3rd with the infinitive in -IRE (verbs that add a -isc suffix belong to this group)

Regular Italian verbs are simple to conjugate because they all follow the same pattern, as you can see in the following chart:

	Io (“I”)	tu (“you”)	lui/lei (“s/he”)	noi  (“we”)	voi (“you”)	loro (“they”)
AMARE (“to love”)	Amo	Ami	Ama	Amiàmo	Amàte	Àmano
CREDERE (“to believe”)	Credo	Credi	Crede	Crediàmo	Credète	Crèdono
DORMIRE (“to sleep”)	Dormo	Dormi	Dorme	Dormiàmo	Dormìte	Dòrmono*

*Notice how the position of the stress changes syllable. Try and read the three basic present conjugations, just to familiarize yourself with the rhythm of it.

As you can see, there are no major changes from one group to the other. But things do get a bit more complicated with Italian irregular verb conjugations, which involve some of the most common verbs.

3. Conjugation Examples

Now that you know that Italian conjugations are divided into three groups, let’s see in greater detail how each group behaves according to the person (who), the tense (when), and the mood (with what intention).

1- Verbs in -ARE

AMARE (“To love”) 

	Indicative				Subjunctive	Conditional	Imperative
	Present	Absolute Past*	Imperfect	Future	Present	Present	Present
io	amo	amai	amavo	amerò	ami	amerei	–
tu	ami	amasti	amavi	amerai	ami	ameresti	ama
lui/lei	ama	amò	amava	amerà	ami	amerebbe	–
noi	amiamo	amammo	amavamo	ameremo	amiamo	ameremmo	amiamo
voi	amate	amaste	amavate	amerete	amiate	amereste	amate
loro	amano	amarono	amavano	ameranno	amino	amerebbero	–

PARLARE (“To talk”)

	Indicative				Subjunctive	Conditional	Imperative
	Present	Absolute Past*	Imperfect	Future	Present	Present	Present
io	parlo	parlai	parlavo	parlerò	parli	parlerei	–
tu	parli	parlasti	parlavi	parlerai	parli	parleresti	parla
lui/lei	parla	parlò	parlava	parlerà	parli	parlerebbe	–
noi	parliamo	parlammo	parlavamo	parleremo	parliamo	parleremmo	parliamo
voi	parlate	parlaste	parlavate	parlerete	parliate	parlereste	parlate
loro	parlate	parlarono	parlavano	parleranno	parlino	parlerebbero	–

GIOCARE (“To play”)

	Indicative				Subjunctive	Conditional	Imperative
	Present	Absolute Past*	Imperfect	Future	Present	Present	Present
io	gioco	giocai	giocavo	giocherò*	giochi*	giocherei*	–
tu	giochi*	giocasti	giocavi	giocherai*	giochi*	giocheresti*	gioca
lui/lei	gioca	giocò	giocava	giocherà*	giochi*	giocherebbe*	–
noi	giochiamo*	giocammo	giocavamo	giocheremo*	giochiamo*	giocheremmo*	giochiamo*
voi	giocate	giocaste	giocavate	giocherete*	giochiate*	giochereste*	giocate
loro	giocano	giocarono	giocavano	giochino*	giochino*	giocherebbero*	–

*Notice how, whenever the ending of the conjugation starts with i or e, the root adds an h in order to maintain the hard K sound of giocare. This will happen for all the verbs of the first group that end in -care or –gare. So, for verbs in -care or –gare:

C + I, E = CHI, CHE (in order to keep the hard K sound) G + I, E = GHI, GHE (in order to keep the hard G sound)

Let’s see some examples:

• Pagare (“to pay”)
  Paghi tu? (“Will you pay?”)

• Cercare (“to look for”)
  Cerchiamo un bar. (“We look for a bar.”)

• Giocare (“to play”)
  Giocheresti con me? (“Would you play with me?”)

• Litigare (“to fight”)
  Non litighiamo! (“Let’s not fight!”)

• Mancare (“to miss”)
  Mi manchi tanto! (“I miss you so much!”)

• Sporcare (“to get dirty”)
  Ti sporchi sempre… (“You always get dirty…”)

• Sprecare (“to waste”)
  Perché sprechi la carta? (“Why do you waste paper?”)

• Navigare (“to sail”)
  Navigheremo per tre notti. (“We will sail for three nights.”)

Wait… Didn’t we tell you earlier that the only verbs you really needed to master were presente, passato prossimo, imperfetto, futuro, condizionale, and imperativo (“present, present perfect, imperfect, future, conditional, and imperative”)? 

You’re absolutely right! As a matter of fact, the absolute past (passato remoto) is mostly used in literary writing and very formal speech about things that happened a very long time ago. So you definitely don’t have to worry about it too much. Just be aware of it, just in case you encounter it while reading a story.

Do you know where you might actually hear passato remoto a lot? In the south of Italy, in Sicily for example, because southern dialects have no passato prossimo in their grammar. For this reason, people have historically tended to use this tense more often than other Italians. 

Andai in Sicilia. (“I went to Sicily.”) Sicilians use passato remoto a lot!

On the other hand, the one that you’ll really be using all the time (in combination with the imperfect) is the present perfect (passato prossimo), which is formed by the auxiliary essere or avere (“to be” or “to have”) and the past participle. But we’ll see more about that in a little bit. For now, just take a look at what it’s like.

Passato Prossimo – AMARE
io	ho amato
tu	hai amato
lui/ lei	ha amato
noi	abbiamo amato
voi	avete amato
loro	hanno amato

2- Verbs in -ERE

CREDERE (“To believe”)

	Indicative				Subjunctive	Subjunctive	Imperative
	Present	Absolute Past*	Imperfect	Future	Present	Present	Present
io	credo	credetti	credevo	crederò	creda	crederei	–
tu	credi	credesti	credevi	crederai	creda	crederesti	credi
lui/lei	crede	credette	credeva	crederà	creda	crederebbe	–
noi	crediamo	credemmo	credevamo	crederemo	crediamo	crederemmo	crediamo
voi	credete	credeste	credevate	crederete	crediate	credereste	credete
loro	credono	crederono	credevano	crederanno	credano	crederebbero	–

PRENDERE (“To take”)

	Indicative				Subjunctive	Conditional	Imperative
	Present	Absolute Past	Imperfect	Future	Present	Present	Present
io	prendo	presi*	prendevo	prenderò	prenda	prenderei	–
tu	prendi	prendesti	prendevi	prenderai	prenda	prenderesti	prendi
lui/lei	prende	prese*	prendeva	prenderà	prenda	prenderebbe	–
noi	prendiamo	prendemmo	prendevamo	prenderemo	prendiamo	prenderemmo	prendiamo
voi	prendete	prendeste	prendevate	prenderete	prendiate	prendereste	prendete
loro	prendono	presero*	prendevano	prenderanno	prendano	prenderebbero	–

*Just to complicate things a bit further, most verbs of the second group in -ERE have an irregular passato remoto (“absolute past”), in which the io, lui/lei, loro (“I,” “s/he,” “they”) forms can change considerably from the root. But again, this tense is rarely used in spoken Italian, so you’ll just need to recognize them in case you encounter them while reading. 

LEGGERE (“To read”)

	Indicative				Subjunctive	Conditional	Imperative
	Present	Absolute Past	Imperfect	Future	Present	Present	Present
io	leggo**	lessi*	leggevo	leggerò	legga	leggerei	–
tu	leggi	leggesti	leggevi	leggerai	legga	leggeresti	leggi
lui/lei	legge	lesse*	leggeva	leggerà	legga	leggerebbe	–
noi	leggiamo	leggemmo	leggevamo	leggeremo	leggiamo	leggeremmo	leggiamo
voi	leggete	leggeste	leggevate	leggerete	leggiate	leggereste	leggete
loro	leggono**	lessero*	leggevano	leggeranno	leggano	leggerebbero	–

*See the note above.

**Contrary to what happens to the -care / -gare verbs in the first group (they add an h to keep the hard sound in front of e or i), in the second conjugation, verbs in -cere and -gere change sound from soft to hard in front of the ending -o (io and loro – “I” and “them”). 

Che piacere leggere! (“What a pleasure to read!”)

IO LEGGO [leggo – hard G] as in “gospel” TU LEGGI [ledʒi – soft g] as in “giant”

Other common verbs that have the same behavior are:

• Vincere (“to win”)
  Vinco sempre! (“I always win!”)

• Conoscere (“to know”)
  Non ti conosco. (“I don’t know you.”)

• Crescere (“to grow”)
  Come crescono questi bambini…! (“How do these kids grow…!”)

• Nascere (“to be born”)
  In Italia nascono 50 bambini all’ora. (“In Italy, 50 babies are born every hour.”)

• Correggere (“to correct”)
  Correggo i tuoi errori. (“I correct your mistakes.”)

• Friggere (“to fry”)
  Friggo le patate. (“I fry potatoes.”)

• Leggere (“to read”)
  I ragazzi leggono Pinocchio. (“Kids read Pinocchio.”)

• Aggiungere (“to add”)
  Aggiungono sempre troppo sale! (“They always add too much salt!”)

• Piangere (“to cry”)
  Quando sono triste piango. (“When I’m sad, I cry.”)

3- Verbs in -IRE

DORMIRE (“To sleep”)

	Indicative				Subjunctive	Conditional	Imperative
	Present	Absolute Past	Imperfect	Future	Present	Present	Present
io	dormo	dormii	dormivo	dormirò	dorma	dormirei	–
tu	dormi	dormisti	dormivi	dormirai	dorma	dormiresti	dormi
lui/lei	dorme	dormì	dormiva	dormirà	dorma	dormirebbe	–
noi	dormiamo	dormimmo	dormivamo	dormiremo	dormiamo	dormiremmo	dormiamo
voi	dormite	dormiste	dormivate	dormirete	dormiate	dormireste	dormite
loro	dormono	dormirono	dormivano	dormiranno	dormano	dormirebbero	–

SENTIRE (“To hear” / “To feel”)

	Indicative				Subjunctive	Conditional	Imperative
	Present	Absolute Past	Imperfect	Future	Present	Present	Present
io	sento	sentii	sentivo	sentirò	senta	sentirei	–
tu	senti	sentisti	sentivi	sentirai	senta	sentiresti	senti
lui/lei	sente	sentì	sentiva	sentirà	senta	sentirebbe	–
noi	sentiamo	sentimmo	sentivamo	sentiremo	sentiamo	sentiremmo	sentiamo
voi	sentite	sentiste	sentivate	sentirete	sentiate	sentireste	sentireste
loro	sentono	sentirono	sentivano	sentiranno	sentano	sentirebbero	–

CAPIRE (“To understand”)

	Indicative				Subjunctive	Conditional	Imperative
	Present	Absolute Past	Imperfect	Future	Present	Present	Present
io	capisco*	capii	capivo	capirò	capisca	capirei	–
tu	capisci**	capisti	capivi	capirai	capisca	capiresti	capisci
lui/lei	capisce	capì	capiva	capirà	capisca	capirebbe	–
noi	capiamo	capimmo	capivamo	capiremo	capiamo	capiremmo	capiamo
voi	capite	capiste	capivate	capirete	capiate	capireste	capireste
loro	capiscono	capirono	capivano	capiranno	capscano	capirebbero	–

*Did you notice something different about this conjugation? You’re absolutely right! Quite a few Italian verbs of the third group add an -isc suffix to the conjugation in the present, subjunctive, and imperative in the first singular (io, “I”),  second singular (tu, “you”), third singular (lui/lei, “s/he”), and third plural (loro, “they”).  

**Similarly to what happens to the verbs in the -cere and -gere that we just saw above, verbs that add the -isc suffix change sound from soft to hard in front of the endings -o and -a (io and loro – “I” and “them”).

IO CAPISCO [kapisko – hard K] as in “color” TU CAPISCI [kapishi – soft sh] as in “sheep”

Other common verbs that have the same behavior are:

• Capire (“to understand”)
  Capisco [capisko] / Capisci [capishi] tutto. (“I/you understand everything.”)

• Costruire (“to build”)
  Costruisco [kostruisko] / Costruisci [costruishi] una casa. (“I/you build a house.”)

• Finire (“to finish”)
    Finisco [finisko] / Finisci [finishi] subito! (“I/you finish right away!”)
  

• Preferire (“to prefer”)
  Preferisco [preferisko] / Preferisci [preferishi] l’acqua. (“I/you prefer water.”)
  
  Now it’s your turn to try! Change the subject from io (“I”) to tu or lui/lei (“you” or “s/he”) and practice with the hard/soft pronunciation.

• Proibire (“to forbid”)
  Io ti proibisco di andare! (“I forbid you to go!”) >> Lei ti ……………… di andare! (“He forbids you to go!”)

• Pulire (“to clean”)
  Io pulisco la mia stanza. (“I clean my room.”) >> Tu …………….. la mia stanza. (“He cleans my room.”)

• Punire (“to punish”)
  Non punisco gli sbagli. (“I don’t punish mistakes.”) >> Lui non ………… gli sbagli. (“He doesn’t punish mistakes.”)

• Restiture (“to give back”)
  Io restituisco il libro. (“I give back the book.”)  >> Tu …………….. il libro. (“You give back the book.”)

• Trasferire (“to transfer” / “to move”)
  Io mi trasferisco a Roma. (“I move to Rome.”) >> Tu ti …………….. a Roma. (“You move to Rome.”)

4. Irregular Verbs and Their Conjugations

As it often happens, some of the most common verbs are irregular and, although they continue to follow a pattern to a certain point, they can differ quite a lot from what you expect. 

Let’s start with the most important Italian irregular conjugations: essere (“to be”) and avere (“to have”). 

ESSERE (“To be”) 

	Indicative				Subjunctive	Conditional	Imperative
	Present	Absolute Past	Imperfect	Future	Present	Present	Present
io	sono	fui	ero	sarò	sia	sarei	–
tu	sei	foste	eri	sarai	sia	saresti	sii
lui/lei	è*	fu	era	sarà	sia	sarebbe	–
noi	siamo	fummo	eravamo	saremo	siamo	saremmo	siamo
voi	siete	foste	eravate	sarete	siate	sareste	siate
loro	sono	furono	erano	saranno	siano	sarebbero	–

*The third person singular lui/lei è (“s/he is”) requires the grave accent to distinguish it from the conjunction e (“and”). Even if it might seem like a small detail, it’s considered a big mistake, so double your attention!

AVERE  (“To have”)

	Indicative				Subjunctive	Conditional	Imperative
	Present	Absolute Past	Imperfect	Future	Present	Present	Present
io	ho*	ebbi	avevo	avrò	abbia	avrei	–
tu	hai*	aveste	avevi	avrai	abbia	avresti	abbi
lui/lei	ha*	ebbe	aveva	avrà	abbia	avrebbe	–
noi	abbiamo	avemmo	avevamo	avremo	abbiamo	avremmo	abbiamo
voi	avete	aveste	avevate	avrete	abbiate	avreste	abbiate
loro	hanno*	ebbero	avevano	avranno	abbiano	avrebbero	–

*In Italian, you’ll never find the H at the beginning of a word, except for in foreign words such as “hotel” and the avere conjugation. For some reason, only the first singular (io, “I”), second singular (tu, “you”), third singular (lui/lei, “s/he”), and third plural (loro, “they”) in the present keep the H from the Latin conjugation habere. However, nothing changes in the pronunciation.

1- AVERE & ESSERE as auxiliaries with passato prossimo (“present perfect”)

Remember how we told you that the absolute past isn’t really used in colloquial Italian, and you would more often use the passato prossimo? Passato prossimo is formed with an auxiliary avere/essere and the past participle, which is formed as follows:

• Verbs in -are >> -ato
  Ex: Parlare >> ho parlato  / Andare >> sono andato

• Verbs in -ere >> -uto
  Ex: conoscere >> conosciuto

• Verbs in -ire >> -ito
  Ex: dormire >> dormito

• Essere >> stato 
• Avere >> avuto

But how do you know which auxiliary to use? Here’s how it works. 

Transitive verbs (verbs that can have a direct object) form the passato prossimo with the auxiliary AVERE:

• Amare Ho amato mio marito. (“I loved my husband.”)
• Vendere Ho venduto la mia macchina. (“I sold my car.”)
• Capire Ho capito quello che hai detto. (“I understood what you said.”)

Intransitive verbs (verbs that can’t have a direct object, and that usually indicate state, movement, change, etc.) form the passato prossimo with the auxiliary ESSERE:

• Andare Sono andato al cinema. (“I went to the movies.”)
• Venire Sono venuto con te. (“I came with you.”)
• Uscire Sono uscito. (“I went out.”)

Other intransitive verbs that need the essere auxiliary are: salire, restare, tornare, ritornare, scendere, arrivare, cadere, entrare, and more.

Irregular verbs in Italian are quite frequent and common. Here’s a basic list with their conjugations in the present indicative, from which you can deduct the rest of the patterns.

	DIRE	DARE	FARE	ANDARE	VENIRE	VOLERE	SAPERE	POTERE	USCIRE
io	dico	do	faccio	vado	vengo	voglio	so	posso	esco
tu	dici	dai	fai	vai	vieni	vuoi	sai	puoi	esci
lui/lei	dice	da	fa	va	viene	vuole	sa	può	esce
noi	diciamo	diamo	facciamo	andiamo	veniamo	vogliamo	sappiamo	possiamo	usciamo
voi	dite	date	fate	andate	venite	volete	sapete	potete	uscite
loro	dicono	danno	fanno	vanno	vanno	vogliono	sanno	possono	escono

Do you think that these are enough? No way! There are many more irregular verbs in Italian you can have fun with.

5. Quiz

Do you think that you know enough about Italian conjugations? Let’s do a quick test.

Fill in the blanks with the correct verb, paying attention to the subject and the tense:

Quiz time!

1. Gli Italiani (amare) _______________ il caffè molto forte.
   (“Italians love very strong coffee.”)
   
2. Domani tu (andare) ______________ al cinema con i tuoi amici?
   (“Tomorrow, will you go to the movies with your friends?”)
   
3. Quando noi (essere) __________ piccoli, (credere) ___________ a Babbo Natale!
   (“When we were kids, we believed in Santa Claus!”)
   
4. Io (volere) _____________ un gelato al limone, per favore.
   (“I would like a lemon ice cream, please.”)
   
5. Un anno fa Laura (finire)  ______________ la scuola.
   (“A year ago, Laura finished school.”)

Let’s check the answers together:

1) Amano: This is the third person plural of the present.

2) Andrai: This is the second person singular of the future, since domani tells us that the action takes place in the future.

3) Eravamo, Credevamo: These are both first person plural of the imperfect, which is the tense we use for describing a generic time, not a specific moment.

4) Vorrei: Here, we use the first person singular of the conditional, since we’re expressing a wish or a polite request.

5) Ha finito: In this case, the past tense that we need is the passato prossimo, since it’s an action that occurred at a specific time.

Did you get them all correct?

6. Tips to Improve and Practice Your Italian Conjugations

Italian conjugations can seem like a lot to take in, but there are tricks and strategies that you can use to help you learn and remember them.

For example, you can try to memorize each verb as a chant (amo, ami, ama, amiamo, amate, amano…). This way, you’ll memorize the patterns and they’ll stick forever. Repetition always helps, so do as many exercises as you can. Reading, listening to music, and watching videos is also extremely useful in getting familiar with different kinds of verbs in context. 

And the final tip: Make sure that you take advantage of all the free resources available on ItalianPod101.com! You’ll even find mobile apps, lessons, and a guided learning system with your own teacher!

Verbs are concepts in motion and are a fundamental part of every language. But how many Italian language verbs should you learn to speak the language properly? Here at ItalianPod101, we believe that with the following 100+ Italian verbs, you’ll be able to face most circumstances with ease. And don’t be scared—with our examples and definitions, you’ll be able to master this Italian verbs list quickly. It’s Italian verbs made easy with ItalianPod101! 

But first, let’s take a look at Italian verb conjugation.

Table of Contents

1. Italian Regular Verbs
2. Italian Irregular Verbs
3. Reflexive Verbs in Italian
4. Italian Verb Types & Their Meanings
5. Italian Verb Placement in a Sentence
6. ItalianPod101: A Great Source for Your Italian Learning!

1. Italian Regular Verbs

There are three groups of Italian regular verbs, and their conjugation makes students happy. Indeed, they’re easy to learn and always the same. 

The three regular verb groups are: 

• Verbs in -are
• Verbs in -ere
• Verbs in -ire

1- Verbs in -are

Here’s a chart with the -are Italian verb conjugation, and an example of how it works with the verb portare, meaning “to bring.”

1st sg (I)	2nd sg (you)	3rd sg (she)	1st pl (we)	2nd pl (you)	3rd pl (they)
Stem + o	Stem + i	Stem + a	Stem + iamo	Stem + ate	Stem + ano
Io porto	Tu porti	Egli porta	Noi portiamo	Voi portate	Essi portano

Some examples of Italian verbs in -are are: 

1.

Amare “to love”

Amo moltissimo viaggiare. “I love traveling very much.”

2.

Pensare “to think”

Io lavoro e penso a te. “I work and I think about you.”

3.

Cominciare “to start”

Oggi cominciamo un corso di italiano. “Today, we start an Italian course.”

4.

Incontrare “to meet”

Il Presidente incontra il suo staff nello Studio Ovale. “The President meets his staff in the Oval Office.”

2- Verbs in -ere

And now let’s see the conjugation of -ere verbs. We’ll use temere, meaning “to fear,” as an example.

1st sg (I)	2nd sg (you)	3rd sg (she)	1st pl (we)	2nd pl (you)	3rd pl (they)
Stem + o	Stem + i	Stem + e	Stem + iamo	Stem + ete	Stem + ono
Io temo	Tu temi	Egli teme	Noi temiamo	Voi temete	Essi temono

Some examples are: 

5.

Leggere “to read”

Al mattino leggo il giornale. “In the morning, I read the newspaper.”

6.

Mettere “to put,” “to wear”

Marco mette sempre lo stesso cappello. “Marco always wears the same hat.”

7.

Ridere “to laugh”

Valeria ride sempre, è una ragazza davvero allegra. “Valeria always laughs; she really is a joyful girl.”

8.

Prendere “to take,” “to get”

Di solito prendono il caffè in questo bar. “They usually get their coffee in this cafe.”

3- Verbs in -ire

The -ire verbs in Italian have two conjugations:

• Verbs in -ire (simple)

This is the simplest conjugation. Here, we use the verb partire, meaning “to leave,” as an example.

1st sg (I)	1st sg (I)	3rd sg (she)	1st pl (we)	1st pl (we)	3rd pl (they)
Stem + o	Stem + i	Stem + e	Stem + iamo	Stem + ite	Stem + ono
Io parto	Tu parti	Egli parte	Noi partiamo	Voi partite	Essi partono

Other examples are:

9.

Aprire “to open”

Il negozio apre dalle ore 10 alle ore 18. “The shop is open from 10 to 18.”

10.

Sentire “to hear,” “to feel”

Sento freddo, puoi chiudere la finestra per favore? “I feel cold, can you please close the window?”

• Verbs in -ire (with -isc-)

This is a slightly more complex conjugation. We’ll use the verb colpire, meaning “to hit,” as an example.

1st sg (I)	2nd sg (you)	3rd sg (she)	1st pl (we)	2nd pl (you)	3rd pl (they)
Stem + isco	Stem + isci	Stem + isce	Stem + iamo	Stem + ite	Stem + iscono
Io colpisco	Tu colpisci	Egli colpisce	Noi colpiamo	Voi colpite	Essi colpiscono

Examples: 

11.

Capire “to understand”

Kate capisce benissimo l’italiano. “Kate understands Italian very well.”

12. 

Pulire “to clean”

Mia zia pulisce la casa ogni giorno. “My aunt cleans the house every day.”

2. Italian Irregular Verbs

Unfortunately, many very important Italian verbs are irregular, and this means that you have to learn their conjugation one by one. But don’t worry, with our help you’ll master them like it was the most natural thing in the world. 

By far, the most important Italian irregular verbs are essere (“to be”) and avere (“to have”), which also work as Italian auxiliary verbs. 

13. 

Essere “to be”

Lorenzo è un bravissimo cuoco. “Lorenzo is a great chef.”

14. 

Avere “to have”

Luca e Antonia hanno una casa stupenda in Toscana. “Luca and Antonia have a wonderful house in Tuscany.”

Other important examples of irregular verbs are: 

15. 

Andare “to go”

In Italia i bambini vanno a scuola dalle 8 alle 13. “In Italy, children go to school from 8 to 13.”

16. 

Venire “to come”

Se non è un problema, vengo con voi. “If it’s not a problem, I’ll come with you.”

17.

Potere “can,” “may”

Posso raggiungervi più tardi? “May I join you later?”

18.

Dovere “to have to”

Devi parlare con tua madre. “You have to talk to your mother.”

3. Reflexive Verbs in Italian

Reflexive verbs in Italian are very common and can sometimes be hard to understand for students. This is because some of them don’t actually have a real reflexive meaning. In sentences, even those verbs that have an identical subject and object are more like expressions in Italian than actual reflexive verbs as they’re thought of in English.

An example is the verb svegliarsi, which literally means “to wake yourself up.” But it really just means “to wake up.”

Some of the most important reflexive verbs are:

19.

Divertirsi “to have fun”

Mi sono divertito molto questa sera. “I really had fun tonight.”

20.

Lavarsi “to wash up”

Ti sei lavato i denti? “Did you brush your teeth?” (literally, “Did you wash your teeth?”)

21.

Alzarsi “to stand up”

Quando l’insegnante entra in classe, dovete alzarvi. “When the teacher comes in the classroom, you have to stand up.”

22.

Addormentarsi “to fall asleep”

Ieri mi sono addormentata sul divano. “Yesterday, I fell asleep on the couch.”

4. Italian Verb Types & Their Meanings

Following are a few lists of the best Italian verbs to know as a beginner in the language. Beginning with Italian action verbs, we’ll go through a variety of verb types that we’ve categorized for your convenience. Let’s get started! 

Italian Action Verbs

23.

Arrivare “to arrive”

I miei cugini sono arrivati ieri sera. “My cousins arrived yesterday evening.”

24.

Stare “to stay”

A Parigi starò a casa di un’amica. “In Paris, I’ll stay at a friend’s house.”

25.

Fermarsi “to stop”

Fermati qui, c’è un buon ristorante. “Stop here, there’s a good restaurant.”

26.

Camminare “to walk”

Amo camminare sulla spiaggia. “I love walking on the beach.”

27.

Cercare “to search,” “to look for”

Scusi, cerco un bancomat. Sa dove posso trovarlo? “Excuse me, I’m looking for an ATM. Do you know where I can find it?”

28.

Trovare “to find”

Ho trovato un buon amico. “I’ve found a good friend.”

29.

Spostare “to move”

Per favore, aiutami a spostare il tavolo. “Please, help me to move the table.”

30.

Tirare “to pull”

Tira per aprire. “Pull to open.”

31.

Spingere “to push”

Sto scendendo, non serve spingere! “I’m getting off, there’s no need to push!”

32.

Correre “to run”

Mia sorella corre ogni mattina per 10 chilometri. “My sister runs for ten kilometers every morning.”

33.

Viaggiare “to travel”

Viaggio almeno due volte all’anno. “I travel at least twice a year.”

34.

Rimanere “to remain,” “to stay”

Vorrei rimanere di più, ma non posso. “I’d like to stay longer, but I can’t.”

35.

Tenere “to keep,” “to hold”

Tienimi la mano. “Hold my hand.”

36.

Trasportare “to transport,” “to carry”

Questo camion trasporta frutta. “This truck transports fruit.”

Mental Verbs

37.

Volere “to want”

Sono stanca, voglio andare a dormire. “I’m tired, I want to go to bed.”

38.

Sapere “to know”

So chi è stato. “I know who did it.”

39.

Credere “to believe”

Credo che tu abbia ragione. “I believe you’re right.”

40.

Sperare “to hope”

Spero che l’esame vada bene. “I hope the test will go well.”

41.

Piacere “to like”

Il caffè italiano mi piace molto. “I like Italian coffee very much.”

42.

Dispiacere “to be sorry”

Mi dispiace che tu non ti sia divertito. “I’m sorry that you didn’t have fun.”

43.

Ricordare “to remember,” “to remind”

Questa canzone mi ricorda la mia infanzia. “This song reminds me of my childhood.”

44.

Dimenticare “to forget”

Ho dimenticato le chiavi. “I forgot the keys.”

45.

Imparare “to learn”

Sto imparando l’italiano. “I’m learning Italian.”

46.

Sognare “to dream”

Sogno di visitare Venezia. “I dream of visiting Venice.”

47.

Desiderare “to wish”

Desidero rivederti. “I wish to see you again.”

48.

Odiare “to hate”

Mia figlia odia il cavolfiore. “My daughter hates cauliflower.”

Verbs of Change

The world is full of change and nothing is to be taken for granted. Here are some useful Italian verbs to learn to talk about change!

49.

Cambiare “to change”

Il paesaggio è davvero cambiato. “The landscape has really changed.”

50.

Diventare “to become”

Crescendo, sono diventata più indipendente. “Growing up, I’ve become more independent.”

51.

Migliorare “to improve”

Il mio italiano è migliorato nell’ultimo anno. “My Italian has improved over the last year.”

52.

Peggiorare “to worsen”

Il tempo è peggiorato rapidamente. “The weather has quickly worsened.”

53.

Aumentare “to increase”

Il mio stipendio è aumentato di 100 euro. “My salary has increased by 100 euro.”

54.

Diminuire “to decrease,” “to reduce”

Bisogna diminuire le spese. “We have to reduce our expenses.”

Verbs for the Workplace

Here are some Italian verbs you must know to talk about work and different types of jobs.

55.

Lavorare “to work”

Matteo lavora 10 ore al giorno. “Matteo works ten hours a day.”

56.

Fare “to make,” “to do”

Faccio spesso degli errori di ortografia. “I often make spelling mistakes.”

57.

Finire “to end,” “to finish”

Ho finito il nuovo libro di Elena Ferrante. “I’ve finished Elena Ferrante’s new novel.”

58.

Iniziare “to start,” “to begin”

Hai iniziato a fare i compiti? “Did you start doing your homework?”

59.

Costruire “to build”

Mio nonno ha costruito questa casa. “My grandfather built this house.”

60.

Creare “to create”

Leonardo ha creato un capolavoro. “Leonardo created a masterpiece.”

61.

Cucinare “to cook”

Mio padre ha cucinato la pasta. “My father cooked pasta.”

62.

Mescolare “to mix”

Mescola il latte con le uova. “Mix the milk with the eggs.”

63.

Tagliare “to cut”

Per favore, taglia il pane. “Please, cut the bread.”

64.

Servire “to serve”

Servire a temperatura ambiente. “Serve at room temperature.”

65.

Guidare “to drive”

Non mi piace guidare molte ore. “I don’t like to drive for many hours.”

66.

Usare “to use”

Posso usare la tua auto? “Could I use your car?”

67.

Scrivere “to write”

Gli scriverò una lettera. “I’ll write him a letter.”

68.

Telefonare “to phone”

Domani telefonerò all’ufficio. “Tomorrow, I’ll phone the office.”

69.

Chiamare “to call”

Andrea ti chiamerà più tardi. “Andrea will call you later.”

70.

Chiedere “to ask,” “to request”

Marco ha chiesto a Valentina di sposarlo. “Marco asked Valentina to marry him.”

71.

Rispondere “to answer”

Ti prego di rispondere al più presto. “Please, answer as soon as possible.”

72.

Firmare “to sign”

Ho appena firmato il contratto. “I’ve just signed the contract.”

Sensory Verbs

73.

Guardare “to watch”

Sto guardando la tv. “I’m watching TV.”

74.

Vedere “to see”

È così buio che non vedo nulla. “It’s so dark that I can’t see anything.”

75.

Ascoltare “to listen”

Roberto ascolta solo la musica metal. “Roberto only listens to metal music.”

76.

Assaggiare “to taste”

Voglio assaggiare questo vino. “I want to taste this wine.”

77.

Profumare “to smell”

La tua macchina profuma di sapone. “Your car smells like soap.”

78.

Toccare “to touch”

Tocca questo tessuto: è morbidissimo. “Touch this fabric; it’s really soft.”

9- Other Italian Verbs for Beginners

79.

Parlare “to talk,” “to speak”

Io e mia sorella parliamo ogni giorno al telefono. “My sister and I talk everyday on the phone.”

80.

Dipingere “to paint”

Michelangelo ha dipinto la Cappella Sistina. “Michelangelo painted the Cappella Sistina.”

81.

Suonare “to play (an instrument)”

Maria sa suonare il piano. “Maria can play the piano.”

82.

Recitare “to play (like an actor)”

Al Pacino ha recitato ne Il Padrino. “Al Pacino played in The Godfather.”

83.

Mangiare “to eat”

Di solito a pranzo mangio un panino. “I usually eat a sandwich for lunch.”

84.

Bere “to drink”

Ti andrebbe di bere qualcosa con me? “Would you like to drink something with me?”

85.

Dormire “to sleep”

La domenica dormo sempre fino a tardi. “On Sundays, I always sleep until late.”

86.

Riposare “to rest”

In vacanza non ho riposato per niente. “On holiday, I couldn’t rest for a moment.”

87.

Vestirsi “to get dressed”

Vestiti, dobbiamo uscire. “Get dressed, we have to go out.”

88.

Nuotare “to swim”

Non so nuotare. “I can’t swim.”

89.

Sdraiarsi “to lie”

Mi sono sdraiato per terra. “I lay down on the ground.”

90.

Salire “to get on,” “to get up”

Sono salito sull’ultimo autobus. “I got on the last bus.”

91.

Scendere “to get off”

Scusi, devo scendere alla prossima fermata. “Excuse me, I have to get off at the next stop.”

92.

Sollevare “to lift”

Questa macchina solleva fino a una tonnellata di peso. “This machine lifts up to one ton of weight.”

93.

Passare “to pass”

Passami il sale, per favore. “Pass me the salt, please.”

94.

Inventare “to invent”

Marconi ha inventato la radio. “Marconi invented the radio.”

95.

Comprare “To buy”

Hai comprato il latte? “Did you buy the milk?”

96.

Vendere “to sell”

Il negozio all’angolo vende borse e scarpe. “The shop at the corner sells bags and shoes.”

97.

Pagare “to pay”

Ho pagato 10 € per una pizza a una birra. “I paid 10 € for a pizza and a beer.”

98.

Vincere “to win”

La Ferrari ha vinto l’ultimo Gran Premio. “The Ferrari won the latest Grand Prix.”

99.

Perdere “to lose”

Ho perso il cellulare. “I’ve lost my mobile phone.”

100.

Nascere “to be born”

Sono nato in Francia, ma sono cresciuto in Belgio. “I was born in France, but I grew up in Belgium.”

101.

Morire “to die”

Nell’incidente per fortuna non è morto nessuno. “Luckily, nobody died in the accident.”

5. Italian Verb Placement in a Sentence

As you can see from the many sentences above, in Italian, a verb usually goes after the subject and before the object (or any other complement). 

Example: 

Subject + Verb + Object

Il topo mangia il formaggio.

“The mouse eats the cheese.”

6. ItalianPod101: A Great Source for Your Italian Learning!

We hope you enjoyed learning about Italian verbs with us, and that you picked up a few new vocabulary words you can start using today! It will take lots of studying and practice, but you can memorize every word on this list over time. And once you do, why not start on another Italian basic verbs list on ItalianPod101? 

Have you already checked out our majestic 100 adjectives article, our amazing 100 nouns list, or our guide on Italian pronouns? If not, it’s time to do it! Improve your Italian with our wonderful guides and lessons, whenever and wherever you want. Download our mobile apps or follow our courses on your PC, and you’ll live the Dolce vita! 

Before you go, let us know in the comments if there are any Italian verbs you still want to know! We look forward to hearing from you, and will do our best to help!