How to Learn Italian: 5 Practical Tips for Beginners

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Italy is one of my favourite places in the world, from its food and architecture to its culture and history.

When you can parlare italiano, even a little, Italy opens up to you in a new way.

We asked Italian teachers and experienced learners what advice they would give someone starting out. Here are their five tips.

5 Practical Tips on How to Learn Italian

How to Learn Italian Tip 1: Start with Italian Pronunciation

For a quick visual guide to Italian letters and sounds, watch our Italian alphabet and pronunciation lesson:

Manu from Italy Made Easy says:

The Italian language has a very simple phonetic system with just a few tricky sounds and a very predictable and consistent way of pronouncing vowels, consonants and sequences of sounds. Basically, it’s particularly easy to sound good when speaking Italian!

A very smart approach to learning Italian is to start with the pronunciation. You’ll master it in no time and it will give you the best “value for money”. You can have the broadest vocabulary and the most impeccable grammar, but if Italians can’t understand you when you speak, all of that goodness will go to waste.

Focusing on pronunciation is fun and it will give you incredibly fast results.

Here’s the three-step process Manu recommends for getting to grips with Italian pronunciation:

1. Start by mastering the five vowel letters (A, E, I, O, U). In standard Italian, stressed e and o can each be open or closed, so these five letters represent seven stressed vowel sounds. You’ll also hear regional variation.
2. Then move on to syllables (BA, BE, BI, BO, BU), words (BROCCOLI, FINITO, etc.) and entire phrases.
3. Start “shadowing”.

Manu explains shadowing like this:

“Shadowing” is a great and very effective technique to improve and master your Italian pronunciation. Find a video (with Italian subtitles) of a single Italian native speaker speaking clearly. Your goal is to imitate the Italian speaker by copying their speed, intonation, pitch and overall melody. It’s not an easy exercise, but it will do wonders for your Italian pronunciation!

How to Learn Italian Tip 2: Make the Most of Shower and Pillow Time

Mark from Coffee Break Italian says:

One of the best ways to improve your Italian is by getting into a habit of spending some time in the morning and evening talking to yourself. That may sound a bit crazy, but you’ll be amazed at how helpful this easy technique can be.

In the morning, start with a statement about what you’re going to do that day. You can use a simple present tense, e.g. “oggi vado al cinema” (today I’m going to the cinema). If you know more Italian you can start to add in more information, for example when you’re going, who else is going, or what you’re doing before and after the cinema.

Then, in the evening, it’s time to think back over what you’ve done in the day. Just use present tenses again if you prefer, but if you feel comfortable using a past tense you can talk about what you did (using the perfect), how you felt or what the weather was like (using the imperfect), and perhaps even thinking ahead to tomorrow (using a future tense).

For best results, do your morning Italian session in the shower – you can even speak aloud there as no-one will hear you! Then you can complete your evening session as you lay your head on the pillow to go to sleep.

How to Learn Italian Tip 3: Listen to Native Speakers

Lucrezia from Learn Italian with Lucrezia says:

One tip I would give to all of you interested in learning Italian is to listen to native speakers talking. Even if you are an absolute beginner. Spontaneous conversation, which is produced by native speakers, is the best way to get started.

Conversation is in itself very spontaneous and immediate, so native speakers are pressured to produce language in the easiest way they know how. This means that following easy conversation between native speakers will motivate you to act, in this case speak, like them. The emulation game starts!

It goes without saying that, if you are just starting out, it is preferable for you to choose very basic conversations or situational language, for example: at the supermarket, breakfast with friends, a discussion about favourite film, etc.

After listening to a recorded conversation of your choice, try to repeat what they say on screen or audio. Stop and play as many times as you like, up until you feel confident enough to record yourself and listen to your recorded voice speaking Italian. This should help you avoid the initial block beginners often feel towards the active part of learning a language, that is speaking.

You don’t need to understand a whole conversation at once. Pick a short, clear section with subtitles or a transcript, replay it, then record yourself and compare one feature at a time.

How to Learn Italian Tip 4: Discover the Italian You Already Know

Katie and Matteo from Joy of Languages say:

Italian may be easier than you think. Let’s try a little experiment. How do you say the word “fantastic” in Italian? Give it your best Italian pronunciation.

Did you guess fantastico?

If you did, ottimo! You got it right.

English has many words with Latin or French roots. This means that thousands of English words are simili to Italian words. These words are called cognates, and they’re often easy to learn and remember.

Start by learning a few common cognate patterns. For example, many English words ending in -al have an Italian cognate ending in -ale. “Formal” corresponds to formale, pronounced for-MAH-leh, and “general” to generale, pronounced jeh-neh-RAH-leh.

Now when you start talking, you’ll already recognise plenty of words that you can test in conversation!

You can build on those cognates with our list of 500 core Italian words, but check each new word’s meaning and pronunciation because not every lookalike is a true friend.

How to Learn Italian Tip 5: Try this Easy Approach to Spoken Practice

Benny Lewis, founder of Fluent in 3 Months, describes his own experience as an Italian learner:

Italian was one of the first languages I learned, while I was still very self-conscious about making mistakes and worried that I’d frustrate people. The Italians I met gave me the confidence I needed to progress.

They were pleased to hear a foreigner learning their language, listened patiently and encouraged me to keep going. Then they returned to the passionate pace of a normal conversation, which kept me on my toes. It was the right balance of easing me in while making sure I had to keep trying.

As a learner travelling in Italy by myself, I found it easy to make new friends and loved how curious they were to hear from this traveller.

Bonus Tip: Take Action to Learn Italian Today

The tips above only help when they become part of a routine you can repeat.

Thirty minutes a day, four days a week is a manageable place to start. Over 90 days, that adds up to about 26 hours of learning and speaking practice.

That doesn’t guarantee a particular result, but it gives you time to build a habit and make visible progress if your routine includes listening, recall and real speaking.

These videos show Nina’s Italian at the start and after 90 days in the programme now called the Fluent in 3 Months Bootcamp.

Nina’s Day 0 Italian Video

Nina’s Day 90 Italian Video

Could You Do the Same in 90 Days?

Nina was surprised by her result. Tina (Day 0 / Day 90) and Alex (Day 0 / Day 90) also recorded their progress over 90 days.

These are useful examples, not guarantees. Your starting point, the quality of your practice and how often you speak with other people will all affect your result.

You can use the five tips above on your own: learn the sound system, practise aloud, listen to clear native speech, use cognates carefully and make speaking part of your weekly routine.

If you’d like to work towards a 15-minute conversation over 90 days, take a look at the Fluent in 3 Months Bootcamp.

Original article by Brian Kwong, updated by the Fluent in 3 Months team.