Hover a line for its translation; hover a word for its meaning. Tap 🔊 to hear it.
Alex is lost near Piazza Navona and stops a passerby.
scusi is the polite form, for anyone you would call Lei — which is everyone you stop in the street. To a friend it is scusa. Getting these the wrong way round is the commonest small slip a learner makes, and the one Italians notice most quickly. lontano and vicino agree with what they describe when they act as adjectives: la stazione è lontana, but è lontano a piedi, where there is no noun to agree with. Do not worry about this yet — Lesson 26 does adjective agreement properly. la metro is short for la metropolitana and keeps the feminine gender of the long form even though it ends in -o. Same with la foto (fotografia) and la moto (motocicletta). buona giornata is said when the person still has their day ahead of them; buona serata in the evening. At parting from someone you will see again shortly, buona giornata can sound oddly final — a plain ciao does more work.
How do I read these pronunciations? See the pronunciation guide.
1. The definite article — all seven
Italian has one word for the and seven ways of spelling it, chosen by gender, number and the sound that follows. Masculine singular: il before most consonants (il banco), lo before s+consonant, z, gn, ps (lo scontrino, lo zio), l' before a vowel (l'autobus). Feminine singular: la (la piazza), and l' before a vowel (l'amica). Plurals: i for il (i banchi), gli for lo and l' (gli scontrini, gli autobus), le for everything feminine (le piazze). The pattern to hold on to is that lo and its plural gli exist only to stop awkward clusters — s+consonant and z — from following a bare il.
2. c'è and ci sono
There is and there are. c'è takes a singular thing, ci sono a plural one: C'è una piazza. Ci sono due piazze. c'è is written with an apostrophe because it is ci + è squeezed together, and it is one word to the ear and to this app's glossary — hover the whole thing. The negative is straightforward: Non c'è un autobus. Non ci sono taxi. Do not confuse c'è with è: C'è la stazione means there's a station, while È la stazione means it is the station.
3. Asking the way
Open with Scusi, then ask. Dov'è la stazione? — note dov'è, another squeezed pair, from dove + è. For a plural, Dove sono i taxi? The directions that come back are a short list worth memorizing whole: sempre dritto, straight on; a destra, right; a sinistra, left; qui vicino, near here; in fondo, at the end; di fronte a, opposite; all'angolo, at the corner. If you lose the thread, Può ripetere, per favore? buys you a second go.
4. a for towns, in for countries
Italian splits where English uses in for both. A town or city takes a: abito a Roma, vado a Napoli. A country, region or large island takes in: in Italia, in Toscana, in Sicilia. With a specific named place that carries an article, the preposition fuses with it — a + la becomes alla: L'autobus va alla stazione. That fusing is the contraction table, and Lesson 5 sets it out in full; for now, just note that a la is never written as two words.
A. Fill in the Blank · Completa
Fill in the blank with the correct word.
- 1.Scusi, la stazione?where is (dove + è)
- 2. una piazza.there is
- 3. anche i taxi.there are
- 4.Abito Roma.the preposition for a city
B. Multiple Choice · Scegli
Choose the correct Italian.
- 1.Which article goes with autobus?
- 2.What is the plural of lo scontrino?
- 3.Which uses c'è / ci sono correctly?
- 4.Which uses a and in correctly?
C. Word Order · Metti in ordine
Put the words in the right order.
- 1.Tap tiles below…
- 2.Tap tiles below…
- 3.Tap tiles below…
- 4.Tap tiles below…
D. True or False · Vero o falso
Decide whether each statement about the dialogue is true.
- 1.The station is far away.
- 2.The number 64 bus goes there.
- 3.Walking is quicker than the bus.
- 4.Alex decides to take the bus.
E. Matching · Abbina
Match each question to the answer that fits it.
F. Translation · Traduci
Translate between Italian and English.
- 1.Excuse me, where is the station?
- 2.There are taxis too.
- 3.Sempre dritto, poi a destra.
- 4.È lontano a piedi?
Generate a brand-new dialog on any topic, using this lesson's 16 vocab words — plus any words you add below.
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Three metro lines, and why there aren't more
Rome is a city of nearly three million people with three metro lines, and the reason is underfoot. Every attempt to dig hits archaeology: the Metro C works, begun in 2007, have turned up an entire Hadrianic barracks, a third-century commander's house with mosaics, and a sixth-century BC farm, each find stopping the tunneling while archaeologists record it. Stations have been redesigned around what was found, and one, San Giovanni, is effectively a museum with trains in it. The result is that Romans get around on the surface, mostly by bus, and the bus you will hear about is the 64 — the Termini-to-Vatican route, packed, useful, and so reliably worked by pickpockets that it has an unofficial nickname, the Wallet Eater. Take it; just carry your bag in front of you. Two practical notes. Tickets are bought before boarding, at a tabaccheria or a machine, and must be validated in the little machine on the bus — an unvalidated ticket counts as no ticket and the fine is around fifty euros. And Roman street directions are given by landmark rather than distance: expect to be told to walk to the church, the fountain or the newsstand rather than for two hundred meters.