Hover a line for its translation; hover a word for its meaning. Tap 🔊 to hear it.
Chiara asks Alex what a normal day looks like.
fare colazione is the fixed phrase for having breakfast — not avere or prendere. Lunch and dinner take a different verb again: pranzare and cenare are verbs in their own right. uscire is irregular and its stem changes: esco, esci, esce, usciamo, uscite, escono. It means to go out of a place and also to go out socially, exactly as in English. qualche is always followed by a SINGULAR noun even though it means some or a few: qualche volta, qualche amico, qualche giorno. It looks wrong and is right. Si vede is a small idiom worth stealing: literally one sees it, used as "it shows" or "you can tell".
How do I read these pronunciations? See the pronunciation guide.
1. Reflexive verbs
A reflexive verb turns its action back on the doer: alzarsi is to raise oneself, to get up. You met the first one in Lesson 1 — chiamarsi. The pronoun goes before the verb and changes with the person: mi alzo, ti alzi, si alza, ci alziamo, vi alzate, si alzano. Italian uses these far more than English does, especially for the morning routine: svegliarsi, alzarsi, lavarsi, vestirsi, and at the other end addormentarsi. The infinitive carries -si on the end, which is how you spot one in a dictionary.
2. The three conjugations, complete
Every regular Italian verb belongs to one of three groups, by infinitive ending. -are (parlare): parlo, parli, parla, parliamo, parlate, parlano. -ere (leggere): leggo, leggi, legge, leggiamo, leggete, leggono. -ire (dormire): dormo, dormi, dorme, dormiamo, dormite, dormono. Look at what is shared — io, tu and noi are identical across all three, so the only endings you actually have to keep apart are lui/lei, voi and loro. That is three decisions, not eighteen.
3. How often
sempre always, spesso often, di solito usually, qualche volta sometimes, raramente rarely, mai never. Most sit straight after the verb: Esco spesso. Lavoro sempre. mai is the odd one, because Italian requires a double negative: non plus the verb plus mai — Non dormo mai abbastanza, literally I don't sleep never. Leaving out non is wrong. di solito is the one that prefers the front of the sentence: Di solito lavoro fino alle sei.
4. Parts of the day, and from-to
la mattina, il pomeriggio, la sera, la notte. With the article they mean in the mornings, generally: La sera guardo un film. Add a day for a specific one: giovedì sera, Thursday evening, with no preposition at all. A stretch of time uses da … a, and both fuse with the article of the hour: dalle nove alle sei, from nine to six. For a single endpoint, fino a — lavoro fino a tardi.
A. Fill in the Blank · Completa
Fill in the blank with the correct form.
- 1. alzo alle sette.myself (the reflexive pronoun for io)
- 2.A che ora alzi?yourself (the reflexive pronoun for tu)
- 3.Non mai abbastanza.I sleep (dormire)
- 4.Di solito nove alle sei.from + the (feminine plural)
B. Multiple Choice · Scegli
Choose the correct Italian.
- 1.Where does the reflexive pronoun go?
- 2.Which is the noi form of alzarsi?
- 3.How do you say "never" in Italian?
- 4.Which is the loro form of leggere?
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.Alex gets up at seven.
- 2.Alex always has coffee at home.
- 3.Alex goes out most evenings.
- 4.Chiara does not sleep enough.
E. Matching · Abbina
Match each question to the answer that fits it.
F. Translation · Traduci
Translate between Italian and English.
- 1.I get up at seven.
- 2.I don't go out often.
- 3.A che ora ti alzi la mattina?
- 4.Di solito dalle nove alle sei.
Generate a brand-new dialog on any topic, using this lesson's 16 vocab words — plus any words you add below.
Sign in to generate dialogues. It needs a pass — the first ten lessons of every course are free either way.
Breakfast standing up, lunch sitting down
Italian breakfast is small, sweet and quick: a coffee and something pastry-shaped, often taken standing at a bar on the way to work. The full cooked breakfast has no Italian equivalent, and savoury food in the morning strikes most Italians as slightly odd — eggs and bacon at eight would be a talking point. Lunch carries the weight instead. It is traditionally the main meal, and in smaller towns and the south much of the working day still bends around it, with shops closing from roughly one to four for the riposo and reopening into the evening. In Milan and the larger northern cities that pause has mostly gone, replaced by an hour and a pausa pranzo much like anywhere else. Working hours are correspondingly late at both ends: offices often run to seven, dinner rarely starts before eight, and the evening passeggiata fills the gap. One habit worth adopting and one worth knowing about: Italians drink coffee throughout the day, standing, in ninety-second visits rather than carrying a cup around — takeaway coffee exists but still looks faintly strange — and the word for the eleven o'clock coffee break, with or without a pastry, is simply un caffè, which by now you can order.