1.1 Ciao! Come ti chiami?
Cosa conosci dell'Italia?
What do you know about Italy?
Scrivi tutte le parole che conosci in italiano.
Dov'è Roma? Firenze? Venice? Naples?
Lettura: Anna e Marco
Greetings in Italian
Ciao | Hi/bye |
Salve | Hello |
Buongiorno | Good morning |
Buon pomeriggio | Good afternoon |
Buonasera | Good evening |
Buonanotte | Good night |
Arrivederci | Goodbye (informal) |
ArrivederLa | Goodbye (formal) |
A dopo | See you later |
A presto | See you soon |
Ci vediamo | See you |
A domani | See you tomorrow |
Come va? | How’s it going? |
Tutto bene | Everything good? |
Come stai | How are you? (informal) |
Come sta? | How formal (formal) |
Sto bene, grazie | I’m good, thank you |
Così così | So so |
Non c’è male | Not bad |
Grammar in use
Subject pronouns + verbs
Subject pronouns + verbs
Chiamarsi | Essere | Stare |
io mi chiamo | io sono | io sto |
tu ti chiami | tu sei | tu stai |
Now it's your turn!
Le lettere dell'alfabeto italiano
| Lettera | Nome della lettera | Pronuncia in inglese |
A | A | Like “a” in car |
B | Bi | Like “b” in boy |
C | Ci | Like “ch” in cheese (before E, I) / “k” in key (before A, O, U) |
D | Di | Like “d” in dog |
E | E | Like “e” in bet or they (depending on accent) |
F | Effe | Like “f” in fish |
G | Gi | Like “j” in jungle (before E, I) / “g” in go (before A, O, U) |
H | Acca | Silent (used in combinations like “ho”, “hai”) |
I | I | Like “ee” in see |
L | Elle | Like “l” in love |
M | Emme | Like “m” in mother |
N | Enne | Like “n” in nice |
O | O | Like “o” in or |
P | Pi | Like “p” in pen |
Q | Qu | Like “qu” in queen |
R | Erre | Rolled or tapped “r” |
S | Esse | Like “s” in sun or z in rose (depending on context) |
T | Ti | Like “t” in top |
U | U | Like “oo” in boot |
V | Vi | Like “v” in voice |
Z | Zeta | Like “ts” in cats or “dz” in “ads” |
| Lettera | Nome della lettera | Pronuncia in inglese |
J | I lunga | Like “i” in yesterday |
K | Kappa | Like in English |
X | Ics | Like in English |
W | Doppia vu | Like “v” in voice |
Exercise in Pairs
Ascolto (the sound "c" and "g")
1 · The letter C
Spelling pattern | When it happens | IPA | English clue | Examples from your list |
c + e / i | before e or i | /tʃ/ | “ch” in church | cinema, cena, ciao |
ci + a/o/u | ci- followed by another vowel | /tʃa / /tʃo / /tʃu/ | “cha/cho/chu” | faccia, arrivederci |
cc + e / i | doubled soft c | /tʃː/ (long) | a longer “ch” | faccia |
c + a/o/u or c + consonant | before a, o, u or a consonant | /k/ | “k” in kite | casa, cosa, come |
ch + e / i | the h keeps it hard | /k/ | “k” in kite | chiesa, banche (plural of banca) |
2 · The letter G
Spelling pattern | When it happens | IPA | English clue | Examples from your list |
g + e / i | before e or i | /dʒ/ | “j” in jam | Genova, gelato |
gi + a/o/u | gi- followed by another vowel | /dʒa / /dʒo / /dʒu/ | “ja/jo/ju” | parmigiano, cugina |
gg + e / i | doubled soft g | /dʒː/ (long) | a longer “j” | schegge |
g + a/o/u or g + consonant | before a, o, u or a consonant | /g/ | hard “g” in go | gambero, grazie, prego |
gh + e / i | the h keeps it hard | /g/ | hard “g” in go | laghi, spaghetti |