The 500 Italian phrases you actually need

We chose 500 phrases for common situations in a first month in Italy, in a list you can print. This is our list, 500 things a person says out loud, written and reviewed by us, split into three lanes (survive, travel, work) and grouped by the situations of a day, from Buongiorno at the bar to Ci aggiorniamo domani after a meeting. Lei is the polite default with strangers, and the note beside it says what the translation cannot: the tu version, the trap, the moment to say it. This page will not teach grammar. You will say Non ho capito long before you can explain why it is a past tense, and that is the point.

How to read and use this list

Each table has three columns: the Italian, the English, and a note. Read the note first; 148 of the 500 phrases carry one. Prego is 'you're welcome' in the English column and 'go ahead' in the note, and the note is the half you will hear more. Lei is the default polite you, with adjectives in the masculine; where a woman says it differently (Mi sono perso becomes mi sono persa) the note gives the feminine. We flag tu where colleagues would use it, while the choice of register depends on the workplace and relationship.

These 500 are on the website for now, with an app pack planned later. Vocabcord's existing vocabulary packs play one phrase every time the phone goes on the charger, the Italian, a pause, the English, the Italian again; the reasoning is in one word per charge. Three or four plug-ins a day give you 90 to 120 playbacks in a 30-day month, including repeats. Print the page or save it as a PDF; the whole list is on it.

First contact: greeting, thanking, apologising, the repair kit

Learn Salve before Ciao. Salve skips the formal or informal choice; ciao said to a shop assistant marks you as someone who learned Italian from a film. The repair kit in the middle of the table, from Parla inglese? to Un momento, per favore, matters more than any greeting. Non ho capito is the one people get wrong: non capisco means you do not understand, while non ho capito says you did not understand what was just said. Both are ordinary Italian. Say Sto imparando l'italiano early; people slow down once they hear it. Permesso is here because scusi does not cover squeezing past someone.

Arrival: the airport, the passport, the first taxi

Two phrases here earn their place by saving money. Può accendere il tassametro? is a normal thing to ask in a city taxi, because the meter is the law, and Posso pagare con la carta? settles the other classic: a driver whose card machine is 'broken' is asking for cash. Dove sono i taxi? comes before both, since the white cabs at the rank are licensed and anyone offering 'taxi' inside the terminal is working for himself. We left customs vocabulary out. The officer says nothing and you say Ecco il passaporto.

Getting around: tickets, trains, buses, directions

The phrase we would drill first here is Devo convalidare il biglietto?. A paper regional or bus ticket gets stamped in the machine before you board, and the fine for forgetting is yours on the spot; e-tickets are already valid, which is why the question is worth asking. Dove si comprano i biglietti dell'autobus? is in because the answer surprises people: a tabaccheria, a newsstand or an app, almost never the driver. C'è uno sciopero oggi? is a planning question; strikes are announced days ahead and tend to spare the rush hours.

Hotel and rental: checking in, room problems, checking out

Avete una camera per stanotte? teaches a habit that runs through the whole list: you address a business as voi, the plural you, even with one person at the desk. The complaint phrases are short on purpose, because at eleven at night you want Non c'è acqua calda. Il riscaldamento non funziona may get an apologetic shrug, since heating in many buildings runs only on dates and hours set by law. C'è la tassa di soggiorno? removes the surprise at checkout; most cities charge a tourist tax per night at the desk, on top of what you paid online.

Eating out: the bar, the restaurant, the bill

Order with Per me una carbonara. 'Per me' plus the dish is a concise way to order. Vorrei is also a natural, polite choice; neither is limited to a classroom. The bar has its own rules, and Pago prima o dopo? finds out which apply: in a busy bar you pay at the till first. The bill never arrives on its own, so Il conto, per favore is said at every meal, and Il coperto è incluso? explains the line on it you did not expect. Sono allergico alle noci covers walnuts only.

Shopping and money: shops, the market, cards and cash

Nobody teaches Chi è l'ultimo? and everybody needs it. Queues at a deli counter or a post office are loose; you say it on arrival, remember who answers, and go after them. The deli is where the list stops translating and starts explaining: Due etti di prosciutto crudo works in etti, units of 100 g, and Un po' di più, va bene is the yes to the question the counter asks when the slice runs over. We closed with Posso fare un bonifico? since rent, deposits and most bills between people move by bank transfer.

Home: the flat, the landlord, the bills, the delivery

Two questions here can save you a bad year. Il contratto è registrato? matters because a registered lease is your proof of address for the permit and the bank, and an unregistered one is a red flag. Posso prendere la residenza? is the second: residenza is a formal status filed at the comune, and a landlord who refuses it is a reason to walk away. Say Buongiorno, sono il nuovo vicino once and early: neighbours are your parcel service and your recycling guide, and Dove si butta la spazzatura? has a different answer in every comune, with a fine attached.

Health: the pharmacy, the doctor, the symptoms

The symptom phrases share one frame, ho mal di plus the body part, and Ho mal di testa, Ho mal di gola and Ho mal di pancia are all in, so the frame repeats. Qual è la farmacia di turno? is here because the pharmacist is the first person to ask, and the rota for nights and Sundays is on every pharmacy door. The phrase people underrate is Mi serve un certificato medico; your employer needs it from day one of sick leave, and knowing that before you are ill is worth more than any symptom phrase. We left anatomy out; Mi fa male qui and a finger cover the body.

Emergencies: help, police, lost things

The one to know cold is Chiami il centododici. 112 is the single number for police, ambulance and fire, and the note gives the digit-by-digit form for when the operator asks. Every stolen wallet and lost passport ends in Devo fare una denuncia; the denuncia is the police report your insurer and your embassy will ask for. Dov'è il pronto soccorso? comes with an honest warning: a white or green code at the door can mean hours of waiting. The last phrase breaks the list's register rule. Lasciami stare! is tu on purpose, and it should be said loud.

Phone and admin: a SIM, a codice fiscale, forms and appointments

Get the codice fiscale on day one. Mi serve il codice fiscale is the most important sentence in the admin lane, because nothing works without the number: the SIM, the bank, the lease, the doctor. Pronto? is the classic mistake: it means 'ready' and is only for answering the phone. Posso farlo online? often gets a yes through SPID, the public digital identity, which makes Come faccio ad avere lo SPID? the first form you fill in. Ha una PEC? looks like jargon until the first contract arrives; certified email is how anything official travels.

First day at work: introductions, the team, the basics

Start on Lei and wait to be moved. Di cosa si occupa? is in the Lei form for a reason: most offices say 'diamoci del tu' within the hour, and Possiamo darci del tu? makes the switch. The real onboarding is Andiamo a prendere un caffè?, ten minutes standing at the bar downstairs, and the answer is yes; Offro io goes with it, because rounds alternate and splitting a coffee is not done. Two phrases have no English equivalent: Buon lavoro when you leave someone at their desk, and Ci penso io, which takes a task off someone's hands and commits you to it.

Meetings, in the room and on a call

Two phrases end most Italian meetings. Facciamo così closes a decision; once someone says it the discussion is over. Ci aggiorniamo domani dismisses the room; aggiornarsi here means to reconvene, which confuses learners who know it only as 'to update'. Disagreement is where newcomers misjudge the room. Non sono del tutto d'accordo is the soft no, and a flat 'non sono d'accordo' lands harder in an Italian room than its translation suggests, so we put the soft form in and left the hard one out. On calls the vocabulary is half English: Facciamo una call veloce? says call the English way.

Email and messages: what you write, what you read

Italian work email runs on set phrases. In allegato trova il documento opens almost every email with an attachment; Come da accordi, le invio il preventivo is the 'as agreed' you will read daily; Resto a disposizione goes before the sign-off as a courtesy. The title in Gentile dottor Rossi, buongiorno is the trap: dottore or dottoressa is the default for any graduate, and leaving it off is the error people notice. The second half of the table switches to tu, because chat threads run on tu even where meetings do not.

Asking for help, deadlines and saying no

Saying no in Italian goes through the verb riuscire, and we would teach Oggi non riesco before anything else in this table: it declines a task politely, with no flat no in it. Its partner is farcela. Ce la faccio per domani is the promise, Non ce la faccio per venerdì the honest opposite, and 'ce la fai?' is the question a manager will ask by the end of week one. The register notes matter here more than anywhere: Non si preoccupi is Lei and Cosa ne pensi? is tu.

Pay, contracts and time off

The question that decides the most is Il contratto è a tempo indeterminato?. Indeterminato is permanent and determinato fixed-term, and the difference decides your lease, your loan and your permit, so ask before you sign. Quanto è il netto? is the other one to ask early, because Italians talk in net monthly while the contract states gross yearly. Vorrei prendere ferie dal dieci al venti agosto is deliberately the longest phrase in the section: August is when the country stops, so ask early and expect to hear the dates are taken.

Small talk and sightseeing: strangers, the bar, the weekend

Volentieri and Magari un'altra volta are the yes and the no to any invitation, and both hide a trap. Sì on its own sounds flat, so volentieri is the warm yes; magari on its own means 'if only' and is also a yes, and only the 'un'altra volta' turns it into a polite no. Get that backwards and you have accepted an aperitivo you meant to decline. Quanti anni ha? is asked more freely than in English, and the answer, Ho trentadue anni, says you have 32 years. Look people in the eye on Salute!; skipping it gets noticed.

Feelings and opinions: how you are and what you think

The masculine default matters most here, and Sono stanco opens the table with the rule in its note: adjectives agree with the speaker, a woman says stanca, and the list gives the feminine wherever it differs. Ho fame is the frame for the four states you have in Italian, hunger, thirst, cold and heat, and it is the one construction here to get automatic. Mi manca casa works backwards, with casa as the subject. The last row is a test: the answer to In bocca al lupo! is crepi, and saying grazie is the classic slip.

What we left out, and what to add

We cut four kinds of phrase. Proverbs went first; the one a newcomer needs, In bocca al lupo!, is in the last table. Textbook sentences went next, the 'book on the table' kind that exists to teach a preposition. Slang went out because it dates by city and by year, and a stranger using it sounds wrong before it sounds fluent. Anything a course teaches for grammar went too: conjugation drills, number tables, the days of the week as a list. Numbers appear where they come up, in Sono dodici euro e cinquanta or Sono nella camera trecentodue. Add your own case on top: the words of your trade, your medicines, the stop before your flat, and the verbs behind these sentences ranked by frequency in the most common Italian verbs. We are less sure of the work lane than the other two, because an office in Milan and a kitchen in Palermo differ more than two hotels do.

How 500 phrases stick without a study plan

Phrases stick when you meet them again on a schedule, and keeping the schedule is the part people drop. Vocabcord plays one entry from your selected vocabulary pack every time your phone goes on the charger; on iOS that is one personal automation in the Shortcuts app, and Android does it on its own. Which phrase plays is decided by a weighted decay sampler: a phrase's weight grows with the days since you last heard it, on a five-day scale, and one you have never heard counts as about twenty days overdue, so the app favours entries you have not heard recently. Repeats mean that the number of plug-ins is not the number of distinct phrases heard. This collection is an article first; it becomes a pack with audio later, and we are not putting a date on that. Behind it sits the graded corpus already in the app, 5,956 Italian entries from A1 to C2, counted on the Italian corpus statistics page.

Common questions

How many Italian phrases do you need to get by in Italy?

About 500 for a first month, and far fewer for a week. The first table alone, 40 phrases of greeting, thanking and repair, gets a visitor through a day; the survive lane, 198 phrases across seven tables, covers a month of shops, pharmacies, landlords and forms.

Should I learn Lei or tu first?

Lei is a useful polite default with adult strangers. Tu is common among friends and in many workplaces, but the choice depends on the relationship. Possiamo darci del tu? asks whether you can switch.

Is this standard Italian or a regional dialect?

Standard Italian as spoken in Italy, understood everywhere in the country. Where the everyday word changes by region the note says so: cornetto in most of Italy and brioche in the north west. Dialect is out of scope.

What is the fastest way to memorise them?

Choose a few phrases you expect to use, practise saying them, and return to them later. Il conto, per favore is a useful place to start at a restaurant. These 500 are not yet an app pack; Vocabcord currently plays entries from its existing vocabulary packs.

Which phrases should I learn first?

The repair kit in the first table: Non ho capito, Più piano, per favore, Me lo può scrivere? and Sto imparando l'italiano. They keep an exchange alive when the other 496 fail you. After that, Per me una carbonara and Il conto, per favore, because you will eat first.