Learn Italian through English
Learn Italiano through English
Every lesson explains Italian by comparing it directly to English grammar and vocabulary — word order, case marking, formal speech, and more — instead of translating through English.
All Lessons
Greetings & Formality
Greetings & Formality
Italian splits 'you' into tu (informal) and Lei (formal) — a distinction English used to have and lost, much like French's tu/vous. Master this before any other vocabulary.
Alphabet & Pronunciation
Alphabet & Pronunciation
Italian spelling is far more consistent than English — once you learn a handful of rules for c, g, and a few letter combos, you can pronounce almost any word correctly on sight.
Numbers 0–10
Numbers 0–10
The first ten numbers show up constantly — ages, prices, phone numbers, quantities — and they set up the pattern the rest of the number system builds on.
Family
Family
Family words are some of the first nouns worth learning, since they're gendered in an obvious, memorable way — perfect groundwork before the next lesson tackles articles head-on.
Articles & Gender
Articles & Gender
Every Italian noun is masculine or feminine, and the little word in front of it — il, la, lo, l' — has to match. It looks fussy at first, but it follows clear, learnable rules.
Pronouns, Essere & Avere
Pronouns, Essere & Avere
Essere (to be) and avere (to have) are the two most important verbs in the language — both wildly irregular, both worth memorizing cold before anything else.
Sentence Structure
Sentence Structure
Italian word order will feel familiar coming from English, with one early habit to unlearn: adjectives usually trail behind the noun instead of leading it.
Plural Nouns
Plural Nouns
Italian pluralizes by changing the noun's final vowel rather than adding -s — once you know the three endings, most plurals become predictable.
Numbers 11–100
Numbers 11–100
Beyond ten, Italian numbers start fusing into single compound words — the rules are simple, but they look unfamiliar until you've seen them a few times.
Present Tense Verbs
Present Tense Verbs
Regular Italian verbs fall into three families by their infinitive ending — -are, -ere, -ire — and each family conjugates in its own predictable pattern.
Modal Verbs
Modal Verbs
Potere (can), dovere (must), and volere (want) unlock a huge range of sentences on their own — each pairs directly with another verb's infinitive.
Question Words
Question Words
Italian question words work much like their English counterparts, and asking a question needs far less rearranging than English does.
Negation
Negation
Negating a sentence in Italian is simpler than in English, and double negatives — which English treats as an error — are actually required.
Adjective Agreement
Adjective Agreement
Italian adjectives change their ending to match the noun they describe — something English adjectives never do at all.
Possessive Adjectives
Possessive Adjectives
Italian possessives — my, your, his, her — agree with the thing being owned rather than with the owner, the reverse of how English his/her works.
Daily Routine & Reflexive Verbs
Daily Routine & Reflexive Verbs
Describing a typical day pulls in Italian's reflexive verbs — actions you do to yourself — which show up far more often than their English equivalents suggest.