So, you want to learn Italian for beginners—for a dream vacation, a semester abroad, or just to impress your favorite barista. But right now, your Italian is limited to pizza, ciao, and a very confident mispronunciation of bruschetta.
No worries! I’ve got you covered with the fastest path to confidently ordering gelato, navigating cities, and charming locals!
Hi! We’re Brainscape
We’re the brains, minds, and hearts behind the world’s smartest study app. We’ve brought together some of the most experienced Italian educators to compile a comprehensive collection of digital flashcards to help you learn Italian online (as a beginner). (As a free flashcard app, however, you can also use Brainscape to make flashcards as you pursue your own Italian language lessons!)
What sets Brainscape apart from any other study app? Its adaptive spaced repetition algorithm leverages the way your brain is biologically engineered to learn to help you do so much faster than any other study technique. This is exactly what you need if you’ve only got a couple of days left until your trip to Italy, or if you want to use your flight to Rome to learn the basic Italian phrases travelers should know.
So, now that you know who we are and why we know a thing or two about how to learn beginner Italian online, let’s turn our attention to…
What are the basic Italian phrases for travelers?
The best place to start learning the very basics of Italian is with phrases you’ll actually use. No need to memorize Shakespeare in Italian—just focus on beginner Italian vocabulary for everyday situations, for example:
- Buongiorno! – Good morning!
- Quanto costa? – How much does it cost?
- Un caffè, per favore. – A coffee, please.
- Dov'è il bagno? – Where’s the bathroom? (This follows the coffee.)
- Parli inglese? – Do you speak English? (Spoiler: Many Italians do, but they’ll love you for trying.)
Memorize just 10 essential phrases and you’ll already feel 100% more confident when you land in Rome. (You’ll find those basic Italian phrases for travelers in Brainscape’s Italian A1 beginner flashcards.)
Learn Italian like a child: listen and repeat
Ever wonder why toddlers pick up languages so fast? They listen, repeat, and aren’t afraid to make mistakes. Be like them!
You need to practice speaking Italian words to learn them.
To do this, you might ordinarily have checked out YouTube videos, podcasts, or Italian dubs of your favorite shows. But that could be far too complicated for beginners. Instead, you need a limited, repeatable list of essential sounds. And you'll find that in Brainscape’s beginner Italian flashcards, which include the full pronunciation of every word. The best way to use them is to listen and sound out the word or phrase every time until it naturally rolls off your tongue.
It’s an extraordinarily efficient way to improve your pronunciation. With these flashcards, you can practice saying hundreds of words in a single short study session. So when you meet that cute barista in Siena, you won’t be tongue-tied! (Unless you want to be.)
Use active recall for quick Italian language lessons that stick
Trying to learn Italian as a beginner just by reading a textbook is like trying to learn swimming from a PowerPoint presentation. It's horribly ineffective! You need to engage your brain's powers of active recall to truly ingrain those new words and concepts, not to mention the skill of pronunciation. Once again, Italian language flashcards are the most powerful—and convenient—tool for the job.
Okay, what’s active recall? It means searching for the answer inside your own brain rather than recognizing it from the world around you. In a real-life conversation in Italy, you won’t see a dialog box with multiple choice options for you to passively choose from. You need to retrieve the correct words from your own memory; hence, active recall.
Flashcards compel you to do this by framing single concepts as a question, which you must then answer from scratch (without being prompted by a multiple-choice list of answers). Once you've answered the flashcard in your head (or out loud), you flip it over to reveal the answer.
Then, you're required to rate your confidence in that flashcard on a scale of 1 to 5. If you didn't know the answer at all, rate yourself a 1. If you knew it perfectly (and will never forget it), rate your confidence a 5.
This is where the magic happens! Based on your ratings, Brainscape's spaced repetition algorithm automatically and systematically repeats flashcards to you based on your unique strengths and weaknesses: more often if you didn't know a concept at all and less often if you did.
It's this spaced repetition that helps you learn and retain new vocabulary, pronunciation, and more sophisticated phrases so much faster than any other learning technique. (It's also the essential component that’s missing from other language learning apps like Duolingo.)
Boom. It sticks.
Master the pronunciation of Italian vocabulary early on
Italian pronunciation is mercifully logical (unlike English: looking at you “colonel”). But get it right from the start so you not only sound legit—and be understood—but also don't pick up any bad habits you'll have to work hard to lose later on.
Tips:
- Z sounds like the English “ts” (zona = tsona).
- C + I/E sounds like the English “ch” (ciao = chow).
- GN sounds like the English “ny” (lasagna = lah-zahn-ya).
The best way to nail pronunciation? Listen to native speakers and copy them. (Also, lean on our Italian language flashcards, which, as you now know, come with audio recordings by native speakers.) Plus, it includes a bonus set of Pronunciation Tips to help you nail those extra tricky sounds.
The fastest way to learn Italian? Start now
Since you probably only have weeks, if not days (or a single flight) to master as much Italian as you possibly can, the best way to learn FAST is to practice your Italian flashcards as often as you can, in any spare minute of time that you have.
Spaced repetition is a system that will help you learn new words and phrases much faster than any traditional language learning strategy, so make sure you practice your flashcards as much as you can, even while—especially while—you're travelling around Italy!
Don’t worry about looking silly. Italians usually LOVE any attempt at their language. In a sea of foreigners expecting them to speak English, even a flawed attempt at their language is endearing and admired.
You’ll stand out and might even get some bonus treats, directions to a secret garden, or an invitation to a home-cooked meal!
So why not start today? Learn Italian, speak with confidence, and impress your future Italian barista—or at least order pasta like a pro.
For more language learning tips, check out Brainscape’s free resources!