You’ll need to say “excuse me” a lot in Italy.
Whether you're asking for directions, ordering food, or trying to squeeze past someone on a busy train.
But Italian doesn’t just have one way to say it. It actually has four 😅.
And because lots of tourists don’t realize this, they end up using the wrong one.
In this post, you’ll see exactly when to use each word for “excuse me” in Italian, with some practical sentences that you can start using in Italy.
Scusi - Excuse me (formal)
Pronunciation: SKOO-zee
Scusi is the way to say “excuse me” in Italian in formal situations. You use it with people you don’t know well, like waiters, shop assistants or strangers in the street.
For example:
Scusi, il conto per favore -Excuse me, the bill please
Scusi, dov’è il binario 2? -Excuse me, where’s platform 2?
Scusi, vorrei un caffè -Excuse me, I’d like a coffee
Scusi can also be used to say “sorry” in Italian, both in the sense of apologizing (like if you bump into someone) or saying “sorry?” to ask someone to repeat what they’ve said.
Scusa - Excuse me (informal)
Pronunciation: SKOO-zah
Scusa is the Italian for “excuse me” in informal situations, like talking to friends or people you know well. You can also use it in more relaxed places, like a casual café.
For example:
Scusa, dove sono i bagni? -Excuse me, where are the bathrooms?
Scusa, dov’è la cassa? -Excuse me, where’s the cash register?
Scusa Matteo, dove sono i biglietti? -Sorry Matteo, where are the tickets?
Like with scusi , scusa can also mean “sorry” as a way of apologizing or saying “sorry?” to ask someone to repeat.
Scusate - Excuse me (you plural)
Pronunciation: Skoo-ZAH-teh
Italian has three different ways to say you : formal, informal and also a plural you. You use the plural you when you’re talking to more than one person.
Scusate is the Italian for “excuse me” when you’re using the plural “you”.
The good news is that you don’t have to worry about informal and formal with scusate, because it’s used in both situations.
For example:
Scusate, siete in fila? -Excuse me, are you in the line?
Scusate, è questo il treno per Bologna? -Excuse me, is this the train for Bologna?
Permesso - Excuse me (when you’re trying to get past)
Pronunciation : Per-MESS-soh
Italian has a special separate word for “excuse me” when you’re trying to get past someone.
For example, you use permesso if you’re trying to get off a crowded train and need to squeeze through.
You can also use permesso as a way of asking permission to come into a room.
In fact, permesso is the only word you should use in these situations if you want someone to move out of the way. Scusi, scusa and scusate won’t work here.
For example:
Permesso, devo scendere qui -Excuse me, I need to get off here
Permesso, posso entrare? -Excuse me, can I come in?
Scusi vs Scusa Explained
You might have learnt that when we say “you” informal in Italian you always add an -i on the end, and when you say “you” formal you add either an -e or an -a . You can read more about this in our blogpost on the Italian present tense .
With “excuse me” in Italian it works a bit differently because you’re technically giving a polite order, a bit like saying “forgive me”. So it follows a special grammar pattern called the imperative.
But you don’t have to worry too much about the complicated grammar for now, just know scusi is for formal and scusa is for informal.
How to Say “Excuse Me” in Italian (With Real-Life Examples): Review
Using the right “excuse me” makes your Italian sound natural and polite. Let’s review the four main ways to say it:
-
Scusi - Formal “Excuse me”
You use this with people you don’t know well, like waiters or shop assistants. It’s polite and respectful.
For example:
Scusi, il conto per favore -Excuse me, the bill please
Scusi, dov’è il binario 2? -Excuse me, where’s platform 2?
-
Scusa - Informal “Excuse me”
You use this with friends, family, or people you know well. Or you can use it in relaxed places, like cafés.
For example:
Scusa, dove sono i bagni? -Excuse me, where are the bathrooms?
-
Scusate - You Plural “Excuse me”
You use this when talking to two people or more in both formal and informal situations.
For example:
Scusate, siete in fila? - Excuse me, are you in line?
Scusate, è questo il treno per Bologna? - Excuse me, is this the train for Bologna?
-
Permesso - “Excuse me” when trying to get past
You use permesso when you want someone to move aside or when asking to enter a room. Using scusi/scusa/scusate aren’t really the right words for this situation.
For example:
Permesso, devo scendere qui -Excuse me, I need to get off here.
-
Scusi vs Scusa
“Excuse me” technically isn’t the present tense, it’s the “imperative”, so the rules are different. No need to stress about the grammar, just know that:
Scusi is the formal
Scusa is the informal
K: Ciao a tutti e benvenuti! Hi everyone and welcome to “Learn Italian with Joy of Languages”.
M: In today’s episode, you’ll learn the three different ways to say “excuse me” in Italian and how to use them, with some practical, real-life phrases that you can use in Italy.
K: But before we get started, can we ask you a quick favore? If you’re listening to this on your podcast app, could you click the subscribe or follow button? This way you’ll get notified when we release a new episode and you’ll help our podcast grow so we can keep making free lessons like this. Grazie!
M: The first way to say “excuse me” is: scusi , with -i on the end. Scusi.(x2)
K: Scusi is the way to say “excuse me” in formal situations. You’ll use it with people you don’t know well, like waiters, shop assistants or strangers in the street.
M: For example, you might use it to get a waiter’s attention and say: Scusi, il conto per favore - excuse me, the bill please Literally:
Scusi - Excuse me (formal)
Il - the
Conto - bill
Per favore - please
Scusi, il conto per favore
K: Or you can use it if you’re asking if a seat is free, like on the bus or train if someone has put their bag there.
M: For example, you could ask Scusi, è libero? - Excuse me, is it free? Literally:
Scusi - excuse me
È - it is
Libero - free
Scusi, è libero?
K: You can also say scusi, if you didn’t catch what someone said, like saying “sorry?” or “pardon?” in English.
M: You just have to raise your voice at the end to make it clear that you’re saying it as a question: scusi? (x2)
K: If you want to apologize to someone, like if you misunderstood something or accidentally bumped into them, you can also just say: scusi , in this case it’s a bit more like saying “sorry”.
M: For informal situations, so with friends or people you know well, you have to use a different word for “excuse me” in Italian.
K: The informal word for “excuse me” in Italian is scusa, with an -a on the end, scusa.(x2) If you’ve already had a few Italian lessons, you might find it a bit confusing that in Italian you say scusi for formal situations and scusa for informal situations, because usually in Italian, the informal “you” usually ends in the letter -i, which sounds like -ee, and the formal you ends in an -a or -e sound.
M: For example, in the informal we say parli italiano? - do you speak Italian? The word parli , you speak, ends in an -i, pronounced “ee”, to show that you’re using the informal “you”.
And you’d say parla italiano? do you (formal) speak Italian?. You say parla, with an -a on the end to show that you’re using the formal “you”.
K: Whereas with scusi and scusa it’s exactly the opposite! Scusi is formal and scusa is informal. Don’t worry too much about the grammar rules, but the reason is that you’re technically using a command, or for its fancy grammar name “imperative”, when you’re saying “excuse me”. Even though it’s polite, you’re still giving a kind of order, like “forgive me”. And because of this, the rules are different from the normal present tense.
M: But don’t worry too much about understanding how to use this grammar point in Italian because it’s fairly advanced. Just know that scusi is formal and scusa is informal.
K: Let’s hear some examples with scusa now too. say “sorry?” if you haven’t heard something that someone you know has said, like you saw with scusi.
M: And again, you’d raise your voice at the end to show you’re saying “sorry?” as a kind of question, so it would be: scusa? (x2)
Or you can say use it as a way to apologize, again like you saw with scusi. So if you bumped into a friend or someone you know well, you’d say: scusa (x2).
K: If you wanted to get the attention of someone you know well, you could say scusa as well.
M: For example, if we’re travelling, Katie might ask me: Scusa, Matteo, dove sono i biglietti? - Sorry, Matteo, where are the tickets? Literally:
Scusa - excuse me
Matteo
Dove – where
Sono – are
I biglietti – the tickets?
Scusa, Matteo, dove sono i biglietti?
K: This is a very realistic example as I do tend to lose things. There’s one more way to say “excuse me” in Italian. This is the third way, so no wonder it’s a confusing topic.
Unlike English, Italian has a way of saying “you” that’s used when you’re talking to two or more people.
M: When you want to say “excuse me” to a group of people it’s scusate (x2). The good news is you don’t have to worry about informal or formal with this one. Scusate works in both cases, as long as you’re speaking to more than one person.
For example, if you want to check who’s last in line, like at a ticket office or waiting to go the bathroom, you could say:
Scusate, siete in fila? - excuse me, are you in the line? Literally:
Scusate - Excuse me (you plural)
Siete - you plural are
In - in
Fila - line
Scusate, siete in fila?
K: You could also use scusate to catch someone’s attention.
M: Like scusate, è questo il treno per Bologna?- Excuse me, is this the train for Bologna? Literally:
Scusate - Excuse me (you plural)
È - is
Questo - this
Il - the
Treno - train
Per - for
Bologna - Bologna
K: Now that you’ve heard the three words for “excuse me” in Italian, let’s review to see what you can remember.
What’s the formal way of saying “excuse me”?
[...]
M: Scusi , ending in an -i, pronounced ee. Scusi. For example, you might say scusi, il conto per favore - Excuse me, the bill please
K: And what about the informal way of saying “excuse me”?
[...]
M: Scusa , ending in an -a. Scusa. For example, scusa Matteo, dove sono i biglietti? Excuse me Matteo, where are the tickets?
K: And what’s the last way to say “excuse me”, that you’d use with a group of people?
M: Scusate (x2). For example, scusate, siete in fila? - Excuse me, are you in line?
K: So overall, you can use “excuse me” in Italian to get someone’s attention, to apologize or to ask someone to repeat. You can use it in all kinds of situations, you just have to remember to use the right “excuse me” for the right person.
M: But we haven’t mentioned there’s actually a fourth way to say “excuse me” in Italian.
K: It works a bit differently to the other ones we’ve mentioned, although it’s easier because there’s just one word to use whether it’s formal, informal or plural. It’s really important to know because it’s the only one that works in certain situations.
M: To find out what that word is, click the link in the description to head over to our website, or go to italian.joyoflanguages.com/podcast and search for episode 194.
K: And just a quick note before we go – we’ll be taking a break in August while we take some time off and get ready for the new term of our Online Italian School starting in September. So there won’t be the usual new blogpost and podcast episodes, but we’ll still be sharing new videos over on our YouTube channel, so if you want to keep learning Italian with us over the next few weeks, you can follow us over there. You’ll find the link in the description.
M: See you next time.
K: Or as we say in Italian.
Alla prossima!
Time to check your understanding and remember everything you just learned! Below you’ll find a mini-quiz and some vocabulary cards to help it all go in.
Quiz: How to Say “Excuse Me” in Italian
How much did you learn? Find out in the quiz!
Click here to take the quiz for this episode: How to Say “Excuse Me” in Italian
Vocabulary
Scusi, il conto per favore = Excuse me (formal), the bill please
Scusi, dov’è il binario 2? = Excuse me (formal), where’s platform 2?
Scusa, dove sono i bagni? = Excuse me (informal), where are the bathrooms?
Scusa, dov’è la cassa? = Excuse me (informal), where’s the cash register?
Scusa Matteo, dove sono i biglietti? = Sorry Matteo, where are the tickets?
Scusate, siete in fila? = Excuse me (you plural), are you in the line?
Scusate, è questo il treno per Bologna? = Excuse me (you plural), is this the train for Bologna?
Permesso, devo scendere qui = Excuse me (can I get by), I need to get off here
Scusi, è libero? = Excuse me (formal), is it free?
Flashcards: How to Say “Excuse Me” in Italian
Not sure how it works? Click here to watch the tutorial
