When you’re saying goodbye in Italy, you might not just hear ciao. It’s also really common to hear “have fun” before you go off to do other plans.
How do you say “have fun” in Italian? Here, you’ll see one simple way to say it, plus a few extra phrases you're also likely to hear in Italy that suit different situations.
There’s also one way you might be tempted to say “have fun”, but it’s actually not quite right in Italian😅…we’ll explain that one too. Cominciamo!
How to Say Have Fun In Italian: The Simple Way
One way you can say “have fun” in Italian is:
| Buon divertimento | Have fun (Lit. good fun) | Bwohn dee-vehr-tee-MEN-toh |
For example:
-A dopo! Vado al concerto -See you later! I’m going to the concert
-Buon divertimento! -Have fun!
Or:
-Oggi andiamo al mare -Today, we’re going to the seaside
-Buon divertimento! -Have fun!
This way of saying “have fun” in Italian works really well because you can use it in both formal and informal situations. So you can use it with a friend, or also with someone you don’t know very well, and you won’t offend anyone. It also works with just one person, or a group of people.
💡 Good to know
It’s common to add buon in front of the word in Italian to offer well wishes, like buon viaggio (Italian for bon voyage ) or buona giornata (“have a good day”) .
Other really useful ways to say “have fun” in Italian
You might want to tweak how you say “have fun” depending on the situation. Here are some other really useful ways to say “have fun” in Italian.
Divertiti - Have fun, have a nice time (lit. enjoy yourself)
Pronunciation: Dee-VEHR-tee-tee
Divertiti is the word we use for “have fun” when we’re just talking to one person. It’s also informal.
For example:
Divertiti domani! -Have fun tomorrow
Divertiti a teatro! -Have fun at the theater
If you want to know more about how it works when we add “yourself” to a word in Italian, you can read more about it in our post on reflexive verbs
Divertitevi - Have fun, have a nice time (lit. enjoy yourselves)
Pronunciation: Dee-vehr-TEE-teh-vee
Italians use a different word for “you” when they’re talking to more than one person. So, if you’re talking to a few people, you’ll want to say divertitevi to say “have fun”.
For example:
- Ciao, andiamo al cinema -Bye, we’re going to the cinema
-Ok, divertitevi! -Ok, have fun!
Passa una buona giornata - Have a good day (you singular)
Pronunciation: PAHS-sah OO-nah BWOH-nah jor-NAH-tah
You use passa una buona giornata if you’re speaking to just one person in Italian. It’s very polite and friendly.
For example:
Grazie per l’aiuto, passa una buona giornata! -Thanks for the help, have a good day!
Grazie per la visita, passa una buona giornata! -Thanks for visiting, have a great day!
Passate una buona giornata - Have a good day (you plural)
Pronunciation: Pahs-SAH-teh OO-nah BWOH-nah jor-NAH-tahIf you’re speaking to more than one person and want to tell them “have a good day”, you use passate una buona giornata .
For example:
Passate una buona giornata in famiglia! -Have a good day with the family!
Passate una buona giornata in montagna! -Have a good day in the mountains!
Buon proseguimento - Enjoy the rest of the trip, all the best going forward (lit. good continuation)
Pronunciation: Bwohn pro-seh-gwee-MEN-toh
In English, we don’t really have a phrase that’s as useful as buon proseguimento . You can use it in so many situations, like saying goodbye to friends who are carrying on their trip, continuing their day, or just moving on to the next thing.
Like buon divertimento , this phrase also works with any type of person, whether it’s one person or a group, or whether it’s formal or informal.
For example:
- Grazie per l’ospitalità! -Thank you for the hospitality.
- Di niente! Buon proseguimento! - You’re welcome! Enjoy the rest of your trip!
What’s the Wrong Way to Say “Have Fun” in Italian?
If you haven’t seen how Italians say “have fun” before, it’s really common to try and translate it word for word from English.
That might lead to something like ❌ hai divertimento (literally “you have fun”).
But that’s not how Italians say it. In fact, they don’t use the word “have” at all.
So instead of ❌ hai divertimento , go with one of the phrases above. These are the ones you'll actually hear in real Italian conversations.
Have Fun in Italian: The Right (and Wrong) Way to Say It: Review
Now you know the best ways to say “have fun” in Italian. Let’s review what you’ve learnt.
-
Buon divertimento is a way to say “have fun” in Italian that works in formal and informal situations.
For example:
- A dopo! Vado al concerto -See you later! I’m going to the concert
-Buon divertimento! -Have fun!
-
There are some other ways to say “have fun” that you might want to use:
Divertiti - Have fun (lit. enjoy yourself)
Divertitevi -Have fun (lit. enjoy yourselves)
Passa una buona giornata -Have a good day (you singular)
Passate una buona giornata -Have a good day (you plural)
Buon proseguimento -Enjoy the rest of your trip
For example:
-Ciao, andiamo al cinema -Bye, we’re going to the cinema
-Ok, divertitevi! -Ok, have fun!
Or:
- Grazie per l’ospitalità! -Thank you for the hospitality.
-Di niente! Buon proseguimento! -You’re welcome! Enjoy the rest of your trip!
-
Don’t translate “have fun” literally from the English. An Italian wouldn’t say hai divertimento.
K: Ciao a tutti e benvenuti! Hi everyone and welcome to “Learn Italian with Joy of Languages”.
We know that “have fun” is really useful to know in Italian. You might hear a receptionist say it as you’re about to go out, or your apartment host might say it to wish you a fun stay in Italy.
M: It might be tempting to translate “have fun” in Italian word for word, but you actually don’t want to use the word “have” in Italian at all. There’s another word you have to use.
K: Before we get started on what that word is, 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: In this conversation between Katie and I, we use a few different ways to say “have fun”. See if you can spot them.
K: Ho già finito per oggi. Ora ho il pomeriggio libero.
M: Ah, buon divertimento :(
K: Vado al cinema
M: Divertiti
K: E tu? Che fai?
M: Pulisco la casa e porto Brody dal veterinario
K: Ah…ok, divertitevi, ciao!
K: I told Matteo
M: Ho già finito per oggi . - I’ve already finished for today.
Ho - I have
Già - already
Finito - finished
per - for
Oggi - today
Ho già finito per oggi
K: Then I added
M: Ora ho il pomeriggio libero - Now I have the afternoon free.
Ora - Now
Ho - I have
Il - the
Pomeriggio - afternoon
Libero - free
Ora ho il pomeriggio libero
K: Matteo has to carry on working, so he replied:
M: Ah, buon divertimento :( - ah, have fun. Literally:
Buon - good
Divertimento - fun
K: If it wasn’t clear from Matteo’s tone, he’s saying this a bit sarcastically, but most of the time we use this phrase and mean it genuinely.
M: So one way you can say “have fun” is buon divertimento.
K: Putting “good” (or buon ) in front of a word as a way to give some well wishes is really common in Italian and you might have heard it in some phrases before.
M: For example, you can say
Buon viaggio - “have a good trip”. Literally:
Buon - good
Viaggio - trip
Buon viaggio
Or if you have a feminine word, you’d say buona , like in the phrase “have a good day”. Literally:
Buona - good
Giornata - day
Buona giornata
K: If you notice from these expressions, although we’re saying have in English, like “have a good day”, we’re not actually using the word “have” at all in Italian. So we don’t want to translate word for word. Instead, we want to use the Italian for good, which is buon for masculine words and buona for feminine.
Also the nice thing about using buon divertimento for “have fun” is that it can be used in formal and informal ways. You never have to worry about offending anyone with this one.
Then I told Matteo my plans for the afternoon
M: Vado al cinema - I’m going to the cinema. Literally:
Vado - I go
Al - to the
Cinema - cinema
Vado al cinema
And Matteo replied:
M: Divertiti - have fun, or literally: enjoy yourself. If we break it down you’re saying:
Diverti - you enjoy
Ti - yourself
Divertiti (x2)
K: This way to say “have fun” is a bit trickier, because you have to add this little word ti (“yourself”) on the end, like we do when we say a phrase like “enjoy yourself ” in English.
M: This ti on the end to mean yourself is for the informal “you”, so you usually use divertiti with friends and Italians that you know well.
K: Then I asked Matteo
M: E tu? Che fai? - And you? What are you doing? Literally:
E - and
Tu - you
Che - what
Fai - you do
E tu? Che fai?
K: Matteo gave a few of his chores for the afternoon:
M: Pulisco la casa - I’m cleaning the house. Literally:
Pulisco - I clean
La - the
Casa - house
Pulisco la casa
K: Then he added:
E porto Brody dal veterinario - and I’m bringing Brody to the vet. Literally:
E - and
Porto - I bring
Brody
Dal - of the
Veterinario - vet
E porto Brody dal veterinario
K: As a side note, if you’re talking about going to a place that’s named after the person who works there, like the doctor’s or the mechanic’s, Italians use “dal”.
M: For example, we say vado dal dottore - I go to the doctor’s. Or vado dal meccanico - I go to the mechanic’s. Or in this case, Vado dal veterinario - I'm going to the vet’s
K: After Matteo told me his plans, I replied:
M: Ah…ok, divertitevi, ciao! - Ah…ok, have fun, bye!, or literally: ok, enjoy yourselves, bye. If we break it down you’re saying:
Divertite - you (plural) enjoy
Vi - yourselves
K: This is the final example for “have fun” that you heard in the conversation.
M: Divertitevi (x2)
It sounds similar to divertiti we heard before, but this time we're talking to more than one person, so we use divertite , the plural form of “you enjoy.” Divertite (x2).
And instead of “yourself”, we say “yourselves”, which is vi in Italian. vi. ”.
K: Put those together and you get:
M: Divertitevi (x2)
K: Let’s compare the two versions again. So for just one person that you know well, we say “di-VER-ti—ti” (x2). That’s “you enjoy” (di-ver-ti), plus yourself “ti”. Divertiti.
M: Divertiti (x2)
K: And then if you’re talking to more than one person, we say “di-ver-TI-te—vi” (x2). That’s “you enjoy”, the plural you, “di-ver-TI-te”, plus “yourselves: “vi”
M: Divertitevi (x2)
K: Have fun to one person:
M: Divertiti.
K: To more than one person:
M: Divertitevi.
K: These two can be a bit tricky to pronounce, because the stress falls in different places in each word. When saying it to one person, we highlight the VER part of the word. DiVEEERtiti.
M: DiVERtiti. (x2)
K: While for more than one, it falls on the TI. DiverTIIIItevi.
M: DiverTItevi (x2)
K: It’s completely normal if you find this all a bit confusing at first. I remember thinking “what the…” and having my mind blown the first time Italians tried to explain this difference to me. I asked them to repeat it many, many times!
M: If you prefer to keep things simple for now, you can stick with the phrase we heard at the start: buon divertimento, which works with anyone you’re speaking to. You can use buon divertimento (x2) anytime: in the formal, or the informal, with one person or with a group.
K: Let’s see if you can remember these three different ways to say “have fun” so you can recognise them or use them when you’re in Italy.
What’s the way to say “have fun” that works with anyone you’re talking to? You say it in a similar way to other Italian phrases like “have a good day” or “trip”.
[...]
M: Buon divertimento (x2)
K: And what’s the informal way to say “have fun” to one person in Italian? It’s like saying “enjoy yourself”.
[...]
M: DiVERtiti (x2)
K: What about “have fun” for more than one person?
[...]
M: DiverTItevi (x2)
K: It’s also worth mentioning that these all work as well as the most natural way to say “have a nice time” in Italian, so if you’ve ever wondered how to say that, now you know that too.
Let’s listen to the whole conversation again.
K: Ho già finito per oggi. Ora ho il pomeriggio libero.
M: Ah, buon divertimento :(
K: Vado al cinema
M: Divertiti
K: E tu? Che fai?
M: Pulisco la casa e porto Brody dal veterinario
K: Ah…ok, divertitevi, ciao!
M: Now you know how to say “have fun” in Italian, but that might not be all that you hear in Italy after someone says ciao.
K: To see the full list of things you might hear in Italy, so you can make sure to say grazie if you need to, head over to our website by clicking on the link in the description. Or you can go to italian.joyoflanguages.com/podcast and search for episode 187.
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 : Have Fun in Italian
How much did you learn? Find out in the quiz!
Click here to take the quiz for this episode: Have Fun in Italian
Vocabulary
Buon divertimento = Have fun (lit. good fun)
Divertiti = Have fun (Lit. enjoy yourself)
Divertitevi = Have fun (lit. enjoy yourselves)
Passa una buona giornata = Have a good day (you singular)
Passate una buona giornata = Have a good day (you plural)
Buon proseguimento = Enjoy the rest of your trip, all the best going forward
Flashcards: Have Fun in Italian
Not sure how it works? Click here to watch the tutorial
