Passaporto? Check!
Deodorante? Check!
You’ve packed everything you need, but there’s one thing missing if you want to make the most out of your trip to Italy…
The most important Italian words and phrases to help you get by in the local language!
You don’t need to be fluent in Italian to enjoy communicating as you go about your day. In fact, you can do more than you think with just a few words.
Here, you’ll learn 36 Italian words you’ll use all the time, so you can start getting by and enjoy your time in Italy (with minimal preparation!)
Italian Words You’ll Hear and Say a Lot
When you’re travelling around Italy , there are some practical words you’ll come across all the time. Below are a few essentials. Some are similar to English, which makes them easier to remember – sì!
| Il passaporto | Passport | EEL PAS–SAH–POR–TOH |
| Il biglietto | Ticket | EEL BEEL–YEH–TOH |
| I contanti | Cash | EE KON–TAN–TEE |
| La carta (di credito) | (Credit) card | LAH KAR–TAH (DEE KREH–DEE–TOH) |
| Il bancomat | ATM/cash machine | EEL BAN–COH–MAT |
| La valigia | Suitcase | LAH VAH–LEE–JAH |
| La stazione | Station | LAH STAH–TS–OH–NEH |
| Il binario | Platform | EEL BEE–NAH–REE–OH |
| Il posto | Seat/place (e.g. on a train) | EEL POH–STOH |
| L’aeroporto | Airport | LAH–EH–REE–OH–POR–TOH |
| L’entrata | Entrance | LEN–TRAH–TAH |
| L’uscita | Exit | LOO–SHEE–TAH |
| La fila | Line/queue | LAH FEE–LAH |
| La coda | Line/queue | LAH COH–DAH |
Let’s see some examples of these words in use:
Dov’è la stazione? – Where’s the station?
Posso lasciare la valigia qui? – Can I leave my suitcase here?
Il treno parte dal binario sei – The train is leaving from platform 6
Carta o contanti? – Card or cash?
Comincia qui la fila? – Does the line start here?
Good to know: Standing in Line in Italy The expressions fila and coda are interchangeable in Italian. And, despite their reputation, Italians stand in line sometimes, too! Particularly in places like the supermercato (grocery store) . In other situations, such as waiting for public transport , you might find more of a crowd.
Italian Words to Get Important Stuff Done
When we talk about important stuff in Italy, of course, we’re mostly talking about food!
Here are some handy words to help you point things out: the first two will help you order smoothly at the market or from an Italian menu , even if you don’t know the name or how to say the thing you want.
| Questo | This | KWEH–STOH |
| Quello | That | KWEH–LOH |
| Qui | Here | KWEE |
| Lì | There | LEE |
| Ecco | Here it is/here you go | EK–KOH |
Let’s see some more detailed examples of how you might use these words in different situations:
Vorrei quello, per favore – I’d like that, please
Vorrei questo, per favore – I’d like this, please
Ecco il biglietto – Here’s the ticket
L’uscita è lì – The exit is there
C’è un bancomat qui? – Is there a cash machine here?
Italian Words for Asking Questions
When you’re exploring new places on your Italian adventures, you’ll probably have a few questions! These three words will help you find the information you need.
| Posso…? | Can I…? | POS–SOH |
| Avete…? | Do you have…? | AH–VEH–TEH |
| Dov’è…? | Where is…? | DOV–EH? |
Let’s see a few handy examples:
Posso pagare con la carta? – Can I pay by card?
Posso chiedere un’informazione? – Can I ask for some information?
Avete dei piatti vegetariani? – Do you have vegetarian dishes?
Avete il wifi? – Do you have wifi?
Dov’è il bagno? – Where’s the bathroom?
Matteo, dov’è la tua carta di credito? – Matteo, where’s your credit card?
Good to know We use avete to ask “do you have…” when addressing more than one person, so it’s perfect for restaurants or ticket offices where there is a team of people. For more details, check out this post on how to use the verb AVERE in Italian .
Ah, and did you notice the funny apostrophe and accent in the word dov’è? It’s a combination of dove (where) and è (is). Remember to emphasise the last part: dov’ È.
Greeting and Being Polite in Italian
One of the fastest ways to feel part of the daily life in Italy is to use the common words for everyday polite interactions . Here are the main ones to know:
| Buongiorno | Hello (formal, daytime) | BWON–JOR–NOH |
| Buonasera | Hello (formal, evening) | BWON–NAH–SEH–RAH |
| Arrivederci | Goodbye (formal) | AR–REE–VEH–DER–CHEE |
| Ciao | Hi/bye (informal) | CHA-OW |
| Grazie | Thank you | GRATS–YEAH |
| Per favore | Please | PER FAH–VOH–REH |
| Prego | You’re welcome | PREH–GOH |
| Scusi | Sorry/excuse me (formal) | SKOO–ZEE |
| Scusa | Sorry/excuse me (informal) | SKOO–ZAH |
And here are a couple of handy ones that usually only the locals use!
| Salve | Hello (formal, any time of day) | SAL–VEH |
| Permesso | Excuse me (when moving past people) | PER–MEH–SOH |
That last word, permesso, is very handy, and not a lot of tourists know it! When you need to move past people, for example in a crowded street, Italians don’t say scusi. Instead they say permesso. You can learn similar handy Italian travel phrases in this video with one of our Italian teachers, Mary !
3 Very Useful Italian Verbs
You might think you need to know a lot of different verb forms and grammar before you can start speaking Italian , but that’s not true! Here are three very practical Italian verbs that don’t take long to learn and will help you say a lot in Italy:
| Prendere | To take, to have | PREN–DEH-REH |
| Fare | To do | FAH-REH |
| Pagare | To pay | PAH–GAH–REH |
We use prendere to talk about transport and for ordering food and drink. For example:
Prendere il treno – To take the train
Prendere un taxi – To take a taxi
Prendere una carbonara – To have a carbonara
Prendere uno spritz – To have a spritz
Fare literally means “to do”, but it doesn’t always translate exactly in Italian! You’ll hear it very often in these travel phrases:
Fare il biglietto – To book/buy a ticket (lit. “do” a ticket)
Fare la valigia – To pack your suitcase (lit. “do” the suitcase)
Fare la coda/la fila – To stand in line/queue (lit. to “do” the line)
Pagare is very similar to English, and you’ll find yourself using it a lot while travelling around Italy. For example:
Pagare al tavolo – To pay at the table
Pagare alla cassa – To pay at the cash register
Pagare in contanti – To pay in cash
Pagare con la carta – To pay by credit card
Keep in mind that in Italian, the verb ending changes to show who is doing the action. Prendere and pagare follow the same pattern as all regular Italian verbs . Fare is irregular and has a mind of its own: you can learn all about how the verb FARE works here .
Italian Words to Add to Your Travel List: Review
Evviva! (Yey!) You just learned some very handy Italian words that will help you do a lot on your trip. Here’s a list you can review whenever you need to:
Il passaporto – Passport
Il biglietto – Ticket
I contanti – Cash
La carta (di credito) – (Credit) card
Il bancomat – Cash machine
La valigia – Suitcase
La stazione – Station
Il binario – Platform
Il posto – Seat/place (e.g. on train)
L'aeroporto – Airport
L’entrata – Entrance
L’uscita – Exit
La coda/la fila – Line or queue
Questo – This
Quello – That
Qui – Here
Lì – There
Ecco – Here it is/here you go
Posso… – Can I…
Avete… – Do you have…
Dov’è… – Where is…
Buongiorno – Hello (formal, daytime)
Buonasera – Hello (formal, evening)
Arrivederci – Goodbye (formal)
Ciao – Hi/bye (informal)
Grazie – Thank you
Per favore – Please
Prego – You’re welcome
Scusi – Excuse me/sorry (formal)
Scusa – Excuse me/sorry (informal)
Salve – Hello (formal, any time of day)
Permesso – Excuse me (when moving past people)
Prendere – To take (transport); to have (food/drink)
Fare – To do (but remember, it doesn’t always translate!)
Pagare – To pay
There’s quite a lot to learn here, so don’t feel like you need to memorise everything all at once. In fact, why don’t you take this lesson with you in your valigia? You can use it as a reference as you go around Italy and enjoy communicating with Italians!
K: Ciao a tutti e benvenuti! Hi everyone and welcome to “Learn Italian with Joy of Languages”.
M: We’re talking about your future trips in Italy, but we’re not actually in Italy at the moment!
K: We’re in Sheffield, England, and our friends are getting married all the way up north in Glasgow soon. What does this have to do with you learning Italian? Well, we still have to decide how to get there, and whenever we talk about it, we use lots of common travel words that I think you might find useful, too.
M: Before we listen to the conversation, could we ask you a quick favore? Can you hit the subscribe or follow button on your podcast app as you’re listening? You’ll get notified when we release a new episode and help our podcast grow. Grazie!
K: Listen to our conversation, how many useful travel words and phrases can you hear?
M: Faccio i biglietti per l’aereo?
K: No, prendiamo il treno… sono solo 5 ore
M: Sono 6 ore!
K: In aeroporto devi fare la coda per il controllo passaporti…
M: Sì… e fare la fila per la valigia
K: Ok, allora prendiamo il treno. Pago io. Dov’è la tua carta di credito?
K: So Matteo said:
M: Faccio i biglietti per l’aereo? – Shall I book tickets for the plane? Literally:
Faccio – I do
I biglietti – the tickets
Per – for
L’aereo – the plane (that’s L, apostrophe aereo).
K: Here’s our first useful phrase, and something very interesting about Italian! You may know that we use the verb fare, literally “to do” in lots of different expressions. You can learn more about this in episode 132. In Italian, it’s correct to say “buy the ticket”, with comprare : Comprare il biglietto. Or you can say “book the ticket”, with prenotare. Prenotare il biglietto.
M: But if you want to sound really natural, like a native speaker, you can say fare il biglietto (x2)
K: These things can be a bit confusing in Italian, and my advice is to not stress about the logic too much. Just learn some of the common phrases with fare , and start using them, and you’ll feel really Italian. Fare il biglietto. In this sentence, we also had “the ticket”:
M: Il biglietto (x2)
K: With the GL sound, a bit like a L, but the tongue slides across the top of your mouth. Il biglietto (x2). You also heard the word aereo (x2), which means plane.
M: Aereo.
K: Another mouthful to pronounce! Take it one syllable at a time. AH–EH–REH–OH (x2).
M: Aereo.
K: To say “the plane”, we put L apostrophe in front of it, like we do with all words that start with a vowel.
M: L’aereo (x2)
K: Then I said:
M: No, prendiamo il treno… – No, let’s take the train…
No – no
Prendiamo – we take
Il treno – the train
K: Here’s another handy, very versatile verb in Italian. Prendere. To take:
M: Prendere (x2)
K: You can use this to talk about transport, for example, how would you say “to take the train”?
[...]
M: Prendere il treno (x2)
K: To take a taxi?
[...]
M: Prendere un taxi (x2)
K: In this case, we said “we take”. To say who is doing the action in Italian, we change the end of the verb. We take is:
[...]
M: Prendiamo (x2)
K: Let’s take the train, which in Italian is literally “we take the train”:
[...]
M: Prendiamo il treno (x2)
K: I continued:
M: sono solo 5 ore – it’s only 5 hours
sono – they are
solo – only
cinque – five
ore – hours
K: In Italian, to talk about time, we treat hours as plural, that’s why we literally say “they are”. You can learn more about this in episode 31. Next, Matteo said:
M: Sono 6 ore! – it’s 6 hours!
Sono – they are
Sei – six
Ore – hours
K: So the train actually takes about 5 and a half hours, cinque ore e mezza , but here I’m being a bit over optimistic as usual
M: So then I have to be a bit pessimistic to balance you out 😀
K: Then I said:
M: In aeroporto devi fare la coda – At the airport, you have to wait in line, or in the queue, as we say in the UK. Literally:
In aeroporto – in airport
Devi – you must
Fare – Do
La – The
Coda – line
K: Here’s another funny expression with the verb fare, to do, in Italian.
M: To wait in line, we literally say “do the line”. Fare la coda (x2)
K: And which coda was I talking about in this case? La coda per… the line for…
M: il controllo passaporti… – passport control
Il – the
Controllo – control
Passaporti – passports
K: Two interesting things here! Here we see how Italians often say things backwards. Passport control is “the control passport”: il controllo passaporti . In the same way that red wine is “the wine red”: il vino rosso.
M: Ah and here is another very important word! You heard i passaporti, passports. Passport in the singular is il passaporto (x2)
K: Matteo agrees with me!
M: It does happen occasionally!
K: So he says:
M: Sì… e fare la fila per la valigia – Yes, and wait in line for the suitcase.
Sì… – Yes…
E – and
Fare – do
La – the
Fila – line
Per – for
La – the
Valigia – suitcase
K: Fila is another way to say coda .
M: They’re interchangeable. You can say fare la fila or fare la coda. It’s the same.
K: And you heard another useful word, the suitcase! Can you remember how to say it?
[...]
M: La valigia (x2)
Then I said:
M: OK, allora prendiamo il treno. – OK, well let’s take the train.
OK – OK
Allora – Well
Prendiamo – We take
Il treno – The train
K: Very generously, I offered to pay:
M: Pago io – Literally
Pago – I pay
Io – I
K: Here, the word pago already means “I pay”. The little “io” (I) at the end is for extra emphasis, like saying I’LL pay.
M: Pago IO.
K: Pago comes from the word pagare, to pay, which is very useful in Italian! For example, how would you say “to pay in cash”? Cash is contanti.
[...]
Pagare in contanti
K: To pay by card? Literally, to pay with the card?
[...]
M: Pagare con la carta
K: Then I asked:
M: Dov’è la tua carta di credito? – Where’s your credit card?
M: Unbelievable.
K: Yours is easier to find! That phrase, translated literally is:
M:
Dov’è – Where is, which is dove (where) and è (is) smushed together: dov’è
La – the
Tua – your (Italians say “the your” rather than just “your”)
Carta – card
Di – of
Credito – credit
K: Here’s another useful expression, the credit card: la carta di credito .
M: La carta di credito (x2). It’s even more useful if you can pay with someone else’s!
K: Certo, of course! Sometimes you might also just hear la carta. Another couple of useful phrases are: card or cash?
[...]
M: Carta o contanti? (x2)
[...]
K: And “can I pay by card?” In Italian we start with “can I”, which is posso. And we say “with the card”
[...]
M: Posso pagare con la carta? (x2)
K: Let’s listen to the whole conversation one more time:
M: Faccio i biglietti per l’aereo?
K: No, prendiamo il treno… sono solo 5 ore
M: Sono 6 ore!
K: In aeroporto devi fare la coda per il controllo passaporti…
M: Sì… e fare la fila per la valigia
K: Ok, allora prendiamo il treno. Pago io. Dov’è la tua carta di credito?
M: This week on the blog, we have lots more helpful Italian words to add to your Italian travel list!
K: You can also see everything from today’s lesson written down and review what you learned with our vocabulary cards and quiz. Just head over to our website by clicking the link in the description. Or you can go to italian.joyoflanguages.com/podcast and search for episode [147].
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 much did you learn? Find out in the quiz!
Click here to take the quiz for this episode: 36 Helpful Italian Words to Add to Your Travel List
Vocabulary
Il biglietto = The ticket
Fare il biglietto = To buy/book a ticket (lit. “do the ticket”)
L’aereo = The aeroplane
Prendere il treno = To take the train
Fare la fila/coda = To stand in line (lit. “do the line”)
Il passaporto = The passport
La valigia = The suitcase
La carta di credito = Credit card
Posso pagare con la carta? = Can I pay by card? (lit. with the card)
Flashcards: 36 Helpful Italian Words to Add to Your Travel List
Not sure how it works? Click here to watch the tutorial
