By Katie Harris
Using the Italian phrases you’ve learned is one thing… understanding the speedy reply is quite another!
Learners experience this all the time and I remember it well myself.
When Italians speak really fast, using phrases you’ve never heard before, it can feel like this: 🐰Bunny. 🚘Headlights.
But it doesn’t have to.
Understanding spoken Italian isn’t as hard as it seems. Most people struggle because they’ve been using the wrong strategies, or often, none at all.
Once you know how to improve your listening skills, they’ll get better surprisingly fast. So here, you’ll learn 4 simple techniques that will help you understand Italians.
You’ll also learn one phrase you should never say when you don’t understand, and what to say instead.
Psst – if you’d like some extra help with Italian conversations, our Online Italian School is opening soon and we’d love to welcome you!
This could be why you struggle to understand Italian
Think back to school and language courses you’ve done in the past. How much time did you spend listening? If you’re like me, probably not much!
I remember doing lots of vocabulary and verbs, but only a few minutes of listening per week.
No wonder I wasn’t very good at it.
If you want to improve your Italian listening skills, you need to focus on improving them.
It sounds obvious, but most people don’t do it! You’ll learn how in the rest of this post.
Steps 1 and 2 will help you understand Italians better mid-conversation, while steps 3 and 4 will show you the best ways to practise listening at home so you can hone your skills quickly.
So if you’re tutt’orecchi, all ears, let’s get started.
Step 1: Don’t try to understand every Italian word
When you listen to Italians speak, it’s normal to miss a lot of words or parts of a sentence. You find yourself fixating on what you didn’t catch while the person keeps talking, and by the time you’ve figured it out, they’ve moved on to a new topic. It’s frustrating!
Good news: you don’t need to understand every single word in Italian. Instead of being distracted by what you didn’t get, focus on the context and key words to grasp the general meaning.
Even native speakers do this for efficiency, as studies have shown. You can do it too, and you'll be in good company.
Step 2: Slow Italians down (it’s possible!)
In real-life Italian conversations you can’t press the pause or rewind button unfortunately. But the next best thing is to tell people what you need!
Just ask:
| Può ripetere? | Can you repeat? (formal) | PWOH REE–PEH–TEH–REH |
| Puoi ripetere? | Can you repeat? (informal) | PWOY REE–PEH–TEH–REH |
| Più piano, per favore | More slowly, please | PYUU PYAH–NOH PER–FAH–VOH–REH |
And if you want to keep the conversation going in Italian, here’s one phrase you should never say:
Non ho capito – I didn’t understand
This might prompt Italians to switch to English. Instead, ask them to repeat or speak more slowly by using the phrases in the table above.
Step 3: Listen, listen, listen (then listen a bit more!)
Did you know? By the time an Italian is 6 years old, they’ve probably spent thousands of hours listening to their language being spoken. For some reason as learners, we listen for a few minutes here and there and expect to be able to understand everything!
If you don’t understand spoken Italian yet it doesn’t mean you’re bad at listening—you simply need more practice. There are two types of listening practice you can do that will help you understand Italians more easily…
Extensive listening
With this kind of listening, the goal is to expose yourself to as much Italian as possible: podcasts, radio, TV shows, movies, youtube videos … the more Italian you listen to as you go about your day, the more you’ll absorb.
Don’t expect to understand everything, and don’t panic if you miss something – or most things! – it’s normal. Just listen for key words and contextual cues to get a vague idea of what’s happening. Be patient and over time, you’ll understand more and more.
Intensive listening
This is perfect for training your brain to understand important details, like tuning into the end of a word to know if Italians are talking about the past or present. You’ll need a short Italian dialogue and transcript, or subtitles you can switch on and off. Here’s how it works:
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Listen to the audio several times without the transcript/subtitles.
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When you’ve understood as much as you can, listen one more time, this time WITH the transcript/subtitles.
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Review the parts you didn’t understand and ask yourself why. Is it a new word or phrase? Was it pronounced differently from how you expected?
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Being aware of these details will help you understand better next time!
These types of listening complement each other, so we recommend including both in your Italian study program.
Step 4: Listen to the right kind of Italian
Have you ever noticed that when Italians speak in real life, they use words and phrases you’ve never come across in your textbook? They also speak very fast!
To understand natural Italian conversations, it’s important to familiarise yourself with the expressions Italians use and the speed they speak at.
The best way to do this is by listening to lots (and lots) of everyday conversations. If you have a higher level you can look for podcasts, TV shows, youtube channels and films that are centred around daily Italian life and natural conversations between friends and family. Again, don’t worry if you don’t understand a lot yet. Just focus on getting the gist.
If you have a lower level, you use materials adapted for learners. Just make sure you choose ones that are based around everyday conversations, like the ones in our Italian podcast .
Importantly, make sure you practise listening to things you enjoy. When you really want to know what the person is saying, it’s much easier to put in the work to understand it!
Bonus Step 5: Join Our Online Italian School!
You now know that to understand spoken Italian, you need to practise a lot, with everyday conversations that are suitable for your level. If you’d like support with this, we’d love to help you in our Online Italian School! Here you’ll:
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Listen to interesting natural Italian conversations, with transcriptions
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Choose between two speeds: story speed (slower) and bar speed (how Italians speak at the bar!)
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Find listening materials suitable for your level, even if you’re starting from “ciao!”
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Practice speaking and get personal feedback from brilliant Italian teachers
If you think you might like to join us, click here to learn more about our Online Italian School .
K: Ciao a tutti e benvenuti! Hi everyone and welcome to “Learn Italian with Joy of Languages”.
M: Before we get started, we have una buona notizia (x2). Good news! Our Online Italian School is opening in a couple of days.
K: If you’d like extra support in understanding Italians, and having Italian conversations in general, we’d love to welcome you. You can find out more by clicking the link in the description.
M: So, today, we’re talking about how to understand us Italians better. It’s not easy, I know, because we talk very fast sometimes, and we often talk differently to how you might expect!
K: If you feel overwhelmed and disheartened when you listen to Italian, this lesson is for you. First of all, don’t worry, because it’s not your fault!
M: Yes, first, we have to talk about why you don’t understand Italian. And the reason often comes from how you learned languages at school. I remember my English lessons in high school. We spent a lot of time learning verbs and vocabulary lists. But hardly any listening to natural, spoken English.
K: It was the same for me in the Italian courses I went to. Understanding Italian is one of the most important skills for having conversations, but for some strange reason, most schools don’t pay much attention to it. You spend a few minutes of class time on it, and you feel like you should somehow magically be good at it.
M: And if you’re not, you’re made to feel as if there’s something wrong with you! But actually, you just need more practice.
K: Yes! If you think about it, native Italian speakers spend tens of thousands of hours listening to their native language. If all we’ve done is a few minutes, or a few hours here and there, we shouldn’t be surprised if we don’t understand! The good news is, this is easily fixable.
M: Don’t worry, you don’t need to spend tens of thousands of hours listening to Italian. If you can spend half an hour to an hour listening every day, you’ll be really pleased with your progress.
K: And you don’t need to be sitting down at your desk to do it. You can listen to Italian on your commute, while you’re walking the dog, washing the dishes – as long as you have headphones, there are lots of occasions to improve your Italian without taking any extra time out of your day. At the end of this podcast, we’ll talk about the best kinds of things to listen to to help you improve your Italian quickly.
M: So that was our first of four tips to help you understand Italian – listen as much as you can!
K: Next, let’s talk about a couple of strategies you can use to understand Italians better while they’re talking to you.
M: Tip 2 is something you shouldn’t do: don’t try to understand every single word! It’s normal to miss a lot of Italian words or parts of a sentence. But if you focus on what you didn’t understand while the conversation moves on, you’ll never catch up!
K: The good news is: you don’t actually need to understand every single word in Italian. Instead use the context and key words to grasp the general gist. Even native speakers do this for efficiency, as studies have shown.
M: So you’ll be in good company!
K: For tip 3,did you know that you can actually slow Italians down? Unfortunately you can’t rewind them or add subtitles in real life, but you can do the next best thing: simply tell them what you need! For example, you can ask: can you repeat?
M: Può ripetere? (x2).
K: Può is formal, when speaking to adults you don’t know very well. If you’re asking a young person or a friend, you can use the informal: Puoi, with eee at the end. Puoi
M: Puoi ripetere? (x2)
K: And you can ask them to slow down, too! Slower, please:
M: Più piano, per favore (x2)
K: And here’s one phrase you should avoid: “I didn’t understand”, which is non ho capito (x2).
M: This is because if we hear you say this, we might think you want us to speak in English. If you just want us to speak slower or repeat, ask and you will usually receive!
K: Last tip: the choice of things you listen to is important. If you want to understand everyday Italian conversations, you should practise listening to everyday Italian conversations! This will help you get used to the colloquial phrases Italians use and the speed Italians talk at in real life.
M: If you have a higher level, you can listen to podcasts, TV shows, films or youtube channels with friends and family who are doing everyday stuff.
K: If you’re a lower level, you can listen to stories and dialogues that have been slowed down and simplified for learners. Just be sure to choose ones that are based around everyday conversations.
M: It’s important to find things that are fun and interesting to listen to as well, because it gives you the extra motivation you need to actually try to understand what you’re hearing!
K: So we’ve talked a little bit about how to understand spoken Italian: you need to practise a lot, with everyday conversations that are suitable for your level. Ideally they should be fun and interesting, too! This leads us to our bonus tip: If you’d like some extra support, you might really like our Online Italian School, because we’ve built it with all of these things in mind.
M: Every day, you listen to natural Italian stories and conversations. These all come with transcriptions so that you can practise your listening, then check that you heard right.
K: You can choose between two speeds: “story speed” which is slower, to help you understand in a relaxed way. And bar speed which will help you get used to the speed Matteo speaks with his Italian friends at the bar!
K: We’ve got courses that will help you improve your listening at every level, even if you’re starting from “ciao!”
M: And of course, you’ll also have lots of opportunities to practise speaking and get personal feedback from our brilliant Italian teachers.
K: To learn more, you can click the link in the description or go to italian.joyoflanguages.com/join . We’d love to see you there.
M - See you soon.
K - Or as we say in Italian.
A presto!
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: Understand Italians When They Speak Fast
Vocabulary
Può ripetere? = Can you repeat? (formal)
Puoi ripetere? = Can you repeat? (informal)
Più piano, per favore = More slowly, please
Flashcards: Understand Italians When They Speak Fast
Not sure how it works? Click here to watch the tutorial
