”Hello” in Italian
The most popular “hello” in Italian is ciao. It can be used at any time of the day.
Interestingly, it can also mean ”bye”.
Here’s a video with the pronunciation of ciao.
Another option is salve, but it’s more formal.
It’s a safe choice whenever you don’t know whether to sound formal or informal. For instance, you would say salve to the cashier at a shop.
There are other ways of saying “hello,” depending on the time of the day.
Buongiorno means “good morning” or “good day”. Buon pomeriggio means “good afternoon”, but it’s pretty formal. Buonasera can be used as a good evening greeting.
Learn more about how to say “hello” in Italian.
“How Are You?” In Italian
There are different ways to ask “how are you” in Italian, just like in English.
In English, we can also say, “how is it going?”, ”what’s up?”, “how are things?” etc., even though some of them are more informal than others.
In Italian, we can ask the following questions:
- Come stai? (How are you? – informal)
- Come sta? (How are you? – formal)
- Come va? (How is it going?)
- Tutto bene? (Is everything good?)
You can answer the first three questions with the following words:
- Bene (I’m well)
- Male (I’m bad)
- Come al soltito (As usual)
- Tutto bene (Everything’s good)
And to the last question, you can just answer sì (yes) or no (no).
Find out about other ways of asking “how are you?” in Italian.
“Thank you” in Italian
The most common way to say “thank you” in Italian is grazie. It can be used in every situation, be it formal or casual.
You can use it to thank one person or many.
Also, you can say grazie when you either want to accept or refuse an offer.
Here are a few other more emphatic ways to say “thank you” in Italian:
- Grazie mille!
- Grazie tante!
- Molte grazie!
- Grazie infinite!
- Grazie di cuore!
You can answer in the following ways to say “you’re welcome”:
- Prego
- Non c’è di che
- Di niente
- Di nulla
Learn more about how to say thank you in Italian.
“Please” In Italian
Knowing how to say “please” in Italian is very important since you probably want to sound polite.
In fact, per favore is one of the first phrases you will learn in any Italian course.
It’s easy to remember its meaning because favore sounds a bit like a favor. Per favore literally means “for a favor”.
You can use it in every casual situation with your friends, family, and colleagues.
You’ll also hear per piacere, which means exactly the same.
Per cortesia is less common and more formal.
If you want to beg someone, you can say:
- Ti prego (informal)
- La prego (formal)
- Vi prego (to more than one person)
The verb pregare literally means “to pray”. Italy is a relatively religious country.
However, this expression is used by everyone and has lost its religious meaning.
Find out more about how to say “please” in Italian.
“Sorry” in Italian
Learning how to say “sorry” in Italian is also important. It’s always good to accept our mistakes and say sorry.
In Italian, the two most common ways to say “sorry” are:
- Scusa (informal)
- Scusi (formal)
- Scusate (to more than one person)
As you can see, scusa is informal. So, you can say it to your friends, relatives, or people you know well.
You can say scusi to someone you don’t know very well or an elder person.
Scusate is used both in formal and informal settings and is used to address more than one person.
Here’s another common expression:
- Mi dispiace
Mi dispiace is slightly different because you can use it even if what happened wasn’t your fault.
It’s a bit deeper since we use it to express sadness or empathy.
Read more about different ways to say “sorry” in Italian.
“Goodbye” in Italian
As we already mentioned, you can say ciao if you want to say “bye” in an informal way. However, ciao also means “hi”.
There are other ways to say goodbye, which don’t strictly mean “goodbye,” but you can use them as a goodbye greeting.
- Arrivederci (goodbye – it’s very formal)
- A domani (see you tomorrow)
- A presto (see you soon)
- Ci vediamo (see you)
- Alla prossima (see you next time)
- Buonanotte (good night)
Learn more about how to say “goodbye” in Italian.
“What” in Italian
“What” is a very simple, short, and common word. It’s also very useful, right?
In Italian, there are three different ways to say “what” as in “what are you eating?”.
- Che cosa
- Cosa
- Che
All three forms of saying “what” is correct, and they are interchangeable in spoken Italian.
However, if you go to Italy, you might hear a form more often than the others, depending on where you go.
Che cosa is used all over Italy, but it’s probably more common in formal contexts.
Cosa alone is used more often in cities in Northern Italy like Milan and Genoa, but also in Sardinia (which is the second-largest Italian island).
Che is more commonly used in central Italy, like Florence and Rome, and in the South of Italy, like Catania.
Just so you know, cosa literally means “thing”. So, cosa could be considered a shortened version of che cosa, which literally means “what thing?”.
Read more about how to say “what” in Italian.
“I love you” in Italian
In Italian, there’s a big difference between what you say to the person you’re in love with and other to people you love, like your parents, friends, and siblings.
If you want to tell your partner you love them, you can say:
- Ti amo
However, you wouldn’t say it to other people. Instead, you can say:
- Ti voglio bene (to one person)
- Vi voglio bene (to more than one person)
Volere bene literally means “to want (somone) good/well”, which doesn’t make sense but you probably get the meaning of “wanting” someone in a positive-but-not-romantic way.
If you love someone a lot, you can say:
- Ti voglio un mondo di bene (literally, “I want you a world of good”).
This expression is mainly used among teenagers.
Find out about other ways to say “I love you” in Italian.
“Happy birthday” in Italian
These are the most common phrases to wish someone a happy birthday:
- Buon compleanno
- Auguri
- Tanti auguri
Buon compleanno literally means “good birthday”.
Auguri doesn’t really mean “happy birthday”. Instead, it’s a more general way of wishing someone happiness.
If you want to be more emphatic, you can say tanti auguri.
Auguri is the plural of augurio which means “wish”. So, it could be translated as “good wishes”.
Auguri is a little more versatile than buon compleano and is often used on other special occasions.
Read more about how to say “happy birthday” in Italian.
“Beautiful” in Italian
Italy is such a beautiful country that you can not know how to say “beautiful” in Italian.
There are many ways to talk about beauty in Italian.
You may have heard the phrase ciao bello or ciao bella, which means “hello, beautiful”, in many TV shows or if you’ve been to Italy.
Let’s look at the different ways of saying “beautiful”:
- Carino (nice)
- Bello (beautiful)
- Molto bello (very beautiful)
- Bellissimo (extremely beautiful)
- Stupendo (great)
- Meraviglioso (wonderful)
As you can see, some of them are more emphatic than others. Carino is not as strong as bello but bellissimo is much stronger than bello.
Just so you know, all these words end in o because they’re masculine singular. If you’re referring to a woman or an object that’s considered female, you have to say carina, bella, molto bella, etc.
Read more about the different ways to say “beautiful” in Italian.
“Cheers” in Italian
Let’s now talk about what Italians say when they have a toast.
In English, people say “cheers”. Let’s find out what Italians say!
The most popular way of saying cheers in Italian is cin cin (pronounced as “chin chin”).
If you find yourself at an Italian party, you will definitely hear this phrase.
Sometimes, cin cin is followed by alla tua salute (singular) or alla vostra salute (plural) meaning “as to your health”.
Also, alla tua or alla vostra without salute is perfectly acceptable too, as the meaning is implied. It’s a similar meaning to “here’s to you!”.
Alla nostra is also common. In addition, you can say beviamo alla nostra, which means “Let’s drink to us!”
You can use it at an office party, graduations, or to celebrate after sporting events!
Salute is a formal way of saying “cheers” in Italian and is often confused with saluti which means greetings. You can use salute in almost any formal environment.
Read more about how to say “cheers” in Italian.
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