In today’s post, we’re going to talk about the most useful words in the Italian language and their meanings in English.
We’ll also teach you words that are similar to English and others that are similar but mean something completely different.
Finally, we’ll teach you some beautiful Italian words in English.
Let’s get started!
Useful Italian words
The Italian language is made up of hundreds of thousands of words — while it is hard to determine a specific number, some experts have estimated it to be between 160,000 and 260,000!
A number like this is intimidating for Italian learners. How is it possible for someone to learn 260,000 words in a foreign language?
But don’t be afraid! Only roughly 7,000 of these terms are spoken by Italians during the course of their lives, and only about 1,000 are used on a daily basis.
In this post, I’ll show you the most important Italian words you should know if you want to improve your Italian learning.
Common Italian words
Let’s start with the most common Italian words.
Here’s a list of the most useful Italian words:
cosa
thing
anno
year
uomo
man
donna
woman
giorno
day
casa
home
tempo
time
pease
country, town
parola
word
padre
father
madre
mother
acqua
water
modo
way
lavoro
work
vita
life
strada
street
figlio/ figlia
son/ daughter
nome
name
gente
people
città
City
sera
evening
testa
head
festa
party
fiore
flower
Italian Words Similar to English
Here’s a list of Italian words similar to English:
momento
moment
storia
story/ history
voce
voice
aria
air
famiglia
family
persona
person
governo
government
prodotto
product
natura
nature
importante
important
esperienza
experience
movimento
movement
causa
cause
ufficio
office
False Friends in English and Italian
False friends are words in two different languages that sound or look very similar or even the same but have completely different meanings.
It’s important for you to start getting used to these words; otherwise, you might be involved in an awkward situation.
- argomento vs argument:
argomento
topic
discussione
argument
- eventualmente vs eventually:
eventualmente
possibly, if need be
finalmente
eventually
- fattoria vs factory:
fattoria
farm
fabbrica
factory
- libreria vs library:
libreria
bookshop
biblioteca
library
- parenti vs. parents:
parenti
relatives
genitori
parents
- preservativo vs preservative:
preservativo
condom
conservante
preservative
- pretendere vs to pretend:
- camera vs. camera:
camera
room
macchina fotografica
camera
Beautiful Italian Words
Here’s a list of what we consider the most beautiful Italian words:
pensierino
a small gift or thought
zanzara
mosquito
farfalla
butterfly
pantofolaio
couch potato
addirittura
even/really
lucciola
firefly
rocambolesco
incredible
furbo
cunning, smart
solare
bubbly
stuzzicadenti
toothpicks
agio
ease
Final thoughts
It goes without saying that the most important Italian words you should learn are determined by your interests and the reasons that motivate you to learn the language, for which a customized script is a good idea.
But it’s also essential to have a strong base of Italian words that you know.
Use this post as a starting point for your personalized list, and feel free to incorporate as many of the listed Italian terms as you wish!
For more Italian words, check out also: Useful Italian expressions, common Italian words and beautiful Italian words.
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