Practise Italian with a native speaker, and give them English conversation practice in return. Roughly 65 million people speak Italian natively, so partners are easy to find; the useful discipline is showing up on time.
Endonym
Italiano
Script
Latin alphabet
Spoken in
Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City
First thing to learn
Come stai? — "How are you?"
US Foreign Service Institute estimate for an English speaker starting from zero
~24 weeks
Closest to English
Double consonants are not a spelling detail - they change the word. "Anno" and "ano", "papa" and "pappa" differ by nothing but how long you hold the consonant, and English speakers routinely cannot hear the difference until it is pointed out.
Knowing this in advance changes what you do with a partner. Grammar drills on Italianwill not fix a habit your first language gave you — only producing the sentence out loud and being corrected will. That is the specific thing an exchange gives you and an app does not.
A language exchange dies when nobody has anything to talk about. Take these into the call and you will fill the first half without silences.
Say Come stai? (KOH-meh STY) as your first line, then ask your partner when they would use it and when they would choose something more formal.
Ask your partner to write your own name in Italiano, then explain which sounds in your name do not exist in Italian.
Talk for two minutes about what you imagine daily life is like in Italy. Have your partner correct the parts you got wrong - in Italian first, then again in English.
Talk for two minutes about what you imagine daily life is like in Switzerland. Have your partner correct the parts you got wrong - in Italian first, then again in English.
Ask your partner for one sentence that exposes the hard part: Double consonants are not a spelling detail - they change the word.
Switch to English and ask your partner to explain their own language's hardest feature to you. This is the half where you pay for the practice, so take it as seriously as your own turn.
You are not here to improve your English — you already have it. Practise Italian with someone who speaks it natively, and pay for it by answering their English questions properly. Fluent English speakers are the scarcest resource on an exchange, which is why you will match quickly.
Italian learners of English very often want speaking practice specifically, because Italy has strong film, design and food industries where English is the working language but conversation practice is scarce.
24 weeks of full-time study to working proficiency, on the US Foreign Service Institute scale - closest to english. Double consonants are not a spelling detail - they change the word. "Anno" and "ano", "papa" and "pappa" differ by nothing but how long you hold the consonant, and English speakers routinely cannot hear the difference until it is pointed out.
Around 65 million native speakers, concentrated in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino. English has already borrowed piano, balcony, spaghetti from it, so you are not starting from nothing.
Latin alphabet. The alphabet will look familiar, which is exactly the trap - the letters are the same while the sounds behind them are not, so reading fluently is not the same as pronouncing accurately.
Come stai? (KOH-meh STY) - "How are you?". Ciao is for friends and family only - using it with a stranger or a shopkeeper reads as too familiar. Buongiorno is the safe daytime greeting, and Buonasera in the evening.
piano, balcony, spaghetti, opera, scenario and graffiti all reached English from Italian - 6 words you can use on day one.
Free matching, free voice calls, free video calls. One twenty-minute call is enough to know whether it works for you.
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