Italiano · Italian
Double consonants you must hold, every vowel pronounced.
Romance (Italo-Dalmatian) · compare with Spanish, French
Sounds
30 phonemes, 54 spelling rules. Trace any word letter by letter.
Words
284 concepts carry a Italian form. Switch Italian on at the top and browse any field.
Grammar
12 of 12 chapters written.
Sound snapshot
Italian spelling is regular with two famous twists: c and g are soft (/t͡ʃ/, /d͡ʒ/) before e/i and hard before a/o/u — and an inserted silent i or h flips them (ciao, ghetto). Double consonants are genuinely held longer (pala/palla, ano/anno) and shorten the vowel before them. Every vowel is pronounced; e and o each have an open and a closed version (è/é, ò/ó) that the spelling only marks on the final syllable — the tracer shows the closed one by default. Stress usually falls on the second-to-last syllable.
Grammar chapters
Articles
the, a — definite and indefinite, and how they bend to gender and number.
Nouns & gender
Does the language sort nouns into classes, and can you guess which?
Plurals
How to make more than one.
Pronouns
I, you, he/she/it, we, they — subject, object, and the formal 'you'.
Present tense
Regular verbs now, and the handful of irregular ones you can't avoid.
Negation
Saying no: where the 'not' goes.
Questions
Yes/no questions and question words.
Word order
Where the verb goes, where adjectives go, what moves and why.
Past tenses
Finished vs ongoing, spoken vs written past.
Future & conditional
Will, going to, would.
Adjectives
Agreement, position, comparison.
Prepositions
In, on, at, to — the small words that never translate one-to-one.
Words by field
🏠Home
The house, room by room — the words you touch every day.
🌲Nature
Out of the city: landscapes, weather, creatures.
🧩Little words
Adverbs, prepositions, connectors — small words that carry the sentence.
🧱Essentials
The bedrock: numbers, yes and no — the words you need on day one.
🧰Trades & expertise
Jargon of people who do things with their hands — and their heads.
💭Concepts
Abstract words: feelings, ideas, character.
🎭Register
The same idea said in the street, at the office, or in a textbook.