You’ve been studying Italian for months, you know grammar by heart, you can even conjugate irregular verbs… then you arrive in Italy, you sit at a bar, you hear two guys chatting and you barely understand anything! The reason is simple: no textbook teaches you slang, those informal and living words that Italians actually use every day. Let’s discover together the 20 slang expressions to understand — and speak — like a real Italian.
Have you ever tried to report someone else’s words and didn’t know which verb tense to use? Were you unsure whether you needed the subjunctive or the indicative? Indirect speech is one of the trickiest topics in Italian grammar, and even advanced students make mistakes. In this article, you’ll discover how to correctly report what someone said, asked, or ordered.
Have you ever tried to speak Italian and felt stuck on the same four phrases as always? It’s normal: when we speak, we all tend to use the simplest and most familiar expressions. But to sound truly natural and feel comfortable in every situation, you need a richer vocabulary. In this guide you’ll find 25 useful phrases for everyday conversation, organized in five typical moments: greeting, catching up, getting to know someone better, keeping in touch and saying goodbye. They are expressions slightly more refined than the usual ones, that Italians often use in real life and that will help you make a quality leap in speaking.
With this quiz, you’ll learn to spot mistakes in real Italian sentences—the kinds of errors that even advanced students make every day without realizing it. Recognizing a mistake is the first step toward never making it again.
How often do you hear someone say “se verrei” or “se avevo”? It is one of the most common mistakes in spoken Italian—and it is not only foreigners who make it: many Italians fall into the same trap. Do you always need to use the subjunctive after “se” in Italian? I have a little trick that can help you clear things up once and for all.
Have you ever wondered where your surname comes from? And has it ever happened to you to come across an Italian surname and think: “But why would someone be called that?”? Behind every surname hides a little story made of jobs, places, physical features, and even good wishes. Let’s discover together where Italian surnames come from and why some are truly curious.
