Hi!
Use this with friends or people you address informally. It can also mean bye.
FREE BEGINNER LESSON 1 · ITALIAN
Italian: First words
Say hello, greet someone politely and say goodbye.
Informal and polite · greetings. Learn the meaning, listen to the pronunciation, then practise in the interactive lesson.
Try your first lessonOpening vocabulary referenceUseful Italian phrases and their meanings
Good morning!
A polite daytime greeting, also often translated as good day.
Thank you.
A useful thank you with friends or strangers. Say the final vowel too.
Goodbye!
A normal polite farewell in shops and other everyday situations.
How the sentence works
Ciao is an informal hello or goodbye. Buongiorno is a polite greeting during the day. Grazie means thank you. Arrivederci is a useful polite goodbye. Italian vowels stay clear; the final e in grazie is pronounced.
A short conversation in Italian
Hi!
Good morning!
Goodbye!
Words to recognise
hi / bye
day
thank you
goodbye
Listen to the whole phrase before focusing on each word. You can replay as often as you like, and the interactive lesson uses pictures and a short exchange to put the meaning in context.
Open the interactive lessonThe opening six teaching lessons are free, including the mini-tests after lessons three and six. A test accepts any answer and shows the score and corrections at the end. No typing or speaking aloud is required.
Keep learning Italian
Free five-minute audio lesson and MP3 · Language learning games
The pronunciation uses prepared synthetic voices. Credits and licences explain the free voice models. Independent native-speaker certification is not claimed.