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Breaking the so-called language barrier
How anybody can get by in Italian with just a few simple phrases, a few tricks, and a wealth of good nature
• Rick Steves' Italian Phrase Book and Dictionary
• Eyewitness Italian Travel Phrasebook
• Lonely Planet: Italian Phrasebook
• Berlitz Italian Phrase Book
ReidsItaly.com Italy Map
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Tours & Activities
There is no language barrier. There's just a bit of a linguistic speed bump on the travelin' highway.
Web Translators
Here are some free online translators, handy for finding words and pasting in chunks of text from Italian-only websites:
• Google Translate
• Babelfish
• Bing Translator
• Dictionary.com
Memorizing a handful of key words and phrases, learning to count to two, and keen pantomime skills will be enough to survive just about anywhere. Plus, in most cities you'll find people who speak and understand enough English to get by in a pinch—though never expect it or depend upon it (read more on the polite use of English).
If you show you want to learn some Italian, locals will often be more than happy to teach you a bit.
Thank You (& Other Essential Phrases)
| English (Inglese) | Italian (Italiano) |
| thank you | grazie (GRAT-tzee-yay) |
| please | per favore (pair fa-VOHR-ray) |
| yes | si (see) |
| no | no |
| Do you speak English? | Parla Inglese? (PAR-la een-GLAY-zay) |
| I don't understand | Non capisco (non ka-PEESK-koh) |
| I'm sorry | Mi dispiace (mee dees-pee-YAT-chay) |
| How much is it? | Quanto costa? (KWAN-toh COST-ah) |
| That's too much | É troppo (ay TROH-po) |
| Good day | Buon giorno (bwohn JOUR-noh) |
| Goodbye | Arrivederci (ah-ree-vah-DAIR-chee) |
| Excuse me (to get attention) | Scusi (SKOO-zee) |
| Excuse me (to get past someone) | Permesso (pair-MEH-so) |
| Where is? | Dov'é (doh-VAY) |
| ...the bathroom | il bagno (eel BHAN-yoh) |
| ...train station | la ferroviaria (lah fair-o-vee-YAR-ree-yah) |
| Goodbye | Arrivederci (ah-ree-vah-DAIR-chee) |
If you learn how to say nothing else in the local tongue, learn how to say "thank you."
Especially if you don't speak the language, you will be relying on the kindness of strangers (waiters, clerks, guides, concierges, and anyone you stop to ask directions) to help guide you through their country. The least you should be able to do is thank them for it.
It's polite, and it'll encourage them to help you further. I enjoy collecting native ways to say "thank you" every bit as much as collecting postcards or museum books.
After you learn "thank you," then move on to learning "yes," "no," "Where's the bathroom?" "please," "I would like," "Do you speak English?" and "one," "two," "three."
Listen to how locals pronounce things. Exaggerate accents. Speak volumes through your facial expressions. Copy their gestures (but carefully—see the Gestures page for details).
This simple dictionary and phrase list gives you all the most essential words and phrases in Italian.
In addition, bring along a more complete phrase guide and a pocket dictionary of English-Italian/Italian-English.
Using these, you can ask any question, hopefully understand the answers, and decode most of what's on a given menu (if you can't find the full name of a dish translated, often you can at least find out that the second word—pollo—means "chicken," which is usually enough to go on).
Translator appsUnlike the vast majority of translator apps for the iPhone—merely interfaces to the Google translate engine—those listed below work without Internet access (so you won't incur huge roaming fees); the boldface are the better choices in each price range:
• World Nomads (free)
• 24/7 Tutor (free)
• Cool Gorilla (99¢)
• Word Roll (99¢)
• Odyssey ($9.99)
• Lonely Planet ($9.99)
Faking Fluency—Shortcuts and Hints
You can look up complex phrases in your Berlitz and try to pronounce them properly, but in the interests of time and clarity, you'll often find it's much more expedient to resort to a combination of charades and international pidgin. Don't be shy about acting out what you mean.
You don't need to know how to phrase a question properly, just how to add an audible question mark by lilting up at the end of the word. Understand?
When trying to read Italian, don't be intimidated by the full sentence. Instead, look at all its parts. Examine each word for things that ring a bell.
Free language lessons!
The venerable BBC provides free audio and video language courses at: bbc.co.uk/languagesSpanish and Italian are close enough when written down that you can often make out half of one if you have a good working knowledge of the other.
And remember: English is an amalgam mainly of old High German and Latin, so half of your own native language has its roots in Latin, which means it's a half-cousin to Italian. Chances are, you knock the vowel off the end of an Italian word and it's nearly the same as the English one.
(The other, German half of English will be of virtually no use—unless you visit Italy's decidedly Teutonic Alto-Adige region of the South Tyrol.)
Let your fingers do the talking
It's the size of a calculator, and it literally speaks 20 languages. The Lingo Xplorer 52 Talking Translator knows 1,000,000 words and 100,000 useful phrases in 52 languages. What's more, it can speak them in a native's crisp, local accent.
This makes it a much better learning tool than puzzling over the pronunciation guide in a Berlitz, and also provides a wimp's way out of actually learning the lingo. Just walk up to a hotel clerk, select the right phrase, and the Lingo will ask for the price of a double room on your behalf.
But wait, there's more! (Always wanted to say that.) It has a built-in FM radio, world alarm clock, voice recorder, calculator, calendar, metric and currency converter, and eight games for long train rides (since Mine Sweeper and Sudoku are the same in any language). My favorite phrase: "I have been bitten by a dog" in German. $249.99 from Magellan's.
(There's also cheaper Lingo Eurotalk 6-Language Translator does 360,000 words and 20,000 phrases—plus currency and metric conversions—in English, Italian, Spanish, French, German, and Greek for just $99.85.)
Or you can really upgrade into the realm of Star Trek instant translators and get the Ectaco NTL-8C iTRAVL Talking 2-Way Multilingual Language Communicator and Electronic Dictionary
You speak into it, and it (a) recognizes your language and what you said, (b) translates it into any of eight other languages of your choice, and then (c) spits it back out in the foreign tongue. Wow.
It knows 3,370,000 words, and 14,000 travel phrases, in English, Italian, French, German, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, and Spanish.
You can carry on entire, albeit stilted conversations by asking a question in English, having it repeat your question in Italian for the local, then they say their answer in Italian and the iTRAVL translates it into English for you.
Oh, and it also comes with a built-in language teacher so you can actually learn some Italian, plus a talking calculator, cultural notes, time zone maps, and Fodor's restaurant, hotel, and sightseeing info on 50 major destinations on five continents and the CIA World Factbook. Did I mention it can play MP3s and audio books (some travel ones are already included)?
There is, of course, a price to be paid for this technological Wunderkind: $499.95 from Amazon.
Or go really low-tech (and cheap: $14.85) with the laminated, foldable Kwikpoint card covered with cartoonish pictures off all the things a traveler might need—double bed, taxi, AAA battery, ice skates, pig, computer printer, toothpaste, cheese, gas station, can opener, policeman, etc. You just unfold it like a map, point at the thing you want, and throw on the local word for "please?"
An example to illustrate the point:
The Italian sign by an old fountain says "ACQUA NON POTABILE."Well, acqua, that's like agua, which you know from Spanish is "water."
Non, that's easy, that means "no."
Potabile, well, that's got the word "pot" in it. Hmmm. "Don't boil water in a pot?" Nah. Oh, wait: "potable." Isn't that a fancy word for "drinkable?"
Ah, ha! Acqua non potabile. "Non-drinkable water." (Glance down at the by-now empty glass in your hand).
Uh-oh...
Look for words and word fragments you recognize and assume, within reason, that they mean what you think they mean.
Make educated guesses, make your share of mistakes, but above all, make an effort to learn what you can and to communicate with Italians on their terms.
The International Language
No, not love. I'll leave it to you to master that tongue on your own (or, ideally, with the help of someone else). And I don't mean English, either, even if that is becoming the de facto international language. Doesn't excuse us from trying to learn the local lingo.
No, what I mean by "the international language" is that collection of words which are the same (more or less) in most European languages, including both English and Italian—though it helps to pronounce them "Italian-style" and, often, add a vowel at the end:
Alt (stop), auto, bank (pronounce it BAHN-kah), beer (roll the "r" and add an "a" at the end), bus (pronounce it BOOss), café, camping, ciao, couchette, English, hotel, information, moment (universal for "wait"), no, OK, foto, police, post (as in -office; again, add an "a"), restaurant, student, taxi, telephone, toilet, and, of course, tourist.
Related pages
- Phrase sheets in Italian - All the basic phrases you need to know
- Phrase books and dictionaries
- Speaking Italian
- Language lessons and language schools in Italy
- Italian gestures
- On the polite use of English
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This material was last updated February 2011. All information was accurate at the time.
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