How Long Does It Take to Learn Italian?
US government figures put Italian at 24 weeks of full-time study, about 960 hours, for a professional level. What that means at an hour a day.
Learn ItalianFree app with audio, quizzes and real booksFor an English speaker, reaching a professional level in Italian takes about 960 hours of study, according to US government figures. At an hour a day, that's around two and a half years. Italian sits in the fastest group of languages for English speakers, quicker on paper than Spanish or French, and you'll manage everyday conversations and easy reading well before that.
What the official figures say
The US State Department publishes how long its staff usually take to reach a professional level (a score of 3 on the ILR scale). Italian is in Category I, the languages closest to English, and at the short end of it:
| Language | Category | Typical training time | Class hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Italian, Portuguese | I | 24 weeks | About 552 |
| French, Spanish | I | 30 weeks | About 690 |
| German | II | About 36 weeks | 828 |
| Russian, Turkish | III | About 44 weeks | 1,012 |
| Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin | IV | 88 weeks | 2,200 |
A typical week there is 23 hours in class plus 17 hours of self-study. So 24 weeks of Italian comes to about 960 hours in total.
What that means for you
| Study per day | Time to 960 hours |
|---|---|
| 30 minutes | About 5.3 years |
| 1 hour | About 2.6 years |
| 2 hours | About 16 months |
Please take these as rough estimates. The State Department's students study full-time with professional teachers, and they're aiming high, at working in the language. The department also says the time varies with ability, earlier language learning and time in class. Studying alone you may need more hours per level; for travel, family or reading you need far fewer.
What comes first, and what comes later
This order comes from how the language is built, not from a study.
| Stage | When to expect it |
|---|---|
| Reading any word aloud | Days. Italian is spelled almost exactly as it sounds |
| Ordering a coffee, greeting people, asking the way | Early on, with everyday words and set phrases |
| Talking about your day in the present | Weeks, once the regular verbs settle |
| Telling a story in the past | Months: you need the passato prossimo and the imperfect together |
| Reading a novel with a translation beside it | Sooner than you'd think, since the translation carries you |
| Following fast speech and regional accents | Years |
Who gets a head start
The official figures are for English speakers. Nobody publishes them for other first languages, but some head starts are obvious.
- Spanish and Portuguese. The vocabulary and grammar are so close that reading Italian feels familiar from the first day. The risk is mixing the two: burro is butter in Italian and a donkey in Spanish.
- French, Catalan and Romanian. Romance languages too, with the same tenses and many shared roots.
- English. Music, food and art have given English plenty of Italian words, and Latin gave both languages many more, like importante, possibile and università.
What takes the longest
- Small grammar words. Italian has seven forms of "the" (il, lo, la, l', i, gli, le), and prepositions merge with them: di + il is del, in + la is nella. Our lesson on articles sorts them out.
- Essere or avere. In the past, some verbs take avere (ho mangiato) and others essere (sono andata), and with essere the ending agrees. See essere vs avere.
- The subjunctive. Penso che sia vero, I think it's true. Italians use it after many verbs of thinking and feeling.
- Listening. Double consonants change meaning (nono, ninth, and nonno, grandfather), and every region has its own accent.
We cover all of these in is Italian hard to learn?
What speeds you up
- Study every day. Short, regular sessions beat a long one at the weekend.
- Spend time with real Italian. Reading and understandable listening build vocabulary and instinct faster than drills alone.
- Choose a goal. An exam like CILS, CELI or PLIDA gives you a definite target. If you need Italian for citizenship, see the CILS B1 Cittadinanza.
- Talk to people. Italians are usually glad to hear a foreigner try, so use what you've got.
Start today
You can begin right now with our free Italian grammar lessons and word lists with audio, with no account needed. When you're ready, see the best books to learn Italian.
Our Learn Italian app takes you from vocabulary and grammar through graded reading to Pirandello and Deledda, with a translation under every line. It's free to download, though some books and extra content need diamonds you earn while learning, or Premium.