Is Italian Hard to Learn? What's Easy and What Isn't

No, Italian isn't hard for English speakers. By US government figures it's among the very quickest languages to learn. You can read it aloud within days, a lot of the vocabulary looks familiar, and the grammar is regular for the most part. What takes time is the small stuff: articles that merge with prepositions, verbs with many endings, and sounds like double consonants that change meaning.

What the official numbers say

The US State Department puts Italian in Category I, the languages closest to English, at 24 weeks and about 552 class hours to reach a professional level. That's shorter than Spanish or French (30 weeks) and much shorter than German (about 36 weeks). We've worked out what that means at an hour a day.

Those figures are for English speakers. If you already speak Spanish or Portuguese, you'll find written Italian surprisingly familiar from the first page.

What's easier than you'd expect

Spelling. Italian is written almost exactly as it's said. There are a few rules to learn, like ch sounding like k in chiesa (church), and then you can read anything aloud.

Vowels. Words usually end in a clear vowel, and unstressed vowels aren't swallowed the way they are in English. Italian sounds musical partly for that reason, and it makes words easier to catch.

Vocabulary. Importante, possibile, famiglia, università: a great many words share Latin roots with English. Music, food and art add more you already know, from piano to pasta.

Dropping the subject. The verb ending shows who's acting, so parlo is "I speak". You don't have to use io.

Questions. No "do" or "does". Parli italiano? is "you speak Italian?" with your voice going up. See question formation.

What really takes time

Articles and prepositions

English has one "the". Italian has seven, depending on gender, number and the sound that follows:

Italian	Why	English
il libro	masculine, before most consonants	the book
lo studente	masculine, before s + consonant, z and a few others	the student
l'amico	before a vowel	the friend
la casa	feminine	the house
i libri, gli studenti, le case	plurals	the books, the students, the houses

Then the common prepositions merge with them: di + il becomes del, in + la becomes nella, su + i becomes sui. None of it is hard on its own, but it all happens at speaking speed. Our lessons on articles, noun gender and prepositions take it step by step.

Verb forms

An Italian verb has a different ending for each person, and many tenses. Parlare gives parlo, parli, parla, parliamo, parlate, parlano in the present alone. The regular patterns are logical, but everyday verbs like essere, andare and fare are irregular.

Essere or avere in the past

The passato prossimo uses avere with most verbs and essere with others, mostly verbs of movement and change. With essere, the ending agrees with the subject:

• Ho mangiato. I ate.
• Marco è andato. Marco went.
• Giulia è andata. Giulia went.

Then there's choosing between the passato prossimo and the imperfect, which we explain in passato prossimo vs imperfetto.

The subjunctive

Italian uses the subjunctive after many verbs of thinking, hoping and feeling: Penso che sia vero, I think it's true. English speakers rarely meet anything like it.

Double consonants

A double consonant is held a little longer, and it changes meaning:

Single	Double
pala (shovel)	palla (ball)
caro (dear)	carro (cart)
nono (ninth)	nonno (grandfather)

You'll be understood from context most of the time, but hearing and saying the difference takes practice.

Formal "you" and regional speech

You say tu to friends and Lei to strangers, with the verb in the third person: Come sta? is "how are you?" to someone you don't know. And Italy's regions sound very different. The Italian of Naples or Milan isn't the Italian of your course book.

Is it worth it?

If you have a reason, yes, and the early stage is especially rewarding. Within weeks you can read a menu, order a coffee and follow simple conversations. Italian also opens a literature from Dante to Calvino and a country where people are glad when you try.

You can start now, with no account: Italian grammar lessons, word lists with audio, and the opening of Il fu Mattia Pascal, with a translation under every line. When you're ready, here are the best books to learn Italian.

Our Learn Italian app takes you from your first words through grammar and graded reading to Italian classics. It's free to download, though some books and extra content need diamonds you earn while learning, or Premium.