for us tourism is very important in italian duolingo

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Per noi il turismo è molto importante. (en → it)

Post by sentence bot 🤖 » Mon Mar 06, 2023 4:01 am

Italian For Tourists: The Language Course For Those Who Travel In Italy

Registration closes on Friday 2 July at 9.00 PM EST (New York) time.

Learn Italian At Your Own Pace With Davide Delgrossi.

Are you planning to travel in Italy this summer and you would like to communicate with the locals? You can now rely on Davide Delgrossi , a professional Italian teacher who will follow you step by step throughout his situation-based course!

About Davide’s course

Learn at your own pace: Davide’s courses are video courses . Once you sign up, you will get access to a series of lessons, exercises, and additional materials that you can watch at your own pace, according to your own free time. There are no ‘live classes’, so you won’t have any stress and commitment of joining regular sessions. Davide’s courses give you the flexibility and the freedom to learn Italian whenever and wherever you want.

Situation-based course with a specific learning path: This course will empower the students with the most important Italian words, phrases and concepts, so that they can fully enjoy their stay in Italy. Davide will simulate the most classic trip steps that a tourist does. For example, at the airport, at the hotel, at the restaurant, etc. — like taking a trip together with the student.

Content tailored on English speakers: Davide speaks English fluently and his courses are structured for English-speaking students.

Understand Italian culture: Tourists need to know a bit of Italian to really enjoy their time and survive in the country, as few Italians speak English fluently. It will make them way less stressed! Plus, knowing Italian will allow them to interact a bit with the locals and to understand Italian culture much better. Therefore, the course also gives out many references to the Italian culture. For example, never drink cappuccino in the afternoon, never leave tips at the restaurants, etc.! It’s a fun course that is not for example very focused on grammatical concepts. It’s like a surviving guide to make the tourists as comfortable as possible once they are here.

Extensive course: The course includes +25 videos, 200+ exercises, and 25 printable materials. Follow it on the road during your stay in Italy!

Whatsapp support: In case you have any questions, you can directly reach out to Davide on WhatsApp. He will answer within 24 hours.

Private community: Once you sign up, you’ll be invited to a private group on the Telegram app where you can interact and practice with other students. It’s a great way to share your progress with other people and it helps to remain motivated as you will meet like-minded people who want to learn Italian. You will never feel alone, becoming part of our community.

Unlimited access: A 97$ one-off fee will grant you access to the whole course forever and without any other limit.

30 days money-back guarantee : There is no risk at all at signing up. If you are not satisfied with the courses, Davide will pay you back no question asked.

Don’t miss the chance : The courses are open for registration until Friday 2 July and there are no further openings planned. Sign up and don’t miss the chance to learn Italian in the best possible way for this summer!

“I have been speaking only English for all my life, so I was concerned about being able to learn Italian as these languages are quite different. However, Davide’s course kept me motivated and constantly gave me a sense of progress. The course is very well structured and provides you with all the basics of Italian. Also, Davide is very charismatic and energetic, and that helps a lot.” — Laura

“I am from New York, my girlfriend is Italian-American and she speaks Italian fluently. I wanted to talk to her and her family in Italian, and Davide’s course helped me a lot. It’s great that the course starts from the basics since I did not know any Italian before starting the course. Grazie, Davide!” — Alex

Register now to learn Italian!

ITALIAN FOR TOURISTS COURSE : This course will empower you with the most important Italian words, phrases and concepts to fully enjoy your stay in Italy!

Sign up and get the chance to start learning Italian now!

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Duolingo Italian Review: Builds Your Vocabulary Fast, But Won’t Make You Fluent

The owl has long been seen as a symbol of wisdom and knowledge .

So it’s no surprise that Duolingo —one of the most popular language-learning programs out there—chose the owl as their mascot.

But can the program actually teach you Italian ?

The short answer: yes.

Duolingo will increase your vocabulary, introduce you to Italian grammar and get you to about an A2 level of Italian. But it won’t make you fluent.

In this in-depth Duolingo Italian review, we dive into the features, pros, cons and frequently asked questions about the program’s Italian course.

Name: Duolingo Italian

Languages offered: Over 30 languages including Italian (as well as Arabic, Chinese, English, Japanese, German, Italian, Korean, Spanish and more).

Offer price: Free, with a premium subscription for additional features starting at $7.00 per month

• Visit the Duolingo Website

Duolingo Italian is an awesome tool that can take you places other platforms and apps can’t. Even with its cons (from impractical sentences to gaps in grammar explanations) it’s still one of the most useful tools out there for learning Italian.

• User friendliness - 9/10 9/10
• Delivers on promises - 8/10 8/10
• Authenticity - 8/10 8/10
• Value for price - 10/10 10/10
• Great interface
• Gamification is motivational
• It’s always improving
• Italian is just the start
• It’s far from being a stand-alone resource
• The grammar gap
• Impractical sentence examples
• Things can get repetitive
• A lack of content for advanced students
• Duolingo vs. Babbel
• Duolingo vs. Rosetta Stone
• Duolingo vs. Memrise
• After Duolingo
• Apps Like Duolingo

Is Duolingo Good for Learning Italian?

What is duolingo, duolingo’s features and functionalities, the duolingo tree: making italian approachable, quizzes and exercises: making italian enjoyable, experience points, lingots and streaks: making italian motivational, crowns: making italian customizable, discussions and forums: making italian social, pros of duolingo italian, it has a great interface, duolingo’s gamification is motivational, duolingo is always improving, you have access to all languages for free, cons of duolingo italian, you shouldn’t use duolingo by itself, duolingo doesn’t teach grammar thoroughly, it gives impractical example sentences, duolingo exercises can feel too repetitive, there’s a lack of content for advanced students, alternatives to duolingo, faqs about duolingo italian, what level of italian does duolingo get you to, how long would it take to learn italian with duolingo, and one more thing....

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Yes, Duolingo is a great resource to use for learning Italian.

It will help you increase your vocabulary, learn Italian sentence structure, pick up basic to intermediate grammar patterns and get in daily practice. But it won’t make you fluent.

Duolingo is best used in combination with other resources.

Duolingo is probably the most popular language learning app, with 300 million active users.

Duolingo was born out of the desire to make the Internet approachable for non-English speakers.

The two founders—Luis von Ahn and Severin Hacker—wanted to build something that could instantly and accurately translate websites and make it feel like actual bilingual speakers worked on them.

Not some automatic translation software that spews out nonsensical and, sometimes, tragic translations.

Duolingo uses interactive game elements and principles to help you remember words.

And according to research , spending 34 hours on Duolingo is equivalent to taking a semester in a university language course.

At present, Duolingo teaches 90 different language courses, with Italian being one of the most studied programs. There are almost 40 million interested learners.

Duolingo Italian has 43 units with around 5-10 lessons each, promising you hours of enjoyable study.

Lastly, Duolingo is free forever (on the app and the website), which is one of their major selling points.

There’s Duolingo Plus , which comes ad-free for $7.00 a month, but you don’t get a sense that the company is really pushing for it. You also get unlimited “hearts,” which are basically lives that you lose each time you make a mistake.

One of the first things that you need to know about Duolingo is that you only need five minutes a day to reap its benefits.

The lessons are bite-sized and can be devoured on the go. It takes so little commitment that it demolishes all those “I-just-don’t-have-time” excuses.

The Italian “Duolingo Tree” maps out the different topics you’ll be going through in the course.

You see an array of icons and the one that lights up in color is where you are in the course.

The Italian tree starts you off with the most basic vocabulary, like donna  (woman) and lei  (she), with the topics getting more challenging as you progress.

With Duolingo, you never feel overwhelmed—complexity is very gradually built from one lesson to the next.

One of the most important elements of the Duolingo experience is its high level of interactivity.

You’ll be doing something every five seconds. The lessons are gamified little exercises or tasks.

For example, you might be asked to pair Italian words with their English counterparts.

Or you might be shown an English sentence and asked to give its Italian translation by tapping on a specific sequence of Italian words.

These repeating exercises are really the heart and soul of the platform.

Since Duolingo intends to develop all four linguistic competencies (reading, writing, speaking and listening), there are even times when you’re asked to speak into your phone’s mic and repeat after a prompt.

Then, the voice recognition software checks if your pronunciation is correct or not.

Duolingo is gamified language learning. Every question you answer correctly is converted into Experience Points (XP).

When you’ve finished a lesson or practiced a skill, your XP increases accordingly. (You can set a daily XP goal in the Settings section.)

There’s a leaderboard so you can gauge your performance vis-à-vis other students.

Gems known as  “lingots” are the platform’s currency.

You earn lingots for completing tasks like maintaining a 10-day practice streak, reaching your practice goals or inviting friends to use Duolingo.

Lingots can be used in the virtual shop where you can buy “power-ups” like “Streak Freeze” or “Double or Nothing.”

“Streaks”  refers to the number of days you’ve consecutively met your XP goals. While XP reflects how long you’re studying in a day, “Streaks” tells you how often you’re studying.

This is really the most important metric for you because it reflects just how consistent you are at studying Italian.

One of the challenges for platforms like Duolingo is to reconcile the different goals and objectives of many different Italian language learners.

Some casual learners simply want a fun time working through the Duolingo tree. Then there are those serious learners who want more in-depth content.

Duolingo has resolved this with “crowns,” which essentially add a new dimension to learning.

Students can breeze through the different lessons if they like, but they can also retake the same level. Each time they do so, the exercises get a little bit more difficult.

You work through the same set of targeted vocabulary, but the tasks required get increasingly difficult.

So, maybe the sentences involved get more complex.

Or instead of tapping presented words to form the translated sentence, this time you need to type the Italian words yourself.

Every time you repeat and finish a level, you gain a “crown.” The max for each level is five crowns.

There’s probably no more robust Italian language learning community than the folks at Duolingo.

You can throw a query out there and have no shortage of replies from fellow learners.

There’s always a healthy discussion going on in the forum and simply reading the threads can be a very educational experience.

You’ll get tips on how to study Italian or be pointed to some useful resources that can get you a needed leg up.

You can also click “Report” after answering a question during your lesson if you think something is incorrect about the way Duolingo graded your choice.

One of the best things about Duolingo—and what makes it so popular—is that it’s free.

Yes, there’s a paid version that comes with no ads and unlimited hearts, but Duolingo isn’t very pushy about it.

Plus, the ads that come with the service are minimally invasive.

But as a free service, Duolingo is definitely one of the best.

The first time you use Duolingo, you immediately get a sense of its smooth graphic interface.

The layout is very intuitive.

The fonts are easy on the eyes. The colors pop but aren’t jarring to the senses. The audio is relatively crisp. The sights, sounds and movement of the elements clue you into what’s happening.

Oh, and then there’s “Duo”—the Duolingo mascot—who occasionally pops up on your screen to shout some words of encouragement.

He’s the easily recognizable green owl who’ll be your companion as you knock out one Italian lesson after another.

Duolingo makes learning Italian feel like jumping through little hoops… and liking it.

There are levels, leagues, leaderboards and lingots. There are streaks to be protected, skills to be developed and a virtual shop to be visited.

Bars are filling up, displayed numbers are telling you something.

The reward system can get you easily hooked.

You also always know your progress in the course.

You know if your skills need practice. You know how you measure up against other Italian learners. And the way it presents this information is fun and motivational!

Granted, Duolingo Italian has a lot of room for improvement. (More on this later.)

But as a brainchild of founders with computer backgrounds, you can be sure that the platform uses the latest in machine learning and AI research to improve and keep users motivated.

And because Duolingo has some of the most vocal and passionate users, it can quickly get robust feedback on what needs to be changed.

So expect a continuous flow of improvements on the product.

Many language programs come as individually packaged courses.

So if you’re going to learn Italian, you’d have access only to that course and have to pay or install a different app to study another language.

Well, Duolingo gives you the whole shebang for free.

So, if you’re spent on Italian, you can study Russian for a bit or maybe try your hand at Japanese.

Then, suddenly, you’re sucked in and before you know it, you’re learning multiple languages at the same time.

Many Duolingo users are serial learners and the program makes it easy to give it a shot.

Duolingo has changed the game and is a hard benchmark to beat.

But that said, it’s not the perfect product either. There’s always room for improvement.

Here are a few things that the program could do better.

To be fair, there’s probably no single language learning platform or product that can be everything for everyone.

Duolingo works as part of a healthy mix of other learning materials that would have to include things like Italian textbooks , audiobooks , videos , songs , movies , language exchange websites and so on.

Duolingo has a part to play.

If you want a slew of vocabulary-building exercises that keep close tabs on your performance, then Duolingo is your best bet.

But for other things—like actual conversational practice— the platform might not be the most ideal tool.

I recommend pairing it with tools that let you put your skills to practical use, like language exchange apps or immersion programs like FluentU .

Yes, there are keys to Italian grammar at the start of every lesson, but these feel too “buried.”

(Many users don’t even know that they exist.)

Duolingo could do with a lot more short-but-spunky grammar explanations that are embedded in the individual questions themselves.

When you get an item wrong, you seldom know why. You’re shown the correct answer, but many users are still left guessing why their answer is unacceptable.

Duolingo can do a little more in these instances and use them as teaching moments.

I understand that the platform wasn’t designed for explicit grammar instruction, but a little more grammar explanation—like a well-placed, single-sentence pointer—can be a huge time-saver.

Duolingo doesn’t advocate simply memorizing “survival phrases,” and claims that sentence examples should be relevant and useful in the real world.

But s ome Italian example sentences are so remote from reality that you’d be hard-pressed to think of a suitable moment to use them.

They’re more useful as vocabulary teaching tools than actual commonly-used groups of words. (e.g., Lei é una donna. — She is a woman.)

Sometimes, the sentences sound like they’ve been machine-generated.

Example sentences do get better later in the course, but many users might have dropped off before getting to them.

Repetition is at the heart of learning.

But there comes a point when repetition is too much.

In the case of Duolingo, you might find the exercises begin to rub you the wrong way.

Working with the same words, phrases and sentences over and over can be demotivating.

This is alleviated by algorithms that shelf words you’ve already mastered, but I’m not just talking about vocabulary sets.

I’m also referring to things like that all-too-familiar sound you hear when you get an item right or that distracting buzz you get when you answer incorrectly.

Duolingo could mix things up better and add more variety not only to the content but even to the very mechanics of their exercises.

Duolingo is a very good vocabulary builder, but don’t expect to be fluent when you finish the course.

You’ll learn a lot, but the program won’t take you beyond the intermediate level.

Content development for Duolingo Italian may not have been as brisk as other major languages like Spanish, French, German and Portuguese.

For instance, these languages have “stories”—a feature that challenges your reading and listening comprehension and can seriously address the lack of variety we talked about previously.

Unfortunately, Duolingo Italian doesn’t have this feature yet.

Like Duolingo, Babbel has a structured, well-designed learning path for Italian that starts from the basics and gets progressively more challenging as you improve.

However, there’s a much stronger focus on grammar and the lessons go more in-depth with exercises.

They include the typical translation exercises but also practice conversations. Babbel also offers live online classes (“Babbel Live”) and a podcast.

You might choose Babbel if you want to stick with a resource that will get you to a higher intermediate level. Babbel has courses for complete newbies (A1) all the way up to upper intermediate (B2).

However, Babbel is not free and a subscription only gives you access to one language.

Like Duolingo, Memrise is completely free and is best for vocabulary building.

You can find countless premade flashcard decks—official decks made by Memrise and those made by other students—that use a spaced repetition algorithm to put new words in your long-term memory.

The Memrise official Italian courses start at Level 1 and go through Level 7.

Other decks you can find include the most common 1,000 Italian words, Italian adjectives, verbs, etc.

However, unlike Duolingo, Memrise has basically no (or at most, very limited) grammar lessons, since the courses are flashcard-based.

If you have another resource for grammar and just want to focus on rapidly growing your vocabulary, Memrise might be a better choice to Duolingo.

But if you’re starting from scratch, Duolingo will introduce you to the sentence structures you need to know first.

Most sources online agree that Duolingo can get you to an A2 (or possibly B1) level of Italian alone.

Of course, this also depends on the resources you use in conjunction with Duolingo and how often you practice outside of your study sessions.

There are currently 43 units in the Duolingo Italian course. Each has about 6-10 lessons.

Completing one unit a week would get you through the entire Italian course in 43 weeks, whereas two units a week would take 21-22 weeks.

All things considered, Duolingo Italian is an awesome tool that will build your vocabulary, teach you basic grammar and help you reach an upper beginner to low intermediate level.

Since it only takes five minutes a day, there’s simply no excuse for not working with Duolingo.

I highly encourage you to include it in your resource mix!

If you're as busy as most of us, you don't always have time for lengthy language lessons. The solution? FluentU !

Learn Italian with funny commericals, documentary excerpts and web series, as you can see here:

FluentU helps you get comfortable with everyday Italian by combining all the benefits of complete immersion and native-level conversations with interactive subtitles . Tap on any word to instantly see an image, in-context definition, example sentences and other videos in which the word is used.

Access a complete interactive transcript of every video under the Dialogue tab, and review words and phrases with convenient audio clips under Vocab .

Once you've watched a video, you can use FluentU's quizzes to actively practice all the vocabulary in that video. Swipe left or right to see more examples of the word you’re on.

FluentU will even keep track of all the Italian words you’re learning, and give you extra practice with difficult words. Plus, it'll tell you exactly when it's time for review. Now that's a 100% personalized experience !

The best part? You can try FluentU for free with a trial.

Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)

Enter your e-mail address to get your free PDF!

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24 Essential Italian Phrases Every Traveler Should Learn

Heading out for a  trip to Rome  Rome but don’t speak a word of Italian?

No need to worry!

With this handy list of basic Italian phrases, you’ll be speaking like a local in no time.

Why Learn Italian

To wow the locals with your command of their beautiful language, of course!

When you are traveling to popular Italian cities like  Venice ,  Cinque Terre , and  Milan , it is helpful to know some basic phrases and words to make communication easier and to show respect for the local culture.

It will also allow you to interact with locals and maybe even make new friends. 

Learning a new language is not only a useful skill, but it is also fun. In this article, we’ll cover 

• The most basic Italian phrases for travel
• A few facts about world language
• Why travelers should learn basic words and phrases
• Tips on how to learn a new language

The Best Books to Learn Italian

I started learning Italian because I wanted to travel more away from the beaten path of Italy and connect with locals.

Since then, I’ve used these books that have helped me on my journey. The lessons are easy and doable.

If you want to learn nouns, pronouns, conjugation, articles, adjectives, grammar, and increase your vocabulary, then grab these books to master the basics of Italian language skills.

Rick Steves Italian Phrase Book & Dictionary

Click here to learn more!

Italian in 10 Minutes a Day

Basic Italian Words and Phrases for Travelers

Italian is a beautiful Romance language that is spoken by around 60 million people primarily in Italy.

Some basic and commonly used Italian words and phrases are included below.

Want to learn Italian pronunciation and sounds for free? Listen online to learn the sounds and pronunciations!

Why Learn a New Language

Whether you need to order food, get directions, or make new friends, these essential expressions will allow you to navigate your trip to any country with confidence.

You can also use it for greeting people and introducing yourself.

You don’t need to be very fluent. English has become a essential language in tourism. Just pick up a few essential Italian words and sentences.

You’ll be surprised by how quickly these common words and phrases will roll off your tongue.

Explore Cultures

Language learning is an incredibly rewarding experience that enables you to communicate with people all over the world.

In addition to exploring new cultures, you can better understand another culture through its film,  local Italian foods , and music.  

When you learn Italian phrases before traveling to Italy, it shows your enthusiasm for immersing yourself in the local culture and making genuine connections with the people you meet.

By taking the time to learn some basic Italian phrases, you’ll be able to navigate the country more easily and engage in light conversations.

Career Opportunities

Many Americans are learning another language, like Spanish, to boost their career prospects.

Learning another language also helps to increase student opportunities for studying abroad. So why not add some Italian phrases to your arsenal of communications.

Personal Growth

They also help build your confidence and improve your memory. Learning a new language allows you to not only understand but also empathize with others.

The better you understand someone, the more you can put yourself in their shoes.  

World Language Facts

• There are 7,102 known languages in the world.
• 23 languages are the mother (native) tongue of 4.1 billion people.
• English is the most popular language learned around the world and is spoken in 110 countries.
• There are more native Mandarin Chinese speakers than native English speakers.
• English is the most common language used on the internet (60.4% of top 10 million websites), but only 16.2% of the world population speak the language.

Source: Visual Capitalist

Tips on How to Learn a New Language

My journey of learning Italian started two years ago. After weighing a few learning options, trying a few apps, and speaking with polyglots, these are some of the best tips shared with me by seasoned language learners.

Focus on the Sounds

When possible, find a language partner who is a native Italian to help you with pronunciation. The language is highly phonic, and every letter must be pronounced. 

Think of it this way. In English, the words ‘who’, ‘how’, and ‘hoe’ have a different emphasis on the letter O.

You wouldn’t what to say, “Hoe are you?” when you mean “How are you?”, that would be awkward.

It’s a Marathon, not a Sprint

Learning a new language takes time. There will be high and low periods of learning, but don’t give up.

Italian is not a hard language to learn, but it is very phonetic. Focus on learning the basics and set a goal to speak at least 10 sentences before you pack.

I balance my time across writing, reading, speaking, and listening. When I am exhausted from reading, I focus on another area for a while. 

Practice, Practice Practice

While there are several ways of learning a new language, all methods require practice.

I have used DuoLingo, Hello Talk, and Tandem to learn Italian. DuoLingo is good because it lets you learn at your own pace. Hello Talk and Tandem are excellent choices for connecting with native speakers.

I prefer this method because it is more interactive, they correct my pronuciation, and we can have live confirmations on WhatsApp.

The difference in time zone can be a challenge with Italy being 7 hours ahead. It seems that 2PM CT works best for both countries.

iTalki is another great app for conversations with native speakers. I am also used this method and arranged for private lessons with an Italian instructor.

Another tip is to speak to yourself. While having an  Italian breakfast , say what you are eating (in your new language)! 

Final Thoughts on Italian Phrases for Travelers

Learning some common Italian phrases can greatly enhance your travel experience in Italy.

As well as helping you to communicate more effectively with locals, you will also gain a better understanding of the local culture.

If you learn a few key phrases, you can feel more comfortable and confident when ordering food, asking for directions, or simply greeting someone.

Duolingo for Italian in 2023 – EVERYTHING You Need To Know

• Posted by by Matt
• Last updated: May 21, 2023
• 9 minute read

If you’re thinking about learning Italian, then you might be wondering whether Duolingo’s Italian course is the course for you.

La bella lingua is spoken by over 66 million people worldwide. It’s an official language in several European countries and currently boasts over 6.5 million learners on Duolingo!

It also happens to be the first language I properly learned on Duolingo — so needless to say I’ve spent a lot of time with the course over the years!

But does that mean Duolingo is good for learning Italian?

In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about Italian on Duolingo.

We’ll look at:

• How Duolingo’s Italian course is structured
• Special features
• Other features you need to be aware of
• The pros of Duolingo’s Italian course
• The cons of Duolingo’s Italian course

Ready to dive in?

This page may contain affiliate links. This means that we may receive a commission for any sign-ups or purchases made, but at no extra cost to you . Learn more

What you’ll find in Duolingo’s Italian course

If you’re new to Duolingo, then it’s worth pointing out that all of Duolingo’s courses are structured in pretty much the same way.

There might be one or two slight differences depending on which platform you’re using. However, for the most part, they all look and work the same.

The below represents what you’ll currently find on Duolingo’s IOS app!

The Italian course follows what is referred to as the  learning path .

Basically…

The path is broken up into a set of  units …

Each unit has a set of  levels …

Each level has a series of  lessons …

And all of this is organised into a set of  sections …

The basic goal is to work through the tree by completing every lesson… in every level… in every unit… in every section.

As of April 2023, Duolingo’s Italian course has a total of 51 units , spread across 4 different sections .

As you move through the path, you’ll get opportunities to complete some  timed challenges  by tapping on the adjacent  characters …

Once you’ve completed a level, you’ll then get the opportunity to tackle an extra-hard challenge to make it legendary …

The exercises in the Italian course are basically the same as in all the other courses. Some of the common exercises you’ll come across include:

• Complete the translation
• Mark the correct meaning
• Picture flashcards
• Select the missing word
• Sentence shuffle
• Speak this sentence
• Tap the pairs
• Translation
• Tap what you hear

Does Duolingo’s Italian course have any special features?

Although English speakers can learn nearly 40 different languages on Duolingo, it’s important to point out that not all of the courses are created equally.

Some courses have special features that others don’t.

Some of these include  stories , the  Match Madness  timed challenge, and AI-powered features (exclusive to Duolingo Max).

As of April 2023, Duolingo’s Italian course has 51 stories and Match Madness , but doesn’t currently take advantage of Duolingo Max’s AI features.

Duolingo Italian Stories

Duolingo’s Italian stories are designed to improve your reading, listening and speaking. They’re entirely in Italian and most of them are only a few minutes long at most.

They’re written for learners of all levels and come with the usual hints you find in the normal lessons.

Every now and then you’ll have to answer a question to make sure you understand what’s going on, which is a great way to measure where you’re at with your comprehension.

Match Madness

Match Madness is one of Duolingo’s main timed challenges.

It’s basically a fancy match-the-pairs exercise, where you have to match the Italian word with its English equivalent.

However, in Match Madness, you have to do this against the clock, and the time you have to complete it gets shorter and shorter in each round.

It’s a great test of your comprehension speed and has quickly become one of the Italian course’s best features!

Other features in Duolingo’s Italian course

Duolingo’s Italian course is built on the same stuff as all of Duolingo’s other language courses.

We won’t go into too much detail here, but some of the features worth knowing about include:

• XP – As you work through the Duolingo Italian course, you’ll earn experience points, which are more commonly known as XP. You’ll earn XP for pretty much everything you do. Some lessons, tasks and exercises will earn you more XP than others.
• Leagues – Every week you’ll be entered into a league with other Duolingo learners. There are 10 leagues to work through, starting at Bronze and ending at Diamond. The leagues are basically leaderboards — simply earn more XP than others in your league to have a chance of winning.
• Gems – XP isn’t the only thing you’ll earn as you learn Italian. You’ll also earn gems, which you can spend in the Duolingo Shop . There isn’t really much you can buy here, but you can use your gems to pick up things like Streak Freezes and Timer Boosts for timed challenges.
• Friends – Duolingo is a social experience, so you’re able to follow other users and compare your progress. The guys at Duolingo reckon you’re 5 times more likely to finish your course if you follow people! To get you started, feel free to give me a follow — my username is DCiiieee !
• Duolingo Plus / Super – This is Duolingo’s premium membership. Pay for Plus/Super and you’ll get access to some useful features, including unlimited hearts , no ads and Practice Hub .

Is Duolingo good for learning Italian?

Now to answer the all-important question:

To answer this, let’s weigh up some of the pros and cons.

Beginner-friendly

Learning a new language can be pretty intimidating, especially if you only speak English.

This is why one of the nicest things about Duolingo is just how accessible and welcoming it is.

Regardless of the language you’re learning, Duolingo presents its courses in a really warm, vibrant and inclusive way. So whether this is your second language or your tenth, you can feel at ease straight away.

Fortunately for English speakers, Italian’s probably one of the easier languages to learn as well. You don’t have to worry about things like cases or different writing systems, and the pronunciation isn’t *that* difficult once you get used to rolling your R’s!

Duolingo makes this even easier with the way it presents its courses. You’ll find helpful guidebooks in every unit, and if you’re stuck on a question you can just tap the words for some hints.

Duolingo’s Italian course also comes with the usual placement test when you first start, so you can rest assured you’ll start your tree from a place you find comfortable.

This is one of Duolingo’s standout features and it’s only available in a few of its courses.

Fortunately, Italian is one of them!

One of the best things about the Italian stories is that they’re genuinely interesting and funny as hell! Duolingo have got some seriously great writers!

They’re so good that reading them doesn’t feel like work. Yet all the while your reading and listening comprehension is going up, up and up!

And while the stories aren’t up to the same standard as some of Duolingo’s other courses (we’ll get to that in a sec) they’re still a HUGE selling point for the Italian course.

I highly recommend getting stuck into them as soon as you can!

Related: Duolingo Stories – The COMPLETE Guide – What You Need To Know

This doesn’t just go for Duolingo’s Italian course, it’s the same for ALL of them!

One of the best things about Duolingo is that it’s more than just a language-learning tool.

It’s also a game . And although this isn’t to everyone’s liking, it’s a big part of why so many people show up every day to do their daily lessons.

For everything you do in Italian, you’ll earn XP (experience points) which contribute towards your position in the weekly leagues.

Now this isn’t something you should take too seriously (you can read more about why here ) but if you take it lightly it’ll definitely make your Italian a lot more enjoyable.

Because ultimately, the more you enjoy something, the more likely you are to do it. And given learning Italian will require you to show up regularly for a very long time, Duolingo could be the perfect solution.

Another great thing about Duolingo is that the Italian course is 100% free .

There is a premium subscription, but this isn’t something you need in order to complete the course. The whole thing is completely free; Plus/Super just adds a few features that make things a bit smoother.

This is great if you’re just dabbling with Italian and aren’t ready to commit just yet. But also if you’re keen to get started with the language but don’t want to fork out on special software or tuition.

Super motivating

I take it you’ve seen the owl memes?

Yes, the owl can be *a bit* of a stalker at times, pestering you at all hours to do your daily Italian lessons!

But relax, contrary to popular belief, he’s not gonna kidnap your family anytime soon!

Jokes aside, Duolingo is brilliant for keeping you motivated .

Learning Italian takes time. It’s not something you’re going to pick up overnight.

According to the US Foreign Service Institute , it takes roughly 600-750 “class hours” to reach “Professional Working Proficiency” in Italian.

So yeah, if you’re going to learn Italian, you’ve got to be in it for the long haul!

That means creating an unbreakable habit. And Duolingo’s amazing for doing that.

Put it this way — my current streak (i.e. the number of days in a row I’ve used Duolingo) goes all the way back to May 2016.

And that’s not just because I’m a bit obsessive! It’s thanks to Duolingo being such a great way of keeping me motivated!

Really short course

Although Italian is currently Duolingo’s 7th most popular course, the course itself is really short .

It only has four sections, which is only half of what you get in courses like French and Spanish.

While the course comes with a chunky 51 units, realistically you could plough through them in a pretty short time.

I first completed the Italian course back in 2016 and I managed to get it done in about a month. And even though Duolingo have updated it quite a bit since then, it’s still a bit thin.

This means that although Duolingo is great for getting started with Italian, eventually you’ll need to look further afield if you want to make significant progress.

Not great for speaking

This is the case for most of Duolingo’s language courses.

Duolingo is brilliant for getting to grips with the listening and reading side of a language. You even get opportunities to practice your pronunciation.

But when it comes to speaking in a real-life scenario, Duolingo’s Italian course won’t get you there by itself.

The problem is the speaking exercises aren’t conversation exercises. You get a little bit of practice in the conversation mode on the stories (if available), but this just involves reciting what the characters say. You don’t actually come up with your own responses.

Speaking is a skill in its own right and to learn it you’ll need to practice it regularly, ideally with a native speaker, or at the very least using a program that has conversation scenarios (such as ItalianPod101 ).

Stories aren’t as good as in other courses

I was really excited to see stories come to the Italian course back in 2021. Considering how popular the course is, they were definitely overdue.

And while they undoubtedly improve the course, unfortunately, they don’t hit the heights of the stories in other courses, such as French, Spanish and German.

One reason is there just aren’t that many. As of April 2023, there are only 51 — which is pretty low compared to the French course, which has nearly 300!

Another reason is they just don’t read as well as in some of the other courses. The French stories are full of life with real voices. Whereas the Italian stories sound as though they’re being read by robots.

They’re still good, but they could be so much better.

If you’ve read any of my other articles then you’ll know one of the things I dislike most about Duolingo at the moment is the heart system .

Hearts are basically lives or chances. You start off with 5 then lose one every time you make a mistake.

If you lose all your hearts then you’re not allowed to progress through your course until your hearts replenish.

You can either watch an ad to get one back, do a practice session, spend some gems or wait 5 hours.

It’s far from ideal as it does the unhelpful thing of punishing you for making mistakes .

Which, as far as I’m concerned, is ridiculous as mistakes are absolutely essential and unavoidable when learning a language.

If you’re a total beginner or simply on the fence about learning Italian, then Duolingo’s Italian course is definitely a great place to start.

You’ll learn the basics of the language, get to grips with the pronunciation, pick up a nice chunk of useful vocabulary, and see the language in action in 51 mini-stories.

You’ll also have a blast working through the course as you compete in the weekly leagues and alongside your friends!

By the end of the course, you’ll definitely be more advanced than when you started.

However, given that the course only has 4 sections, you’ll need to use other resources as well if you want to reach fluency.

By itself, Duolingo’s Italian course could probably get you to an A2 level in reading and listening (so long as you’re doing enough passive learning as well).

A good tool to use — either alongside Duolingo or after you’ve completed the course — is ItalianPod101 .

ItalianPod and Duolingo complement each other beautifully, as they both target areas that the other misses. Duolingo is great for reading and typing things out, whereas ItalianPod is brilliant for improving your listening and speaking.

With ItalianPod you’ll also get essential resources like grammar packs, cultural insights, and learn the 2,000 most common Italian words — so by the end of the course, you should be able to understand as much as 80% of all Italian conversations.

When used together, Duolingo and ItalianPod will give you everything you need to reach a comfortable level in Italian.

If you’re new to Italian…

I’d highly recommend taking Duolingo’s placement test, figuring out what level you’re at, and then working through the first couple of units. This will get you familiar with the basics of Italian.

At the same time, I’d recommend taking advantage of ItalianPod’s free trial to get familiar with how the language sounds, pick up some useful phrases and cultural insights, and practice speaking as soon as possible.

Once you’ve worked your way through the Duolingo course, I’d recommend coming back to it daily to keep the streak alive (habit is SO important when learning a language) and start to move through the intermediate to advanced packs on ItalianPod.

Finally, make sure you’re getting enough passive exposure to Italian as well. It’s really important to experience the language in an authentic environment — so things like TV shows, music, books, real-life conversations — so you can see how everything you learn on Duolingo and ItalianPod works in the real world.

Hey! I'm Matt, the Duolingo-nut behind duoplanet. I started using Duolingo back in 2014, and my current streak stretches all the way back to May 2016. Using Duolingo I've reached a comfortable level in Italian and acquired a basic understanding of Russian. I've also gone deep into the Spanish, German and French courses, and intend to explore more languages in the years to come. Needless to say, I'm obsessed with language learning!

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Language learning, getting fluent faster, and Clozemaster

15+ Impressive Italian Resources to Maximize Your Learning

Anki, Clozemaster, Duolingo, Memrise, … The number of Italian resources out there is enough to make your head spin! However, if you use too many, you run the risk of getting lost and feeling overwhelmed.

A linear approach to language learning allows for better focus and yields the best results , so you should stick to a few select resources to learn Italian .

In this article, I’ve selected the best free and wallet-friendly Italian resources for you to try right away. Let’s get started!

The best Italian resources for desktop and mobile

Who doesn’t have a cell phone in their pocket these days? It’s only natural to start our list of Italian resources with the best apps for learning the language.

Mobile phones allow you to study whenever and wherever you want with just a tap of your finger. Even a few minutes of Italian learning during your break will add up to a lot if you do something every day.

With over 500 million registered users, Duolingo is one of the most popular language-learning apps. Its ease of use, addictive gamification system, and eye-catching design are the features that put it at the top of our list of the best Italian resources.

You earn shiny gems every time you complete a lesson. And if you like competition, you can sign up for public leaderboards and compete against other users to get to the top league by earning experience points .

Trust me when I say that Duolingo is addictive . You will be fighting your way into the Diamond League before you know it! Oh, and did I mention that the app is completely free? However, if you want to get rid of the ads or use the app offline, you can do so for a fee.

Duolingo is great for:

• beginners and intermediate learners (it may be too basic for advanced learners)
• improving reading and writing skills

Clozemaster

Clozemaster excels at contextual learning and spaced repetition . It’s very easy to use and features a simple yet very effective design that allows you to maximize your focus on what you’re learning.

Don’t underestimate the power of context in language learning. Context is essential to learning how to use a word correctly , and Clozemaster provides thousands of common Italian sentences. It offers a first-class spaced repetition system that helps you remember words long-term.

For this reason, it is a very powerful tool in your arsenal of Italian resources, because no other app out there can match its ability to track your learning progress over time .

Clozemaster comes from “cloze”, a type of exercise where you have to fill in the missing words in a sentence. Thanks to these active exercises, you can learn words and grammar rules naturally, just like a child would .

Its free version is limited to a number of sentences per day, but you can subscribe to its Pro version to unlock all the advanced features at just $5/month with its annual plan , or you can forget about any recurring payments with the lifetime plan.

Clozemaster is great for:

• all types of learners
• improving reading, writing, and listening skills

Memrise is another of my favorite Italian resources. I have earned over 35 million points on Memrise so far, which equates to over 25,000 words learned, and that tells you how much I love this app and its versatility.

Its main strength is its customization capabilities because its desktop application allows you to create your own stacks of flashcards . You can even upload your own audio files for each card.

Like Clozemaster, Memrise features a spaced repetition system that is perfect for studying single words and short sentences. If you make a mistake on a flashcard, the system will keep showing you that card until you get it right.

Its downside is that I’ve always found its language courses a bit lacking, but you’ll find hundreds of Italian courses created by its very passionate community. Memrise is free to use, but if you want to keep better track of your progress, you can subscribe for a fee or buy an unlimited plan.

Memrise is great for:

If you love flashcards , Anki will be as important to you as the air you breathe. It’s very similar to Memrise in that it also offers community decks , a spaced repetition system , and many customizable features , but you have to be a very dedicated learner to get the most out of this app, unlike an app like Duolingo that does everything it can to keep you on its platform.

It’s one of the most powerful Italian resources out there, but it’s also one of the most boring to use. If you rely on strong gamification to learn a language , you may find Anki boring because of its bare-bones design . On the plus side, if you forget to open it for a day or two, no green owls will shed tears because they feel abandoned!

Still, this is a very feature-rich app, and it is completely free to use on both desktop and mobile devices.

Anki is great for:

• very dedicated learners, no matter their language level
• improving reading and listening skills

Rocket Italian

Rocket Italian is a comprehensive Italian course with high-quality audio suitable for all types of learners. It consists of many Italian resources that force you to practice all areas of language learning, from reading and writing to listening and… speaking!

This is because this course offers a unique feature: it allows you to test your pronunciation thanks to its voice recognition software . If you want to learn Italian on your own, without a study partner, its voice software will be very useful because it will correct your pronunciation . How great is that?

And if you want to improve your Italian while learning a lot of interesting facts about Italy, there is also the Rocket Italian Travelogue course that follows Marco and Sofia’s journey through Italy — I was commissioned to write that course, so I know it like the back of my hand!

Rocket Italian doesn’t offer a free version, but you can try a few lessons for free to see if it suits you.

Rocket Italian is great for:

• improving reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills

I discovered Glossika when it was still selling PDFs with separate MP3 files, and I instantly fell in love with it. It now has a very well-established online platform that allows you to learn Italian thanks to a spaced repetition algorithm with 3,000 sentences of increasing difficulty .

If you feel that the spaced repetition technique has been over-represented in this article, it’s because it really does work wonders to improve your fluency !

Since Glossika is a sentence-based course and does not offer Italian grammar explanations , it is best to use it if you already have a basic knowledge of Italian .

Glossika is great for:

• intermediate and advanced learners (it may have a very steep learning curve for beginners)
• improving all skills

Supplementary Italian resources

The following Italian resources are best used in conjunction with a comprehensive language course because they specialize in a particular aspect of the language.

Forvo is a massive collection of word pronunciations for any language you can imagine. Let’s say you want to look up the pronunciation of the Italian word crepuscolo , “twilight”. You simply type the word in the search box and let the system find the pronunciation.

Forvo is an invaluable Italian resource because it uses recordings made by native speakers , not robots, so the pronunciation of each word is as accurate as possible.

The Fable Cottage

The Fable Cottage hosts a wonderful collection of bilingual English-Italian fairy tales with high-quality audio . Some stories are free to read and listen to, but you must become a member to access all available fairy tales.

If you like cute drawings or plan to teach Italian to your children , this is a wonderful additional resource!

Clozemaster blog

Clozemaster is not only a very effective interactive platform for learning Italian, but it also offers its own blog with many in-depth Italian resources for your vocabulary and grammar skills .

For example, you can learn some very useful Italian expressions and sayings to spice up your everyday conversations, or how to wish an Italian friend of yours a happy birthday ! If you love grammar, you will find a bunch of free lessons on many common Italian verbs like avere , essere and stare .

Coniugazione.it

Coniugazione is the Italian word for “conjugation”, and this is what coniugazione.it is all about. Here you will find thousands of Italian verb conjugation tables. Just type any verb in the search bar!

Drops Italian

Drops is a mobile language app that focuses on vocabulary . You can learn thousands of words organized by topic with the help of catchy animations and an intuitive interface.

On the downside, Drops doesn’t provide context for the words you learn , but it’s still a valuable resource for learning Italian during a coffee break.

LingoPie Italian

I bet you like to binge-watch your favorite TV shows. If I’m right, you’ll also love LingoPie , which allows you to immerse yourself in the Italian language by giving you access to thousands of TV shows and movies from around the world .

Each show has closed captions so you can follow along with every word spoken. LingoPie offers a free trial, and you can subscribe to the service for a fee.

ItalianPod101

If you love learning while you drive, ItalianPod101 is a very helpful Italian resource. It’s a huge collection of podcasts , and when I say huge, I mean thousands of audio lessons covering as many topics from level A1 to C1. No matter what your level is, you will find something new to learn.

Graziana Filomeno and Rocco Dabellonio are the minds behind LearnAmo , a YouTube channel that hosts a wide range of Italian resources on grammar, culture, dialogues, and many other interesting facts .

Their videos are entirely in Italian with subtitles in both Italian and English. Whether you are a beginner or an advanced learner, your listening skills will benefit from the content, also thanks to Graziana’s very clear diction .

LearnAmo is also a multilingual website (each page has an English, an Italian, and a Spanish translation) that is completely free to navigate!

Italian newspapers and magazines

Newspapers and magazines are great Italian resources for improving your vocabulary. Here are a few.

If you don’t feel like you’re ready to start reading national Italian newspapers but want to keep up with what’s happening on the peninsula, The Local could be the perfect solution for you.

The news is written in English, but if you head to the Italian section of the site, you will be met with hundreds of interesting articles about the Italian language .

You can subscribe to get rid of the ads and get full access to the hundreds of lessons it offers. Don’t forget to check out the Italian word of the day every day!

Corriere della Sera

Corriere della Sera is one of the most important newspapers in Italy, but if you dig deeper, you will find that it offers a wealth of hidden Italian resources .

There is a spelling helper that gives you the correct spelling for commonly misspelled words, a thesaurus that you can use to enrich your writing, and even an Italian dictionary .

Focus is a well-known Italian monthly magazine with articles on science, sociology, and current events . You could say it’s the “Italian brother” of National Geographic.

The topics it covers are always very interesting and written in layman’s terms , which is why it’s so popular in Italy. You can either browse the website for free or buy the paper edition.

If you love reading books in your native language as much as I do, you will love reading books in a foreign language as well. Books are excellent Italian resources, and they are very underrated!

However, you may want to start easy and work your way up with Italian short stories for beginners and intermediate learners , which are just the right difficulty for your language level.

If you already have some experience with Italian and you like a challenge, you can start by reading the Italian translations of your favorite books — this way you will already be familiar with the plot and you can focus solely on the language aspect of the book.

You can also read my guide to reading books in Italian for more useful tips!

Community-driven Italian resources

The following Italian resources are the perfect way to interact with other Italian learners or native Italian speakers.

Reddit is a social platform where you can post articles, pictures, and videos in a wide variety of communities . Communities can be about any niche you can think of, from pets to travel to business.

You wouldn’t think such a generic social platform would be a valuable resource for learning Italian, but if you head to the right communities, you will find a goldmine .

Take all the time you need to browse through the Italian community for news about the country and its culture , and the language community to ask questions and get feedback from natives and first-hand tips on how to learn Italian . You will find many native Italian speakers who are eager to help you.

Above all… be a writer, not a lurker ! Actively participate in the forums and write in Italian without fear of making mistakes. You never know when you might come across a potential Skype buddy!

HiNative is an online platform that allows you to ask questions about any aspect of the Italian language (or any other language). You will receive invaluable feedback from native speakers . And if you want to return the favor, you can do so by answering questions about your own native language.

I hope this article on the best Italian resources has given you a clearer idea of what steps to take next in your learning journey!

If you still need to organize your backpack, you can have a look at our guide on the best way to learn Italian .

Clozemaster  has been designed to help you learn the language in context by filling in the gaps in authentic sentences. With features such as Grammar Challenges, Cloze-Listening, and Cloze-Reading, the app will let you emphasize all the competencies necessary to become fluent in Italian.

Take your Italian to the next level. Click here to start practicing with real Italian sentences!

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“Clozemaster is THE best app to learn a language after Duolingo.”

A review of Duolingo: is it really worth your time?

Interested in learning a foreign language in a fun, low-pressure way? Addicted to your smartphone? Duolingo might be the app for you! As an avid language learner (avid to the point where I’m now pursuing a Linguistics PhD), I was thrilled to discover an app that allowed me to learn languages passively without feeling like I was devoting all my time to it.

Overall assessment:

While Duolingo isn’t a perfect app, it is one of the best ones out there for learning a language because it's flexible for both the casual, and the intensive, language learner.

How Duolingo Works

Duolingo is laid out like a game and has a visually appealing interface. The game is set up as a tree that you must slowly work through. When you get to the end, you’ll get a cute little trophy wearing a flag that represents the language you’re learning.

Each node in the tree consists of several lessons. Each lesson is a level that you must beat by answering questions until the bar fills up, with correct answers bringing the bar up and incorrect ones bringing it down (~17 questions if you don’t get any wrong). The types of questions include free translation, putting together a translation with a set of given words, speaking exercises, listening transcription, and picture matching.

When you complete a node, it will turn golden and you will receive some number of the game’s currency-- “lingots”, which can be used to purchase various bonuses such as costumes for Duo the owl (the game’s mascot), bonus lessons (like Flirting and Idioms), and other fun things. The next row in the tree will also open up for you to do further lessons.

Every node that you have learned will decay at a certain rate and will turn to a normal color again, meaning that the game is urging you to review that lesson . You can also use the “Practice Weak Skills” button at the bottom of the game for it to draw from a few random lessons.  You may also refresh several nodes from one level (though sometimes you will refresh no nodes so this can be risky too if you want that rewarding victory theme!)

Like Rosetta Stone, Duolingo will not teach you grammar lessons, which can be fun if you like to figure out the grammar of the language through a puzzle, or frustrating if you just can’t figure out how something works. Luckily, if that’s the case, you can go on the website to see mini-grammar lessons for each node or just check online for the specific issue you’re looking for: For example, Duolingo Spanish has a lesson on the two verbs meaning “to be”-- ser and estar . You can read about the difference in the lesson on the website or just search “What is the difference between ser and estar?” on Google.

Now that I’ve described the mechanics of the game, let’s move on to the actual pros and cons.

1. Its speech recognition software has a long way to go

This con is minor since you shouldn’t be depending on an app to get you to a natural speaking level with humans. However, note that the speech recognition task can be frustrating . Sometimes you might say nothing at all or not even complete your sentence and the device will mark you correct. But often, you will be saying a sentence close to how it sounds and the game will keep telling you that you’re not saying it right. If this happens often, just turn the speaking exercise off, because the speech recognition tool doesn’t actually give any real feedback . What you should do is repeat every sentence out loud to yourself for the tasks that give you audio and depend on native speakers to let you know how good your pronunciation is.

2. Keeping up with constantly decaying skills can feel discouraging.

The game has an algorithm that decays each skill over time. Each time you strengthen the skill, the time before it decays again will increase. So for example, if your skill decays after 1 day, once you refresh it, it might decay again after 2 days. When you first learn a lesson, it can be easy to forget what you learned, so this is very useful at first to solidify the vocabulary and grammar you have learned.

As the lessons pile on, though, you might be very discouraged to see a bunch of your skills dropping over the course of 24 hours. My suggestion is to be diligent at refreshing skills after you first learn a lesson until you feel comfortable with the words and have no problem recalling them without help . Once you reach that stage though, it’s best to not be a perfectionist because you will just be discouraged to see your skills constantly falling . Instead, take advantage of the “Strengthen Skills” button, since it will choose your weakest words and grammar points to improve. Do it at least a few times a day to keep your memory working!

3. Some of the translations are iffy

You will run into a lot of useless or bizarre sentences in the game whose sole point is to illustrate the usage of a grammar point or vocabulary item. Don’t take Duolingo to be an exemplar of natural language , but rather to be a tool to give you the skills to understand the usage of vocabulary (especially for grammar). Don’t be thrown off by weird sentences like the one above.

4. If you’re serious about learning a language, Duolingo does NOT stand on its own

This is the most important thing to remember about Duolingo. It will not get you to fluency, but it will get you to a basic level where you should be able to have various grammatical constructions at the back of your mind to construct simple sentences. Your reading level should be fairly decent since Duolingo provides a variety of grammar and vocabulary, but if you are learning a foreign language to proficiency, you should supplement Duolingo with a language course or practice with a native speaker .  That being said, Duolingo is great for providing you with the basic tools to communicate and to keep you using the language every day.

1. The reward system is great and will keep you going

If you like simple games, Duolingo will be great! The simplicity of the game and its visual appeal will keep you going . As you get comfortable in the language you’ll find your fingers moving more speedily and you’ll be able to recall sentences in your mind quickly.  This in turn will make you finish levels faster. Duolingo also keeps track of how many days in a row you have played it, so keeping up your streak is great motivation to practice every day!

2. You can play it on the go anywhere when you have a spare moment  

If you live in an area where you walk a lot or take public transportation Duolingo is perfect. You’ll feel productive on your commute and it can take the place of playing a mind-numbing game like Candy Crush! Each lesson takes 5-10 minutes so it’s not a huge commitment to play a few levels.

3. There is an ever-expanding repertoire of languages

As of writing this blog post, Duolingo offers Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Irish, Ukranian, Turkish, and Esperanto and there are several other languages in the works, all through user-voluntary contributions. So Duolingo is the polyglot’s dream and it continues to improve thanks to user feedback. If you get a question wrong but are pretty positive that it was correct, you can report it and it will be checked on quickly. The quick updates mean that Duolingo is constantly improving , which will keep you entertained and motivated.

4. Rather than rote memorization, Duolingo teaches by context

This fact is very important--many language classes unfortunately focus on rote memorization of words, which is not only unnatural, but also tedious and ineffective in long-term memory storage. Because Duolingo presents everything in context, you will get used to using the vocabulary words and grammar points in a variety of constructions . With the help of a language class or a native speaker, the things you learn in Duolingo will eventually come more naturally to you than they would if you learned them in isolation.

How to make the most of Duolingo

1. use it alongside another language program.

As I emphasized before, Duolingo does not stand alone. If you want to just learn basics of a language and dabble casually, Duolingo is completely fine on its own. If you’re determined to master a language though, you should only use Duolingo to get you started and take an actual language program or practice with a native speaker to bring you the rest of the way.

2. Think of it as a game and not as a chore

Duolingo is meant to be a fun app.  That’s why you have Duo the owl cheering you along the whole way! It turns your language learning experience into a game where you’re trying to beat levels so think of it as no different from playing 2048 or Bubble Witch Saga and you’ll have a better time!

3. Try to keep it up every day, even if you just play a few lessons

Each level is very short, so it’s not hard to play just even one or two levels a day. Of course, it’s more rewarding the more you can play per day, but even at a casual pace you should be able to learn gradually . The website version has a more useful layout, so if you’re feeling more committed, you can use it instead of your smartphone’s app (also useful if you don’t have a smartphone). It even has progress exams where you can test how much you’ve learned of your target language . Just like exercise, a little a day goes a long way.

4. Don’t try to be a perfectionist

It can be discouraging if you keep getting things wrong but that’s what language learning is about--making mistakes! The more you refresh your skills, the more you’ll remember and sooner than later you’ll be able to complete a level perfectly. It can also be discouraging to see a lot of your golden nodes decay to normal colors all of a sudden, but think of the decay as reminders to practice and not as going backwards in language learning . Language learning isn’t about perfection but about practice !

Particularly for the intensive language learner, the website offers forums where people can meet to practice their target language and long text translation exercises for those who want to improve reading and writing. Because the app is portable, it is very easy to keep up each day on your commute to work or school and back. You’ll be surprised by how much progress you can make over a year just through casual playing! For both the casual polyglot who hopes to dabble in various languages and the language learner who wants to get a grounding for later practice in a class or with a native speaker, I strongly recommend Duolingo as your app of choice.

Related Content

Past (Verbs)

(from duolingo).

Unlike the imperfetto , which refers to continuous or habitual actions in the past, the passato remoto is a tense that indicates a single action that was completed a long time ago. This tense presents lots of irregularities, and some verbs even have multiple correct conjugations.

In fact, even native speakers find this tense a bit difficult sometimes, and that’s probably why in the spoken language the passato remoto is often replaced by the passato prossimo (ho mangiato, ho bevuto…), which is easier and far more regular. Oddly enough, in southern Italy the exact opposite tends to happen: for some reason many southerners often prefer to use the passato remoto , even when talking about recent events.

So, why learn the passato remoto ?

• Just because many native speakers try to avoid it, it doesn’t mean they never use it! Some verbs in particular are very common and very easy to learn.
• It’s without a doubt the most common tense in Italian literature, where events usually take place at some indefinite point in time, or in the distant past from the narrator’s point of view.
• It will definitely take your Italian skills to the next level!

Here’s an example with three different past tenses:

• Lui mi diede un consiglio. [passato remoto] = He gave me advice. Once, a long time ago.
• Lui mi ha dato un consiglio. [passato prossimo] = He gave me advice. Once, maybe recently.
• Lui mi dava consigli. [imperfetto] = He gave me advice, for a period of time. / He used to give me advice.

TIP : You might be wondering, “how should I learn all those other irregular forms outside of Duolingo?” The same way native speakers do: through exposure , and mostly through reading ! Luckily, many irregular verbs share the same patterns.

(by DuoItalian)

Here are the basic rules on changing the infinitive endings to form the passato remoto :

-ARE Verbs Drop the infinitive ending and add these endings to the root: -ai , -asti , -ò , -ammo , -aste , -arono

-ERE Verbs Drop the infinitive ending and add these endings to the root: -ei , -esti , -é , -emmo , -este , -erono

-IRE Verbs Drop the infinitive ending and add these endings to the root: -ii , -isti , -í , -immo , -iste , -irono

TIP : Many regular -ere verbs have an alternative form in the first person singular, third person singular, and third person plural forms (as seen in the Duolingo examples above).

Here are a few more commonly used irregular verb conjugations for the passato remoto :

… and a few of which only SOME of the conjugations are irregular (seen in RED):

Study and Test Yourself

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Did Duolingo Italian help you?

We have been to Italy multiple times and easily survived on "Buongiono, per favore, grazie, ... etc" to be friendly. We have a 1 month trip starting in mid-August.

My wife and I are trying out Duolingo to extend our Italian a little. I know that Duolingo is perhaps not the best conversational choice as I have read that Pimsleur is very good for conversational. But Duolingo is free or low cost and I'm not sure how far I will take this. I have a history of poor language proficiency, poor audio skills it seems. So I don't expect any real level of fluency.

I see that the first lessons deal with being in a cafe, navigating a city, ordering in restaurants. Might be useful. Probably in addition to using Google Translate more of Italian conversation could be at least somewhat familiar to my ear.

If you've done several Italian Duolingo lessons, how did that work out for you in Italy?

I have used Duolingo to try and keep my semi-fluent Italian active. I like it, overall. The repetition is not as boring as some other programs and the grammar is taught not pedantically, but in use, as a child would learn speech parts like prepositions. I also like that it makes you practice listening, reading, and speaking so you get used to the pronunciation.

Admittedly, I have ad the benefit of classes as community college, Pimsleur self-study (excellent), and living and traveling in Italy. Still, for the price (free!) Duolingo is good. The upgraded paid-for subscription is, IMO, even better.

There are also some nice podcasts out there. You might explore those in conjunction with Duolingo and listen to them on you commute or while walking to get ready for all the walking you'll do in Italy.

Thanks Laurel. Do you have any recommended Podcasts in mind?

When the material is audio only I find that I want to see the words too. But realistically that's not what will happen in Italy.

I recently listened to a few Podcasts but they were way over my ability to follow. My guess is it helps to have some rudimentary Italian skills before venturing into short stories and such. But I could be wrong. I'm fine with starting at a 2 year old's level. :)

I haven't used Duolingo but I had access to Mango which I think is a similar on-line tool that teaches general basic Italian with something of an emphasis on directions, ordering, where you live etc. I found it really helpful but what I found I lacked was confidence and that was what help me back.

I was lucky enough to go to Italy both in 2022 and in 2023 and I studied essentially the same language program before both visits but the difference was having the confidence to actually use it the second visit. The first visit I had a number of times I wanted to say something but assumed I didn't know how and froze up. After the fact I realized I knew how to say what I wanted but I just kind of assumed I didn't. When I approached the 2023 trip I had studied much of the same material but I approached it with more determination and did fairly well. I only had to resort to Google translate once because the question I was asking was too complex for me in Italian and person behind the counter did not speak enough English to fallback to that.

I found that studying on-line made me better at making declarative statements but less good at conversation because I wasn't used to listening, translating and then answering in real time. But I found that the Italians are very encouraging and happy you are trying. I got a lot of "Italian is really hard, but you're doing well!" even when I didn't feel like I was doing very well.

The only other thing I'll add is that if you have been studying don't try watching Italian movies or TV to test your proficiency. When I watch Italian TV I feel like I speak zero Italian, but I was able to get around well enough so don't compare turistico needs with native speaking. I start Italian 101 at the local community college in about two weeks, wish me luck...

Italians will appreciate any effort with the language so I encourage you to try, =Tod

I haven’t used Duolingo for Italian, but I did use Wesleyan University’s free Italian for beginners course. It helped a lot and enabled me to speak to Italians. Another good resource is Coffee Break Italian. The podcast is excellent and allows you to practice and build your abilities gradually.

Thanks for the idea of Coffee Break Italian podcasts . I found the seasons on Amazon Prime Podcasts (Amazon Music app) which I can download to my iPhone. Might work out as a nice complement to Duolingo on my walks in the park where cellular is spotty at best. I think this is ad free listening too.

The Washington Post recently ran this story about how Duolingo is increasingly using AI to construct its lessons, and users described in the Comments section that they are noticing nonsensical answers. (gift article so there should be no paywall)

Not free but excellent is Dartmouth's Summer Italian intensive : an online, 5-day course offered over 1 week once each summer. It was taught in mid-July in 2023 and 2022, so I'm assuming the same for 2024. If you have the time available, it would give you Italian just in time for your trip! Dartmouth's Rassias Method creates a learning environment that's fun and safe from embarrassment and focused on getting you to think in the language. Emphasis is on speaking and understanding. They offer multiple levels and this is one of the keys to their success - you will be well matched with your groupmates in terms of how much Italian you already have, and so you make a lot of progress together in a short time. Dartmouth also offers a semi-intensive online from Jan 23 to Feb 29 on Tues/Thurs evenings Eastern Time. Registration deadline has already passed but they can sometimes/often accommodate late registrants. Dartmouth's method of teaching was more effective for me than any other format (college way back when, asynchronous online course, podcasts, weekly private tutor, weeklong classroom course in Italy).

Besides Dartmouth, I've gotten the "next most" out of Italian with Davide , a (paid) structured asynchronous online course - but registration only opens once or twice per year so if you are interested, sign up to be notified. I heard about Davide from an interview Sarah Murdoch did with him a few years ago and I thought his beginner course was really well organized and useful.

I did Coffee Break Italian for a while, and liked their format of "little bites" - it's offered both in podcast or on YouTube/their website. The benefit of watching the video for me is that I can understand better if I can see the speaker's face and see their written notes. But it's also good practice for me to try to understand just by listening.

Whatever you choose, buona fortuna e buon viaggio!

People worry far too much about learning Italian prior to going there, and years ago I did the same. Italians and most Europeans start learning English in school at a very young age, and generally any European younger than 45 or so is fluent in English. That has been my experience after many trips. Yes, it’s fun to learn some new words in a foreign language, but using your new words is difficult unless you can follow up quickly when they respond to you! IF they don’t respond in English. So have fun with your Buongiorno and grazie but don’t worry about much more than that.

I used Pimsleur Italian up thru level 3 (it goes up to level 5) before a trip last fall. I'll give it mixed reviews. It was great for producing sentences. There were a bunch of things I could say as easily as I'm typing this now. But I had little ability to understand responses. The sad thing was many responses were mostly or completely words I knew but when spoken at conversational speed and pronounced correctly in Italian I did not recognize them. So Pimsleur has it's place but isn't the complete solution.

The linguist John McWhorter wrote a NYT article recommending using Glossika, which has several thousand sentences in graded levels of difficulty. By listening to them repetitively the idea is that they can come to seen as natural as production does using other programs. I'm going to give it a try before another trip to Italy this fall.

Hi Les, I applaud your desire to want to learn more of the language.

I love visiting Italy and staying in over thirty Italian cities, it’s definitely been used! And it has been wonderful to be able to speak some Italian, even if I am still a beginner level. And it’s certainly appreciated from locals both as being courteous and to show we are interested in their community.

I used to practiced languages with Duolingo, some game CD’s, Italian for Dummies, YouTube language videos, etc. when I was getting ready for my next trip. Preparing for staying 32 days in more remote Italian regions this year, I have been seriously studying with Duolingo. I’m on consecutive Day 136, (purchased a year two months ago), spending at least an hour each evening on it and am at their top Diamond level. I took it as a good sign when I could say a few Italian sentences in my mind if I wake up during the night - LOL!

I do have two sheets of paper where I wrote out sentences that I would like to be speaking in hotels, in restaurants, train stations, a museum, etc. For example, “I would like a table for two, please.” “Could we make a reservation for dinner tonight?” “Could I have my key, Room #123, please?” I like writing it out myself to help with the memory, and I reviewed that page on the plane and in my room the first few nights. By then, it should be familiar.

If you study Duolingo for awhile, some of the comments about food in the Italian lessons are quite entertaining!

The typical tourist who spends a week or two in the major cities in Italy does not need to worry about communicating with the locals in Italian. Yes, it’s fun to learn more and to use it but that takes a lot of studying and patience from native Italians when you do try to converse.

Google Translate app gives you the option of saving many phrases, of your own devising , in many languages. You can also hear each one as well. You could do this , and practice saying them all before your trip. I also like Mango, we get it through our local library website. Perhaps some language cd’s from your library might help, too?

Good for you for trying hard to learn before your trip!

I am using Mango as well through my library's free access for a tour de France/Paris Olympics trip this summer, and I am hopeful. I think I am focused on learning French because the last time I traveled in a country I didn't speak the language (I know general Italian and Spanish) was over 15 years ago (France and Germany) and I feel very different in a place I can't communicate well in. I don't know if I will have time to learn to my general knowledge of Spanish (definitely not as good as Italian, but I will be in Nice first so I will probably be able to ease into the French with a bit of Italian hahahah) but I want to be able to be at least a general step above the basis of "politeness". Here's to hoping!

Even though last time I was in Italy I said "do you have space for two?" in Italian and the waiter said "You speak great Italian!" when I literally only said 4 words, I want to be able to at least converse in a restaurant and get directions to places in France.

But for the OP, check what your library card can get you access to, as using in conjunction with duolingo might help even more!

Also, getting used to just HEARING Italian will help, I am concerned about just identifying words in French at the moment, much less even translating them, but I am certain that your PBS station/app has a lot of Italian shows with English subtitles (sottotitoli! I like saying that hahaha) you can get used to listening to.

I have been watching a French one and I for sure can identify the word for "today"! (from that show as well as tour de France French interviews hahaha)

I used Duolingo German and found it very helpful. It gave me a good foundation with which to branch out to Coffee Break German (I see you've already discovered the Coffee Break series) and to Easy German on YouTube (check and see if there is Easy Italian; there probably is). I learn best with a combination of structured grammar lessons and listening to/participating in coversations and Duolingo was perfect for that part of the combo. I haven't found anything else that worked as well for me. I know some people really hate on Duolingo, but I never went into it thinking it would make me fluent. I wanted to learn some basic grammar and vocab for a trip and just six weeks of Duolingo made such a difference in my first trip to Germany that I continued to study it somewhat seriously up until 2021.

Thanks very much for all your replies. Have given me some good ideas to follow up.

Keep them coming. :)

My husband and I traveled to Italy last year for the first time. It's been decades since either of us have needed to navigate not in English, but once upon a time I could have a broken conversation in French and he's had some Spanish. I found Duolingo to be perfect for what we needed -- I practiced daily for about 5 months before we left. What I found the most helpful about what I learned is that I could mostly read the signs -- I could figure out how to buy a ticket or read a menu or tell if that sign meant the hiking trail was closed or it was only closed between X-Y days and we were there on day Z. I definitely didn't know enough to have a conversation, but I learned enough to be able to comprehend other's questions of me.

Carrie, good point. I have used the Google Translate and camera in that app to read some signs and menus. But sometimes it is a bit hard to get the app to read the fonts on the menu. Or at least it was in the past. Would be nice to know more Italian words right off the bat. And I could also read Italian advertising ... well a mixed blessing indeed. :)

Good for you, Les, working to improve your Italian. as so many people here have noted, more capacity with the language will enhance your experience.

Can you get along without it ? Yes. Is it a lot more fun and a richer experience with it ? Also yes.

I agree that if you're staying in bigger cities you don't need to know Italian, but I think it helps open the culture up to you if you can manage some of the language on your own. I know Italians appreciate the effort and you never know what opportunities might open up to you if you can manage a conversation with a random stranger or shop owner.

We were in a non-touristy town and stopped in at il bar one afternoon for a chinotto and sandwich and the lovely woman who ran the cafe brought our food and was really upset explaining that she had dropped half my panini taking it out of the press. She was making me another one and had brought me the surviving half. It was absolutely not a big deal but she seems really upset. Thankfully my Italian did not abandon me in that moment and I was able to say "Non si preoccupi" which is "Don't worry about it" (formal) and it really seemed to help her calm down. I'm still glad I managed to say the right thing at the right time. It's a small victory but it helped me feel like was more part of the local scene a little bit than just a tourist.

Another phrase I recommend you learn is some version of "L'inglese è il mio preferito" meaning "I prefer English". This helps when you walk into a place and speak Italian and get a stream of Italian in return that you can't understand. They will quickly figure out from your 'deer in the headlights' look that they should change languages but this phrase will let you speak for yourself. Also in the north where German tourism is popular I was mistaken for Germain more than once and I was asked if English was okay as the compromise language and I was able to say "Yes" using this phrase.

The only other thing I will say is that even if you learn some Italian the differences in towns will keep you off balance. In Bologna I was greeted with " Ciao, salve!" walking into stores rather than " Buongiorno " and they insisted on using the word calice for a glass of wine rather than bicchiere which I had never heard. When I asked in Venice they said they would use bicchiere as I had expected.

And some places you order at the bar and pay upfront, some you order at the bar and pay later, and others you order at the table. Italy will always keep you guessing and you need to embrace it and just roll with it. Learning some Italian will help but I still always felt like Italians were dancing to some music I couldn't hear. They breeze into restaurants, grab tables and order drink while I'm still trying to figure out who to talk to. Just roll with it and admire the Italian bella figura with tehir ease and grace without being too jealous.

Have a great trip, =Tod

Thanks for telling those Italy stories Tod. Those small connections with the natives can make for a richer trip experience.

hiredman " l'inglese è il mio preferito " means " English is my favourite ". The correct translation of " I prefer English " is ", preferisco l'inglese " which sounds a little too "direct" if used as a request. A more formal way of asking to switch to English could be: "mi scusi, possiamo parlare inglese?" or "si potrebbe parlare inglese per favore?"

Duolingo was fun to work with while at home, but brain lock kept me from actually using much of it verbally. Same with Babel & Italian for Dummies. One point to consider, all these teach Italian . Vast numbers of "Italians" actually primarily speak their local dialect, so learning Italian to speak to them is learning their secondary language (English being their 3rd - got to admire their ability to move between languages). And don't even get me started on Sicilian (my family's heritage). However, all those teaching resources did - as others have mentioned - help me understand written words on signs and menus, so that was useful.

Thanks Tobia, that is one of the limitations of taking an online course without real exposure to the language. In Italy I find salve to be a fairly common greeting but have never heard it mentioned in any formal Italian course I've taken. I had an Italian tell me that if you use salve Italians may assume you are a better Italian speaker than you are.

I should have been more clear because my usage of "l'inglese è il mio preferito" would come after we had exchanged pleasantries in Italian and were moving onto more substantive discussions. They would ask me something too complicated or fast for my Italian and I would ask them to repeat it more slowly "Ripeti lentamente, per favore" and then we would generally start the language negotiation. One funny way to say it I learned from my American friend who has a place in Italy is say "Piano, piano" accompanied by a kind of double hands up open and closing motion. I have no idea where it's from but it never fails to make Italian people laugh and also they understand that you're struggling with the language.

Also as I mentioned I was mistaken for German more than once and was asked essentially if English was okay as part of a preemptive negotiation and later they were surprised to find out I was American. In Arezzo I was asked if I spoke German by a shopkeeper and I said "Ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch" because I took high school German but again it turned out English was the common language we both spoke but she had been learning German and was looking to try it out on a native speaker.

So the good news for Americans is that English has become the common language in Italy that shopkeepers will try to land on for tourists from all over the world. But I struggle to learn what I can of the local language because I'd like to be as inside the culture as I can.

Buon viaggio, =Tod

In my first Duolingo lessons, "salve" is used rather then "buongiorno". Different users might be experiencing a different plan structure or also the lessons may have been updated.

To the OP's question: yes it helped me. Yes, there are probably better, but it was free and convenient. I did Duo Italian for 180 days straight during COVID as part of my morning routine. Much of that has been lost since, but I'd go back to it if I was going to Italy anytime soon.

@hiredman - Yes, it is always tempting to ask an Italian you are trying to converse with to slow down with their speech, however, I try not to ask anymore after being told by an Italian acquaintance in Italy that “Italians HATE that!” which maybe depends on the person, but I certainly stopped asking him!

oooo! Talking about "salve" vs "buongiorno"!

So you are supposed to greet all shopkeepers when going in and out of their stores, usually a "hello" of some sort, and then a "grazie" on the way out. I would always say "buongiorno" during the morning times, but since neither "buon pomerriggio" or "buona sera" (as my friends said was ok for anything after noon) felt right, I settled for a "salve" all times between 12pm and 5pm :)

Perhaps this is a regional thing, but when I stayed at Allogia Barbaria in Venice in 2017, the owner told me that 'salve' was more impersonal. He said that's how he would greet "the tax man." :-)

And, I completed Duolingo's Italian course, and am now working on the French. Certainly not necessary for travel, but, for me, it does make it more fun to be able to engage locals in their own language. Haltingly, at times, but I've found the effort to almost always be appreciated.

Hi Les, circling back on your post. I mentioned that watching some YouTube videos for beginner’s traveler’s Italian from native speakers were really helpful, too. One of them shared “Va bene?” which I used often in the smaller cities and even in Venice last time. It means “All right?” or “Is it good?”, so when you want to sit at a table in a piazza to have a drink, catch the eye of the waiter and ask it, pointing to the table you would like. It saves them time, and you also have been courteous.

I have tried Duolingo for 10 days. Probably a bit too much repetition of very easy cafe talk. It is kind of fun. And maybe the repetition will be good for me.

I also have been trying Mango as suggested above by others. It seems to be better in that there is more explanations and also so far an emphasis on formal rather then casual vocabulary. As an older adult traveling I am not going to hit the young nightlife and already have a wife. :)

Coffee Break Italian podcasts are good for my walks.

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