Learn Italian

Start at the alphabet

The Italian on-ramp is written by hand, not generated, and it is 482 cards long. Every card is spoken in a recorded Italian voice, and what you get right is scheduled for review rather than shown again at random.

• 26letters
• 10digits
• 26pronunciation rules
• 300core words
• 60everyday phrases
• 60sentences

Three of the pronunciation cards, exactly as the course teaches them:

• a e i o u — five written vowels, and each keeps its full value in every syllable — Italian has no “uh”. An unstressed a is still a clear “ah”, which is why banana has three identical vowelsbanana — a long yellow fruit you peel
• e — the letter e covers two sounds: an OPEN “eh” as in bello and sette, and a CLOSED “ay” as in sera and verde. Dictionaries mark them, speakers just know them, and no one will misunderstand you either waybello — good-looking
• o — the same split for o: an OPEN “aw” as in nove and cosa, a CLOSED “oh” as in sole and dove. Again the spelling never shows whichnove — nine

Then material that does not run out

Once you are reading, the level is the point. The Text Generator writes Italian at the CEFR level, length, topic and format you ask for, so the step up is a setting rather than a new book. Speaking scores you word by word as you read aloud. The Conversation Partner talks back. The Translator explains a sentence instead of replacing it, and the Corrector marks what you wrote and says why.

Above the on-ramp sits the Path — a station map from A1 to C2 with grammar, vocabulary and checkpoint stations — and Words & Notes, where everything you save comes back on a spaced-repetition schedule in seven quiz styles.

What Italian actually costs a beginner

The fine print is length. A double consonant is HELD, and the holding alone changes the word: nonno is a grandfather, nono is ninth; sono is "I am", sonno is sleep. English does not use consonant length to tell words apart, so it has to be practised on purpose rather than noticed. The single r is one tap and the double r is a roll, and that is a real distinction too. Everything else — the open and closed e and o that dictionaries mark and speakers simply know — will not stop anyone understanding you, and the course says so rather than drilling it.