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. Make a text 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. Lexi talks back. The Translator fixes your mistakes as it translates and can give a simpler version at your level, and Writing marks what you wrote and says why.

Above the on-ramp sits the Course — a map of practice steps from A1 to C2 with grammar, vocabulary and a level test at the top of each level — and My words, where everything you save comes back on a spaced-repetition schedule in eight 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 practiced 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.