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Italian, built on essere and avere.

A 100-word frequency starter. Almost every Italian tense is assembled from two irregular verbs, so this course drills essere and avere before it teaches anything elegant.

Designed by linguists and built with data.

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Quick taster

3-word session

A quick mix of exercises - recognise, recall, type and build each word. Miss one and it comes back round until it sticks.

Graded reader

Tutto va bene

Only words the course has taught

. : . .

The uncle is at home. A man says: everything is fine. But I have no time.

Tap any word for its word page

Read Italian from the first week.

One graded reader written entirely inside the first 100 words. Italian frequency is steep, so a hundred words goes further here than you would expect.

Browse Italian stories

Grammar that treats you like an adult.

Sono andato is right and ho andato is wrong, and the reason is not arbitrary. Which auxiliary a verb takes tracks whether its subject acts or is acted upon.

Explore Italian grammar

Present tense

essere

to be - Irregular, and unavoidable

io
sono
tu
sei
lui / lei
e
noi
siamo
voi
siete
loro
sono

Essere is irregular in every person, and almost every Italian compound tense is built from it. There is no way around learning it cold.

Built for Italian, specifically

Not one course photocopied six times. Each language gets the tools its own difficulties actually call for.

The first 100 words by frequency

Di, e, il, che, la, non, un, essere, avere, fare: the function words and core verbs that carry most of a simple Italian page.

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Essere and avere, drilled cold

The two verbs every compound tense is built from, conjugated until they are automatic rather than looked up.

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Why il becomes lo

Il, lo, la, i, gli, le and the indefinites. The variation is phonetic, not grammatical, which is why it stops needing memorisation once you hear it.

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Regular verbs in three families

The -are, -ere and -ire patterns that cover the large regular majority, plus the irregulars you meet too often to avoid.

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A graded reader under a strict ceiling

One story using only words the course has taught, so nothing in it sends you to a dictionary.

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Italian by the numbers

Counted from the course, not rounded up for the brochure.

words in the course
100

words in the course

grammar guides
3

grammar guides

graded reader
1

graded reader

Or wander in sideways

The course is the spine, but every part of it stands on its own.

StoriesGrammarGamesWord listsPronunciationTeaching resourcesBooksLeaderboardToolsEssere and avereThe Italian articlesStart the course

Start Italian at word one.

Every lesson is free to read, and stays that way. Plus is what remembers them for you: free for a week, then $5 a month - one subscription for every course on the site, not just Italian.

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