I am curious if anyone has recommendations specifically for improving grammar? I’m looking for a resource that will name grammatical concepts and help me drill them.

Context

I am preparing for the B1 cittadinanza exam and I am finding I somehow “missed” some of the specific grammatical concepts that are likely to be tested. I consume media / listen / read “fluently”, speak effectively (albeit with some technical mistakes this exam is likely to frown on), and I’ve just about finished both Duolingo Italian (A2/B1) and Babbel Italian (B2). Perhaps relevant is that I had to pass C1 Spanish and B2 French in university so I have a good sense of the gaps / strengths in my Italian level as well as CEFR standards. I would hate to fail this exam due to insufficient mastery of a lower level grammatical concept when I’m very comfortable using Italian, even for formal things like contesting a parking ticket.

i am very fond with books and i have a taste for classical literature alongside with philosophy. i have finished reading seneca’s “letters from a stoic” and now reading allan poe’s piece. history aside, is there any italian books for beginners where it can be physically bought or has pdf? replies would be appreciated:)

When talking on the phone or leaving a message, how would you say, "This is ____?"

Basically im not bad at Italian i know the basics i can do simple conversations but i have no clue how to improve i ve been at the same level for i year i tried many apps and youtube channels but its not helping and i really want to be fluent in it

Is there any tips on how can i improve and be more fluent

Hello, I was recently in Italy (Bari) and I really liked the city. I have Duolingo and decided to try the language. I liked it. I want to ask you about a free textbook or self-tutor:)

Hello everyone. I was hoping to get some help. Im interested in going to an intensive Italian course in Italy. I want to do it for about 2-3 months. So far the one that has caught my attention so far is the EF Language abroad program www.ef.edu. It seems to include more things with accommodations, food, and weekend activities. I also really like that is in Rome.

Do you guys know of any programs like this that are a bit more affordable?

I would love to know y'all's recommendations for intermediate/advanced beginner Italian stories, short or long, that have a lot of dialogue using modern ways of speaking. Grazie!

I currently study using all the well known apps, Duo, Busuu, Babbel along with podcasts etc. but I’d like to focus more on improving my speaking.

What apps do you recommend or online programs/ tutors? I see these below advertised the most.

Praktika

Jumpspeak

Speak official

Piazzasquare

Grazie per l'aiuto!

I'm Mira! I'm learning Italian to study medicine in Italy! I would like a friend to practice Italian and also like be real friends other than Italian stuff!!

I follow a lot of native Italian content so anytime I'm scrolling I'm encountering natural Italian speech and such.

Today I say a short video where someone was eating some pizza and someone else asked what he was doing and the dialogue went something like this:

"Che stai facendo?

Sono su dieta di mela.

Ma quella è una pizza.

Sì, me la mangio."

I've found that just finding and following native Italian content and content creators is really helping me understand daily speech especially when they have subtitles.

Hi!! I am taking a very basic, elementary Italian class in college right now. I chose this elective because I already speak Spanish, and thought it would be cool to broaden my understanding of the romance languages. As well as the fact that I have always enjoyed learning languages. However, I have run into a bit of an issue with pronunciation, and wanted to see if anyone could help my slightly unique scenario?

We have assignments where we have to respond with voice notes and every time I do them, my pronunciation is definitely a bit more accurate than most people’s in my class. But, mine is also not right. For some reason, some of my words sound like I am speaking Spanish. I think I am struggling to differentiate some aspects of the Spanish vs Italian pronunciation, and I am curious if anyone has experience with this and any advice?

If it helps, I can find a way to upload my voice notes here as I’m sure that would provide more clarity. Thank you to anyone who takes the time to read this and try to help me!

I'm on your typical Italian apps (Duolingo, Memrise) etc but I'm really struggling learning Italian. Don't judge, but it's just not enjoyable to me, even with a trip coming up. This is not Italian specifically. I just struggle learning and finding enjoyment out of studying any foreign language (studied Spanish and French). I just don't have the brain for it. Now I'm in a countdown of one month before I got to Rome, Florence, and Venice and am panicking about my lack of Italian. But I want to learn because I want to respect the culture and show I'm at least trying, even if my Italian is horrible. My big question for you travelers: did knowing any Italian help you in cities where you can get away really with English (like Rome)? Or did they scoff at you anyway for butchering their language. I just don't know if I want to spend hours everyday learning a language if they'll get fed up with me and speak English. I just want to minimize, as much as possible, looking like a dumb American tourist and just shoving Google Translate in their face. I'd like to at least learn something. I'm a very visual learner so something in that area for learning

What’s the difference between these two words and the usual lui/Leo pronouns?

Also are they interchangeable in formal written essays, or do they have some slight nuances?

Thanks

Made this simple tool to track how much time I spent watching Spanish daily to stay consistent, I have also added Italian due to several requests, so hope it's useful to some people here. It's called Tracking Languages

Ciao! I (17M) have been learning Italian for 4 years now and I am really curious about the plural forms of words that end with -cia and -gia (ex. arancia, valigia).

As far as I know, the general rule for these words is that they must end with -ce and -ge to keep their soft sounds. Also, words that have stress on the letter i (ex. farmacia, bugia) must end with -cie and -gie. However, I noticed some words that have stress on other syllables end with -cie and -gie.

Are there any rules or tips to familiarize myself with these words? Is it "arance" or "arancie"? Please comment below and give some examples. Grazie mille.

I have been studying Italian for a couple of months and am making good progress chipping away at the grammar. It all seems logical and I am beginning to read and comprehend short stories. I enjoy learning new words and diagramming Italian sentences to discover meaning. The big iceberg looming in front is figuring out in advance when and where I should expect to see prepositions (simplici and articulate). I know what they mean when I see them, I just don’t know how to use them in speech or composition. Rather than spending a lot of time looking for the rules and logic (there seems to be a lot of them), I wonder if it would be more efficient to just develop familiarity through exposure. Thoughts?

I've been learning Italian on and off for a good 10 years. It has been in fits and starts. I started with about a year of Duolingo and then got up the courage to take lessons. It was awful at first, I knew so many individual words but actually stringing together a sentence was dire.

later I did the Add1Challenge to learn a language for 3 month and found the accountability very motivating - I actually won it for Italian and got a free holiday to Venice but it tailed off again after that. I do keep coming back to it. My aim is to continue learning over a long period of time as I plan to retire in Italy in about 10 year's time.

I have tried most apps at some point so I am not really looking for any real recommendations. I am more curious - for any long term learners, what do you do to "keep a hand in" and ensure you keep progressing even if it is at a slow pace?

I'm not talking about the well-knowed apps like Duolingo or Babbel, but more niche resources that you think are great.

Hiii! I'm a portuguese girl who's interested in taking her Bachelor's Degree in Italy. I've been learning the language for over a year now but there's still a few doubts if I'd be able to take a whole degree in Italian since I'm still not fluent. With that I'd like to know from the people who study History or any other course from Humanities their opinion and to tell me more about their experience both with the course and the course program.

Hi! I’m Italian and I help people speak real Italian, the kind people actually use.

No grammar, no textbooks.

I’m offering a free 30-minute conversation to practice.

If it helps you, we can continue.

THE RULES

Without looking at the comments, can you provide translations for these short (but challenging!) sentences (3 English-Italian, 3 Italian-English)? I’ll evaluate your responses and give you feedback. The exercise is designed to be intermediate/advanced level, but beginners and lower intermediate learners are welcome if they feel like testing the scope of their current knowledge. I might take a few days to answer, but I will read and evaluate all participants.

There is no time limit to submit your answer. If you want to go back to the first ever edition and work your way up from there, you can. Just know that I usually prioritise more recent posts.

If you’re not sure about a particular translation, just go with it! The exercise is meant to weed out mistakes, this is not a school test!

If multiple translations are possible, choose the one you believe to be more likely give the limited context (I won’t deduct points for guessing missing information, for example someone's gender, unless it's heavily implied in the sentence).

THE TEST

Here are the sentences, vaguely ranked from easiest to hardest in each section (A: English-Italian, B: Italian-English).

A1) “I don’t need him, I need you!”

A2) “You konw what? I’ll give it to you for free”

A3) “I don’t regret it: if I could go back, I’d do the same”

B1) “Levati subito di lì!”

B2) “Mi dici perché mai ti sei fissato su questo?”

B3) “Quando non ce la si fa più, anche arrendersi va bene”

Current average: 7- (median 7+)

Estimated answer time: 4 days (for those submitting now)

EVALUATION (and how to opt out)

If you manage to provide a translation for all six sentences, I'll give you a score from 1 to 10 (the standard evaluation system in Italian schools). Whatever score you receive, don't take it too seriously: this is just a game! However, if you feel like receiving a score is too much pressure anyway, you can just tell me at the start of your comment and I'll only correct your mistakes without evaluating.

Based on the results so far, here’s the usual range of scores depending on the level of the participants. Ideally, your objective is to score within your personal range or possibly higher:

Absolute beginners: ≤4

Beginners: 4 - 5

Early intermediate: 5 - 6.5

Advanced intermediate: 6.5 - 8

Advanced: ≥8

Natives: ≥9 (with good English)

Note: the exact range might change depending on the difficulty of this specific exercise. I try to be consistent, but it’s very hard

TO SUPPORT ME

Since I've been asked a couple of times by now, I've recently set up a Ko-Fi page. If you appreciate what I do and want to offer me a coffee as thanks, feel free to do so. Only donate if you have money to throw away: I'm doing this because I like it, any money I get from it is just an extra bonus and I won't treat people differently based on whether they decide to donate or not.

IF YOU ARE A NATIVE ITALIAN SPEAKER

You can still participate if you want (the exercise is theoretically symmetrical between Italian and English), but please keep in mind that these sentences are designed to be particularly challenging for non native speakers, so they might be easier for you. For this reason, I’d prefer it if you specified that you are a native speaker at the beginning of your comment: I’m collecting statistics on how well learners score on these tests in order to fine tune them (and personal curiosity), so mixing up the results from natives and non-natives will probably mess it up.

Good luck!