Lessons for English speakers

Learn to read Italian

A short, active path into reading Italian: decode real words from a small sound guide, learn where the endings and the verb sit, meet the past that fables are printed in, and read a whole fable before opening your first book.

13 core sections · ≈ 32 min + 3 optional lookups · ≈ 48 min with everything

The past that fables are printed in, and how speech is tagged

≈ 4 min

What you'll learn

Fables are printed in the passato remoto, a past rarely heard in conversation.
No new vocabulary — only new shapes of verbs you already have. Recognise them; you never have to produce them.
Regular shapes are accented; the commonest verbs are short and doubled: venne, disse, cadde.
vide moves the story forward a step; era holds it still and describes.
In a speech tag the verb comes before the speaker: disse la volpe — and speech opens with « » or a dash.

This is the most useful section on the path for reading. One guess before you look: vede is “he sees”, and the story column below has videVEE-deh, one letter away. What do you think it means?

Now, and in a story

English	Happening now	In a story
is	è	fufoo
comes	viene	venneVEHN-neh
sees	vede	videVEE-deh
says	dice	disseDEES-seh
asks	chiede	chieseKYEH-zeh
answers	risponde	risposeree-SPOH-zeh
falls	cade	caddeKAHD-deh

Read the third column twice: recognising it beats any rule about how it is built. The past a beginner course teaches for speaking — ha detto — is what Italians say; it is simply not the one printed in fables.

The regular shapes, and the irregular habit

volare“to fly”

volòvoh-LOH

-are verbs end in accented -ò: andò“went”

dormire“to sleep”

dormìdor-MEE

-ire verbs end in accented -ì

vede · cade

vide · cadde

The commonest verbs are short and doubled — a short doubled word mid-story is almost always one of these.

The second past: how things were

eraEH-rah · avevaah-VEH-vah

was · had

One heuristic tells the two pasts apart: vide moves the story forward a step; era holds it still and describes. Every page of a fable has both.

si chiamavasee kyah-MAH-vah

was called

how a fable introduces a character

Five joining words

English	Italian	Sounds like
and	e	eh
but	ma	mah
very	molto	MOHL-toh
now	ora	OH-rah
one day	un giorno	oon JOR-noh

For “because”, Italian reuses perché — the “why” you have, now answering instead of asking.

“Good morning,” said the fox.

«Buongiorno», disse la volpe.

bwohn-JOR-noh, DEES-seh lah VOHL-peh

disse“said” comes before la volpe — an Italian story almost always tags speech this way, and narration often puts the verb first too: venne il vento“the wind came”. The characters themselves speak in the present. And every fairy tale opens C'era una volta…CHEH-rah OO-nah VOHL-tah“once upon a time” — the era from above with a small word welded on.

Moving, or describing

La volpe vide un uccello.
One letter from vede.
Show answer +Hide answer −
La volpe vide un uccello.lah VOHL-peh VEE-deh oon oot-CHEHL-loh“The fox saw a bird”
L'albero cadde.
Short and doubled.
Show answer +Hide answer −
L'albero cadde.LAHL-beh-roh KAHD-deh“The tree fell”
Tika era triste.
Holds the story still.
Show answer +Hide answer −
Tika era triste.TEE-kah EH-rah TREE-steh“Tika was sad”