Whether you’re right at the beginning of your journey to mastering Italian or you’re an advanced learner who’s preparing to take an exam, these resources will contain opportunities for you to practise and improve your Italian at all levels.

 

To help you get started, we’ve organized the learning resources according to categories. Whether you want to work on your pronunciation, listening, vocabulary or reading, there is a resource just waiting for you.

 

Happy learning!

 

Catching up on the news

The Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera is possibly the best known Italian language newspaper in the world. Its articles cover a wide range of topics, so you should find something that interests you.

 

If you’re a lower level learner, try to work your way through news headlines and summaries on the homepage, as they tend to be short and succinct. If you’re a more advanced learner, the opinion pieces on culture, economics and technology are more challenging

 

Alternatively, you can watch the Italian evening news programme Telegiornale, where you can also find short news clips.

Listening

Coffee Break Italian

This podcast helps you practise your listening in Italian. Each episode lasts around 30 mins – literally enough time to sit down and have a coffee while listening!

 

The best part about this is that it helps you not just with your listening but also with your grammar and vocabulary! Each episode is centred around a conversation and then it is broken down part by part, working its way through the vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation.

 

The series is targeted at beginners, so it’s an opportunity to expose yourself to authentic Italian but using the slowly spoken part to really come to grips with the language. For intermediate learners, it’s an opportunity to revise some of the basics and practise your listening skills.

 

News in slow Italian

This does exactly what it says on the tin! You can listen to the news being spoken slowly and clearly in Italian, so it’s particularly helpful for lower level learners. There are also explanations of cultural and grammatical aspects to the language as well as accompanying worksheets. However, to take advantage of the worksheets, you do need to subscribe, though listening to the news spoken slowly is free and there is a new episode every week!

 

Reading

Lingua

For lower level to intermediate level learners, this site is the perfect place to get some focused reading practise in. Choose the level you want to practise, select the topic and read the text. Once you’ve worked your way through the text and the vocabulary, complete the accompanying exercise to check your understanding.

Saber Italiano

For intermediate level learners and above looking for more of a challenge, the Saber Italiano site contains a few longer texts which are followed by some reading comprehension exercises. These texts are more difficult and cover topics such as the Italian state, Italian cuisine and Rome.

Italy Magazine

For more advanced learners, the Italy Magazine site contains 4 advanced level texts with some accompanying exercises for you.

First Italian Readings

Once you’re finished with the 4 texts in Italy Magazine, turn to this online resource from the Gutenberg project, which contains a series of short stories in Italian. Be warned, they become increasingly more difficult and challenging! Once you’ve finished with that, you can find a library full of Italian books to read here.

Vocabulary

Saber Italiano

This contains lists of vocabulary organized according to topic. Choose the topic you want to focus on and start learning the list off by heart. Once you’ve done that, check out the interactive exercises, which are organized according to level, to put what you’ve learnt into practice.

101 Languages Net

This is a more engaging way to learn and practise your Italian vocabulary. There are loads of topics to choose from. Select what you would like to learn and work your way through the exercises. What’s really great about this exercise is the fact you can listen to the exercise, which will help you not only with completing it but also with your pronunciation and listening.

Quiz Tree

If you prefer to work with flashcards for learning and practising your vocabulary, then you will probably prefer this online resource. It organizes the vocabulary according to topic and uses an online flashcard system to help you commit the lexical items to memory.

Grammar

Italian Language Guide

This excellent resource is useful for beginner, intermediate and higher level learners alike. It is neatly organized according to grammatical feature. Just click on the area you want to revise and you’ll be taken to clear cut examples and explanations.

 

Dictionaries

Word Reference

Possibly one of the most underrated dictionaries online, WordReference should be bookmarked by all Italian learners. Not only is this dictionary free and contains heaps of examples to help you understand how a word is used in context, but it also has its very own verb conjugator! You just type in the verb, hit conjugate, and you’ll get every form of the verb in every tense, mood and aspect!

 

Linguee

While Linguee is available in many languages, it is particularly good for Italian learners. The dictionary is built on example translations, so when you type in a word, not only do you get a good set of translations laid out in order of popularity, but you also get full sentence examples of how the word or phrase has been translated elsewhere online!

 

 

Apps

Duolingo

One of the most popular language learning apps, Duolingo is famous for the quirky sentences it makes you read, say and complete. The idea is that the stranger the sentence is, the more chance you’ll have of committing the word or phrase to memory. New vocabulary is taught with flashcards, grammar is explained with little speech bubbles, you practise and repeat throughout the unit and then at the end of the level there’s a test. If you pass the test, then you can move on to the next level. There’s some gamification, as you’re encouraged to score points, maintain your daily language learning streak and compete against your friends.

Memrise

Less of a language learning app and more of a memory aid, Memorize can be used to learn just about anything! However, it’s most popular with language learners, some of which have made some of the courses available for free in this app! There are also courses prepared by Memrise. Whatever course you go for, what they all have in common is the memorize method: you see a few words or phrases, you repeat them and reproduce them, and then you’re quizzed on them. There are several built in tools to help you know how many times you’ve come across a word and how often you need to see it to commit it to memory.

Busuu

This app breaks learning a language down into bite sized chunks. In each unit you learn a small amount of vocabulary, apply it to a conversation, practise listening, reading and pronouncing the word, then you finish off by completing a small conversation, which is recorded and sent off for community feedback. The material has been professionally prepared by McGraw Hill Education, so you know you’re getting good quality stuff. The levels covered are from A1 to B2, so perfect for anyone who’s an absolutely beginner to an upper-intermediate learner and all inbetween.

 

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