Top 10 greetings in Italian for Beginners
Italian is a Romance language, a descendant of Vulgar Latin (colloquial spoken Latin). Standard Italian is based on Tuscan, especially its Florentine dialect, and is, therefore, an Italo-Dalmatian language, a classification that includes most other central and southern Italian languages and the extinct Dalmatian. Italian is spoken chiefly in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, Slovenia and Croatia. In Switzerland, it is spoken in Graubünden and Ticino cantons in the south-east. In Croatia, it is spoken mainly in Istria County in the northwest, and it is spoken in the neighbouring Istria region of southwest Slovenia. Italian speakers are also known in other countries, including Malta, Monaco, Romania, France, Eritrea, Somalia, Brazil Australia and the USA.
There are about 64 million native speakers of Italian worldwide, another 3 million people speak it as a second language. Italian first started to appear in written documents during the 10th century in the form of notes and short texts inserted into Latin documents such as lawsuits and poetry. For a long time, there was no standard written or spoken language in Italy and writers tended to write in their own regional dialects and languages.
The first grammar of Italian with the Latin title Regule lingue florentine (Rules of the Florentine language) was produced by Leon Battista Alberti (1404-72) and published in 1495.
During the 15th and 16th centuries, both Latin and Italian were used for technical and scientific texts. The Italian used was full of Latin words and over time Latin was used less and less as Italian became increasingly popular.
Today the Tuscan dialect is known as Italian (Italiano) and is the official language of Italy. It is the main language of literature and the media.
Italian has an informal tense which is used when speaking with good friends, young people, children, and your family members. Basically, anyone, you know well.
However, when speaking to a person you don’t know well such as a superior, shopkeeper, waiter, teacher, professor, or someone of important social standing such as a doctor, or police officer, then you should address him or her in the formal tense.
When you become more familiar with someone, you may change from using the formal tense to the informal tense. According to custom, the elder person initiates this change. It’s handy to learn both tenses even if you don’t use the informal very much. Whenever in doubt, the safe option is to use the formal tense.
Let's now have a look at a few greetings that would be of use to you!
‘Hi’ in Italian – Ciao!
How to pronounce it: chaow
Meaning: Hi, Bye
Usage: Informal Italian greeting.
‘Hey’ in Roman – Aó!
How to pronounce it: aaow
Meaning: Hey! Hi! / Wow!
Usage: Informal Roman dialect greeting.
‘Hello’ in Italian – Salve(sal-veh)
Usage: Informal and formal Italian greeting.
‘Hello’ on the phone in Italian – Pronto!(pron-toh)
Usage: Neutral Italian greeting.
‘How are you?’ in Italian
Come sta?(koh-meh stah)– How are you?
Usage: Formal Italian greeting.
Reply
I’m well! – Sto bene!(stoh beh-nay)
Usage: Formal/informal greeting.
Very well, thanks – Molto bene, grazie(mol-toh beh-nay, grat-zyeh)
Usage: Formal/informal greeting.
Quite well, thanks – Abbastanza bene, grazie(ab-bah-stahn-za beh-nay, grat-zyeh)
Usage: Formal/informal greeting.
Not bad – Non c’è male(nohn cheh mah-lay)
Usage: Formal/informal greeting.
Everything’s going well – Va tutto bene(va tut-toh beh-nay)
Usage: Formal/informal greeting.
Great! – Benissimo!(ben-ees-see-moh)
Usage: Formal/informal greeting.
So-so – Così così (koh-zee koh-zee)
Usage: Formal/informal greeting.
I can’t complain – Non mi posso lamentare (nohn mee pos-soh lah-mehn-tah-ray)
Usage: Formal/informal greeting.
Awesome! Great! Amazing! – Alla grande! (al-lah grahn-day)
Usage: Informal, Roman dialect.
‘Nice to meet you’ in informal Italian – Piacere di conoscerti(pyah-chair-ray dee koh-noh-sher-tee)
Usage: Informal Italian greeting.
‘Nice to meet you’ in formal Italian – Piacere di conoscerLa(pyah-chair-ray dee koh-noh-sher-lah)
Usage: Formal Italian greeting.
‘Good Morning’ in Italian – Buongiorno
How to pronounce it: bwohn-jor-noh
Meaning: Good morning
Usage: Informal and formal greeting used before 3-4 p.m.
‘Good Afternoon / Good Evening’ in Italian – Buonasera
How to pronounce it: bwoh-nah-seh-rah
Meaning: Good afternoon/ Good evening
Usage: Informal and formal greeting used after 3-4 p.m.
‘Bye!’ in informal Italian – Ciao!
How to pronounce it: chaow
Meaning: Hi, Bye
Usage: Informal Italian greeting.
‘Bye!’ in formal Italian – Salve!
How to pronounce it: sal-veh
Meaning: Bye
Usage: Informal and formal Italian greeting.
‘Goodnight’ in Italian – Buonanotte
How to pronounce it: bwoh-nah not-teh
Meaning: Good night
Usage: Informal and formal Italian greeting, when leaving to go home or to bed.
‘See you tomorrow’ in Italian is literally until tomorrow – A domani(ah doh-mah-nee)
Usage: Informal Italian greeting.
“Yes” and “No” in Italian
These are straightforward. “Yes” is sì and “no” is no. Simple.
“Excuse me” in Italian
If you need to get someone’s attention or ask to get by them, you can say mi scusi. If you’re talking to friends or family, though, you can use scusa, which is informal.
“Sorry” in Italian
You can use scusa for “sorry” in Italian as well. But a more polite way to apologize, especially if you made a mistake, is to use mi dispiace.
Finally,
The Italian language has had a great influence over cultures worldwide in fields like food, music and art. You probably know some Italian words already such as pizza is the most famous Italian dish invented around 1860 in Naples, or “spaghetti”, “lasagna”, “cappuccino”, “piano”, “solo” or “orchestra”. You might also have a foreign friend who sometimes answers the phone by saying “Ciao!”.
Italians talk fast; really fast and love to use shorter words, barring a few exceptions such as “precipitevolissimevolmente” that has a whopping 26 letters. The tongue twister refers to something that goes super fast or someone who’s being hasty. But don’t worry, most Italian words are much shorter, easier to pronounce and more common. Focus on the most common Italian words to become fluent faster, to improve your Italian vocabulary and to have basic Italian conversations at the earliest! You can check Multibhahi’s online class to learn Italian. You can also get a free trial class by using this link.