Italian vocabulary lists by topic: food, travel, work, emotions, the body and health, the daily routine, days and months, and the 100 most common nouns and verbs. Nouns come with il, lo, la or l', and each page covers what a list can't: plurals like le braccia, false friends and lines from Contos stories. Start with the common nouns.
- Italian taught
- Standard Italian
- List size
- 40 to 100 words, printed in full
- Nouns
- With il, lo, la or l'
- Beyond the list
- Plurals and their exceptions, false friends, verbs with their prepositions
- In context
- Lines quoted from Contos chapters on every list
- The most common Italian nouns: 100 to learn first100 everyday Italian nouns with their articles, how plurals work (la città, l'uomo, la foto), gender exceptions, and real lines from Contos stories.
- The most common Italian verbs: 100 to learn first100 everyday Italian verbs in the infinitive, with essere and avere, sapere vs conoscere, piacere, -isc- verbs and real sentences from Contos stories.
- Italian daily routine vocabulary: 60 words and phrases60 Italian words for the daily routine: reflexive verbs like svegliarsi, non… mai, phrases with fare, weather and greetings, with story lines.
- Days of the week and months in ItalianThe days of the week and months in Italian, with lunedì vs il lunedì, how to say and write the date, the seasons, and real lines from Contos stories.
- Italian words for emotions and personality: 60 words60 Italian words for feelings and personality, with -o and -e adjective endings, mi manchi, false friends like educato, and real story lines.
- Italian food vocabulary: 60 words, from il pane to il conto60 Italian food and restaurant words with il, lo, la and l', how to order at the bar, the plural of uovo, and real lines from Contos stories.
- Italian words for the body and health: 50 words50 Italian words for the body and health, irregular plurals like le braccia and le dita, mi fa male, phrases for the pharmacy, and story lines.
- Italian travel vocabulary: 60 words for airports, roads and hotels60 Italian travel words with articles and plurals, asking the way, in vs a with places, biglietto explained, and real lines from Contos stories.
- Useful everyday Italian verbs: 100 more to learn100 useful Italian verbs for everyday life, with -isc- verbs like preferire, reflexives like fidarsi, prepositions, false friends and story lines.
- Italian work and office vocabulary: 60 words60 Italian work and office words, il collega vs la collega, false friends like licenziare and fattura, phrases for the working day, story lines.
Where should you start with Italian vocabulary?
With the 100 most common nouns and the 100 most common verbs. The nouns page explains how Italian plurals work, and the verbs page sorts out essere and avere, sapere and conoscere, and piacere.
Then let your plans choose. Eating out and shopping: food, which also shows how to order at the bar. Getting around: travel. Describing your life and moods: daily routine and emotions. Work, health and the body, days and months and 100 more useful verbs complete the set.
Why learn Italian words with their article?
Because the article carries two facts at once: gender, and which form to use. Il goes before most masculine nouns, lo before z, gn and s plus a consonant (lo zaino, lo studente), l' before a vowel. In the plural they become i, gli and le. Learn il caffè and lo zucchero as units and the right forms come without thinking.
Food words are a good place to practise, since they come in lists in real life too. This A1 line is a breakfast menu in one sentence:
Nonna prepara la colazione: caffè, pane tostato, marmellata.Read the list, then read a chapter and notice which words return. Save the ones you meet in the story; those are the ones that stick.
Frequently asked questions
How many Italian words do I need?
Contos moves readers up to A2 at 500 known words, B1 at 1,500 and B2 at 4,000. For a wider view, how many Italian words you need looks at De Mauro's basic Italian vocabulary and research on reading.
Which Italian nouns have irregular plurals?
Nouns that end in a stressed vowel or come from another language stay the same: la città, le città; il bar, i bar. Some body parts switch to a feminine plural in -a: il braccio, le braccia; il dito, le dita. The health and body page lists them.
What are common Italian false friends?
Educato means polite, not educated; fattura is an invoice, not a factory; licenziare means to fire, not to license. The emotions and work pages point out the false friends in each topic.
Should I learn Italian vocabulary from lists or reading?
Start with a list to meet a topic, then read to make the words stick. In Contos you can tap any word in an Italian chapter to see its meaning and save it as a flashcard for spaced review.