Introduction to Italian/Lesson 3

Basic Vocabulary

There are a few very important words in Italian that you will definitely need to know. They are classified here by part of speech.

Firenze, Italia (Florence, Italy)

Pronouns

io - I
tu - you
lui/lei - he/she (lei can also be the formal version of tu)
noi - we
voi - you (collective; used for addressing multiple people directly)^{[N 1]}
loro - they

In elementary schools when you start studying verb tenses, the third person singular and third person plural are translated with "egli" and "essi", which are personal pronouns too, the use is still quite common in written Italian but rarely in spoken Italian.

Simple prepositions

con - with
in - in (don't forget to pronounce it differently even though it's spelled the same)
su - on
a - at, to
di - of
da - from
per - for
tra - within (used interchangeably with fra)

Conjunctions

e - and
ma - but
o/oppure - or

previous lesson

Notes

↑ Voi is also used as an extremely formal version of tu, once used for Kings and Queens, and is now used in translations of foreign works about monarchies and royalties. It is also used by Southern Italians instead of lei, but this use is rare in written Italian.

[1] Voi is also used as an extremely formal version of tu, once used for Kings and Queens, and is now used in translations of foreign works about monarchies and royalties. It is also used by Southern Italians instead of lei, but this use is rare in written Italian.

[N 1]