Weekend Italian: Bite-size language chunks of Italian survival phrases and high-frequency words to kick-start your language learning. Grab a cup of coffee and spend a little time this weekend learning Italian!

“Not all words are created equal: we use certain words far more often than others…We get a lot of mileage out of our most frequent words…With only a thousand words [of your target language] you’ll recognize nearly 75 percent of what you read. With two thousand, you’ll hit 80 percent.”

–Gabriel Wyner, Fluent Forever

After four years of studying Italian, I was pretty confident in my mastery of high frequency words…until I quizzed myself. In reviewing a list in English of 625 most commonly used words, I could readily translate just 307 into Italian. Less than half. 

Now going into my fifth year of study I’m determined to master these words, with this post series serving as a vehicle. I invite you to come along for the ride, and remember, these high frequency words can be applied to any language which you are working to acquire, not just Italian.

Word bank: actor, adjective, adult, afternoon, air, airport, alive, animal, apartment, apple. Attore/attrice, aggettivo, adulto, pomeriggio, aria, aeroporto, vivo, animale, appartamento, mela.

Level: Give it a Try

• I love to spend un pomeriggio at the beach, where the aria is fresh and I feel vivo.
• A word to describe something is an aggettivo.
• When you are an adulta (or an adulto), you may choose to live in an appartamento with an animale for a pet.
• He wants to be an attore when he grows up. (An attrice for her).
• An aeroporto is a very crowded place!
• A red mela is crispy and delicious.

Level: Challenge

• Mi piace passare un pomeriggo in spiaggia, dove l’aira e` fresca e mi sento vivo.
• Una parola per descrivere qualcosa e` un aggettivo.
• Quando sei un’adulta (o un adulto), forse abiterai in un appartamento con un animale domestico.
• Quando sara` grande, lui vuole diventare un attore. (Un’attrice per lei).
• Un aeroporto e` un posto molto affolato!
• Una mela rossa e` croccante e deliziosa.

Practice these words on Quizlet*  

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Grazie a tutti, e buon divertimente! Thank you, all, and have fun!

Pronunciation resources: Forvo, Google Translate  Content resources: Fluent Forever, WordReference

Image Credit

Tell me what you think of this “High Frequency Italian” post! What would be useful to you in your language studies? Do you have a correction or suggestion? Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts in the comment section below.

This post first appeared on Prayers and Piazzas.