Basic Italian Greetings

Learning Italian is the most fun and challenging endeavors I’ve ever started. It fills me with joy each time a word “clicks.” And to hear an Italian exclaim, “Brava!” at my attempts to speak their beautiful language is better than a gold star or a blue ribbon at the fair.

The first necessary steps into the Italian language is, of course, the greeting. Just being able to say “good morning, how are you” is very satisfying.

Let’s get started with some basic Italian greetings:

Buon giorno  = Good morning
BWOHN JOHR-noh

Buona sera = Good evening
BWOH-nah SEH-rah

Come stai? = How are you? (familiar, use with friends and young people)
KOH-meh STAH-ee

Come sta = How are you (formal, use with elders and people you just met)
KOH-meh stah

Bene, grazie = Fine, thanks
BEH-neh, GRAH-tsee-eh

Molto bene = Very well
mol-TOE BEH-neh

E tu? = And you? (familiar)
A TOO (A as in the “a” in date)

Ciao = Bye
CHAH-oo (informal)

Arrivederci = Goodbye (is also translated to ‘until we meet again’)
ah-rree-veh-DEHR-chee

Arrivederla = Goodbye (formal)
ah-ree-veh-DEHR-la

A presto = See you later
AH prehs-TOE

One of my co-workers is learning Spanish and we greet each other each morning in our target language. We try to add a little bit of weather or small talk as we are learning. It’s fun and nothing beats practicing with someone.

Tip: If you’re having a bad day or in a blue mood, say out loud “Molto bene, grazie” as if you are replying to “come stai.” It will lift your spirits! Works every time for me.

That’s all for now. I hope you’ll stick with me and we can learn some Italian together passo dopo passo (step by step).