In this Last Minute Italian series, we provide you with the very essential phrases to start learning and communicating in Italian.

In this first video lesson , you will learn the most common greetings in Italian  in less than five minutes. Let’s start!

Ciao a tutti e benvenuti alla prima lezione di “Italiano all’ultimo minuto”! In meno di cinque minuti imparerete quali sono le forme di saluto più comuni in italiano. Cominciamo!

Ciao!

(Hi/Hello/Goodbye)This is a very informal way of greeting people. You usually use it to people you are quite familiar with.Ciao can be said both when meeting and taking leave from others.

Salve

(Hello) Salve it’s a formal way of greeting people and it’s one of the go to salutations for addressing strangers or people you are in formal terms with.

Buongiorno

(Good morning) Use it to greet friends or strangers in the morning. It can also be meant as a goodbye.

Buon pomeriggio
(Good Afternoon)

It might be a personal opinion, but i consider buon pomeriggio a bit of a formal greeting, it’s unlikely that friends would greet each other with this phrase.

Buonasera

(Goodevening) Just as Buongiorno you can use this with everyone both as hi and hello, the only difference is that you use from after the sunset or 5 o’clock, generally.

Benvenuto/a

(Welcome) Benvenuto is is used when addressing a male, while Benvenuta is used to welcome a female. We will go over the feminine,masculine and plural forms in an upcoming video, so stay tuned and subscribe!

Bentornato/a

(Welcome Back) Literally ‘Ben'(Well) and ‘tornato'(came back). The same gender rules seen for Benvenuto apply here.

Buona notte

(Goodnight) It’s usually implied here that either you or the other person are about to sleep and that you won’t have the chance to see each other till the next day.

Sogni D’oro

Golden Dreams or Golden Slumbers. It’s usually paired with Buonanotte

Arrivederci

(Goodbye)

Addio

(Goodbye) The only difference from Arrivederci is that when you say Addio you don’t expect to see the other person again anymore, or at least not for a looong time.

Here are some more Italian greeting you might hear.

1. Ci vediamo (See you)
2. Ci vediamo più tardi (later)
3. Ci vediamo dopo (later)
4. Ci vediamo domani (tomorrow)

Congratulations for taking this first step in learning Italian! Check out the video to make sure you pronunce them correctly!

Thank you for watching/reading, and let me know if you often hear any other type of greeting!