Benvenuti! Free Italian practice exercises from Laura — a native Italian teacher. Use these to keep your Italian ticking over between lessons. We start at A1 (complete beginner) level; new exercises are added regularly. When you are ready for verbs, work through my Italian present tense exercises: essere, avere and the regular -are verbs, with answers. After that, the past tense exercises take you into the passato prossimo.
A1 · Esercizio 1 — Saluti (greetings)
Match each Italian greeting to its meaning:
1. Buongiorno 2. Buonasera 3. Ciao 4. Arrivederci 5. Buonanotte
a) Good evening b) Goodbye c) Good morning d) Good night e) Hi / Bye
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1–c, 2–a, 3–e, 4–b, 5–d. Ciao is informal and works for both hello and goodbye!
A1 · Esercizio 2 — Il o la? (articles)
Choose il or la for each noun:
1. ___ pizza 2. ___ gelato 3. ___ casa 4. ___ libro 5. ___ scuola
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1. la pizza, 2. il gelato, 3. la casa, 4. il libro, 5. la scuola. Nouns ending in -a are usually feminine (la), and in -o usually masculine (il).
A1 · Esercizio 3 — I numeri (numbers 1–10)
Put the numbers in order from 1 to 10:
cinque · uno · otto · tre · dieci · due · sette · quattro · nove · sei
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uno, due, tre, quattro, cinque, sei, sette, otto, nove, dieci.
A1 · Esercizio 4 — I numeri (11–20)
Write these numbers in Italian:
12 · 15 · 17 · 19 · 20
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dodici, quindici, diciassette, diciannove, venti. The full run is undici, dodici, tredici, quattordici, quindici, sedici, diciassette, diciotto, diciannove, venti: up to sixteen the unit comes first, and from seventeen the ten does.
A1 · Esercizio 5 — I giorni (days of the week)
Put the days in order, starting with Monday:
giovedì · domenica · lunedì · sabato · martedì · venerdì · mercoledì
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lunedì, martedì, mercoledì, giovedì, venerdì, sabato, domenica. No capital letters in Italian, and the accent on the first five matters: it tells you where the stress falls.
A1 · Esercizio 6 — I colori (colours)
Match the colour to the English:
rosso · verde · bianco · nero · giallo · azzurro
white · black · red · light blue · green · yellow
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rosso = red, verde = green, bianco = white, nero = black, giallo = yellow, azzurro = light blue (the colour of the national football shirt; dark blue is blu). Most colours change their ending to match: una macchina rossa, due vini rossi.
A1 · Esercizio 7 — La famiglia (family)
Fill the gap with mio or mia:
1. ___ padre 2. ___ madre 3. ___ fratello 4. ___ sorella 5. ___ marito 6. ___ moglie
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1. mio padre, 2. mia madre, 3. mio fratello, 4. mia sorella, 5. mio marito, 6. mia moglie. With one member of the family there is no il or la in front; in the plural it comes back: i miei nonni.
A1 · Esercizio 8 — Al bar (at the café)
Match the Italian to the English:
1. Un caffè, per favore. 2. Vorrei un cornetto. 3. Quanto costa? 4. Il conto, per favore.
a. How much is it? b. An espresso, please. c. The bill, please. d. I’d like a croissant.
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1b, 2d, 3a, 4c. Ask for un caffè in Italy and you get an espresso; vorrei (I would like) is the politest way to ask for anything.
A1 · Esercizio 9 — Un, uno, una or un’?
Fill the gap:
1. ___ libro 2. ___ zaino 3. ___ casa 4. ___ amica 5. ___ amico 6. ___ studente
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1. un libro, 2. uno zaino, 3. una casa, 4. un’amica, 5. un amico, 6. uno studente. Uno goes before z and before s plus a consonant; un’ is una losing its last letter before a vowel.
A1 · Esercizio 10 — One or more? (plurals)
Make these plural:
1. il libro 2. la casa 3. il cane 4. la chiave 5. l’amico 6. lo studente
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1. i libri, 2. le case, 3. i cani, 4. le chiavi, 5. gli amici, 6. gli studenti. The pattern: -o becomes -i, -a becomes -e, -e becomes -i, and the article changes with the noun.
There are eight more exercises on verbs in the present tense, and eight on the past tense. Want these explained properly — and a lot more? Join the next small beginners’ group or get in touch about one-to-one lessons.
Exercises only take you so far. If you’d rather practise with a native teacher and a small friendly group, my beginners’ classes run online — have a look.