Professor Dave here, let’s learn some Italian hellos and goodbyes.
If you’re going to learn Italian, pronunciation and grammar are crucial, but we are going
to have to learn a lot of vocabulary as well.
You can’t pronounce a word when you don’t even know what it is, so part of this learning
process will involve some memorization.
Let’s start with something simple.
Every day we say hello and goodbye to various people.
These salutations can be different depending on the context.
We might say good morning or good night, depending on the time of day.
We might use something formal, if at work or with a stranger, or we could use a more
casual greeting if with a friend.
Let’s learn some basic greetings so that you always know what to say in these scenarios.
First let’s consider the concept of formal vs. informal greetings.
Italians tend to be more formal than Americans, so if you are addressing someone that is older
than you, or someone who deserves respect, keep in mind that some expressions will be
inappropriate.
First let’s start with hello.
The simplest way to say this would be ciao.
This is kind of like saying hi.
You could also say salve, which is just a touch more formal, like the full hello.
A bit more standard for interacting with strangers throughout the day would be a phrase like
buon giorno, which can be used in the morning or afternoon, anytime until it gets dark.
After that, you would say buona sera.
Then, to say goodbye casually, you could say ciao again, if with a friend.
That’s right, ciao means both hi and bye.
Another favorite is arrivederci, which is like the full goodbye.
You could also say a presto, which means see you soon, if you expect to.
Lastly, when saying goodnight before going to sleep, you should always say buona notte.
Let’s make sure to understand that buona notte is very different from buona sera.
Buona sera means good evening, which is appropriate to say as a greeting when you see someone
in the evening hours.
Buona notte is not a greeting, it is a farewell, and furthermore it is specifically a bedtime
phrase.
It doesn’t make as much sense to say buona notte when parting ways at the end of dinner.
If you say this to someone, it either means you are going to sleep in that moment, or
they are.
In addition to saying hello to someone, if you are meeting them for the first time it’s
a great idea to introduce yourself.
This works a bit differently than it does in English, as we won’t literally say “my
name is”.
Instead, it’s more like “I call myself”, so you would say “Io mi chiamo”.
If I met an Italian, I could therefore say “Io mi chiamo Dave.
E tu come ti chiami?
In this second part I am asking the name of the other person.
A more formal way to say this is: Lei, come si chiama?
Now let’s instead assume that you already know the person you are saying hello to.
You might ask how that person is doing.
Again, this can be done a few different ways, depending on the number of people and the
level of formality.
If casual, you could say come stai to one friend, or come state, to a group.
An even more casual option would be: come va?
If intending to be more formal and respectful, one would instead say come sta, or
come stanno.
The same thing can be said for excusing oneself.
Whereas in English, the phrase “excuse me” is pretty universal, again in Italian we will
modify depending on the situation.
If informal, we could say scusa, or scusate.
If more formal, we would say scusi, or scusino.
This will all make more sense when we start to learn how to conjugate verbs.
If you want to add a little spice by adding please to any of these phrases, that would
be per favore, or per piacere.
If things go your way, you can always say thank you by saying grazie.
Take notice that the mafia movies, with their harsh Sicilian accents, have tricked Americans
into thinking that this word is grazi, but Sicilians tend to garble the last vowel of
every word.
When fully pronounced, the word is grazie.
Now that we have learned how to ask someone how they are doing, we should also be able
to answer this question.
If Marco sees you first and asks: come stai, we have a number of expressions that describe
how one might be feeling that day.
Italians are a slightly pessimistic breed, so a lot of responses will start from the
mid-range down.
But there are some sunnier options as well.
The best way you could be feeling would be benissimo, if everything is perfect.
Gradually decreasing in quality, we can go through:
This brings us to a neutral sentiment, in which case one could say cosi` cosi`.
Getting progressively worse from there, we could say:
Or even non ne parliamo, which means let’s not talk about it.
To clarify, when Italians say this, they don’t really mean they don’t want to talk about
it, they mean please ask me more, as Italians believe in the power of sharing their misery.
And now, a little scene to demonstrate some of these phrases.