Learn Italian

About the course

Only One Coin's Basic Italian course is designed for people with no previous knowledge of the language who want an introduction to the Italian language and culture, building the communication skills essential for everyday life.

The course combines practical vocabulary, basic grammar structures and pronunciation with communicative activities, so you can understand and produce simple messages with clear, correct and progressive communication. The approach is communicative and functional: personal introductions, shopping, transport, food, getting around and basic conversations.

Unit 1 — Introduction to Italian

• Alphabet and pronunciation
• Characteristic Italian sounds (soft and hard C and G)
• Greetings and farewells
• Polite expressions
• Personal introductions
• Personal pronouns
• The verbs essere and stare (basic use)

Unit 2 — Personal information and surroundings

• Nationalities and countries
• Cities and places
• Numbers (0–100)
• Age and personal details
• The verb avere
• The family
• Jobs and occupations
• Days of the week, months and seasons

Unit 3 — Basic grammar and description

• Nouns (gender and number)
• Definite and indefinite articles
• Descriptive adjectives
• Gender and number agreement
• Regular verbs in the present indicative
• Frequent irregular verbs
• Basic reflexive verbs

Unit 4 — Everyday life and practical communication

• The home and its spaces
• Simple and articulated prepositions
• The verb piacere
• The expression avere bisogno
• Food, fruit and vegetables
• The supermarket
• Basic shopping and ordering

Unit 5 — Basic social interaction

• The meals of the day (i pasti)
• Asking and ordering at a café
• Common places
• Giving and asking for directions
• Means of transport
• The verbs andare and venire
• Adverbs of frequency

Unit 6 — First use of the past and ongoing actions

• The gerund (form and use)
• The recent past (introduction)
• Verbs with essere and avere
• Simple conversations about experiences
• Additional functional vocabulary
• Content integration

Skills you'll develop

• Basic listening comprehension
• Speaking in simple contexts
• Reading comprehension of short texts
• Basic functional writing
• Initial pronunciation and intonation
• Correct use of basic grammar structures

How it is taught

• Interactive online classes
• In-house digital material
• Practical, contextualized exercises
• Role play and guided dialogues
• Formative assessments per unit

How you are assessed

• Active participation in class
• Oral and written practice
• Exercises per unit
• Final integrative basic-level assessment

By the end of the course you'll be able to

• Introduce yourself and talk about yourself
• Understand and use everyday expressions
• Hold simple conversations
• Describe people, places and routines
• Do basic shopping and ordering
• Ask for and give simple directions
• Understand short texts in Italian

Realistically, you reach a functional basic level (A1), which lets you continue into intermediate levels, travel to Italian-speaking countries with more confidence, or go on to further studies of the language.