At the Train Station

Walk up to an Italian ticket window, say exactly what you need, and get on the right train with time to spare.

What this conversation covers

The topic follows one traveler from the ticket window to a seat on board, and it gives you dozens of useful words and phrases for the whole sequence: saying where you want to go, settling on a departure time, asking Quanto costa il biglietto?, finding your platform, and dealing with the very Italian business of having to convalidare a ticket before you travel. The same language works at any station in Italy, and a lot of it transfers straight to buses and ferries, because travelers everywhere ask the same handful of questions.

How the practice works

You follow a realistic conversation as it unfolds and assemble sentences word by word from the words on screen. Every line is recorded by native Italian voices, so you are reading and listening at the same time, which is what actually happens when someone behind a counter answers faster than you expected. Sessions are short, and you can come back and repeat a quiz whenever it suits you, which is the easiest way to make these phrases stick.

The one hour Italian treats differently

Italian tells the time in the plural, because the word for hours is hiding inside the sentence: sono le due is literally "they are the two". One o'clock is the exception. There is only a single hour to count, so it turns singular and becomes è l'una. Departure boards use the 24 hour clock, so a train may be listed at 13:15, but the person standing next to you on the platform will still say all'una e un quarto.