Ten most important Italian phrases
 

Ok, for someone travelling to Italy for the first time in 11 days :-) what are the top ten most important phrases that I must know to get around?

Yes, I do have a phrasebook to refer to... and I do know a splattering of French.

Ideas?

Gracias! Merci! (How do you say it in Italian?)

I can't remember any of them, but I remember that one of my guidebooks offered an ascending range of phrases to tell someone to leave one alone, plus the alternatives: (1) You are very handsome; and (2) Yes, I would love to go for a ride on your Vespa.

Please
Thank you
Good morning
Good evening
I'm dreadfully sorry, but I don't understand one word you are saying.
That man took my purse!

Knowing those phrases in Italian would be great!
As another option - facial expressions speak louder than words!

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...andi_travelnut

I'm not sure if I did this link right, but there's a great thread called "a few italian phrases to get us by". If the link I provided doesn't work, then search on the name of the post I provided.

http://www.fodors.com/language/llres...d=3&cid=14

Check this out!

Hi esty.

Dove è il gabinetto?

You can use http://ets.freetranslation.com/
to translate most simple sentences.

Here are the 2 most important.The rest can be printed from the Resouces section on the Fodors home page.
Dove la toiletta ?
Il Conto, per favore.[you must ask]

And this sign: SENSO UNICO

hey, thanks for everyone's responses, but what in the world do those italian phrases mean?

I'm having a really hard time pronouncing all those words - It's like a stand up comdedy trying to practice them! :-)

If you reread my post, esty, I have given you a translation link.

Have you printed my suggestion yet?
It is all there.

If i were a good-looking young woman i'd learn the words for ....off, as even now Italian guys have the obnoxious habit of whistling and yelling catcalls to cute young ladies. This hopefully is changing but not much in my experience - and i'm not a lady but have seen many accosted (harmlessly,i'm not suggesting there is an special fear of being attacked, etc.)

For some basic Italian with a good audio component with native speakers,, go to www.travlang.com and read and listen.

Italian has about the easiest and most regular rules of pronounciation of any language in the world. Once you've learned that g and c are always soft before e and i and always hard before h, you'll be one of about a dozen non-Italians in the world who can actually pronounce bruschetta.

How do you ask for a "quiet room, please"?

You've left your run a bit late, EstyOst1, but if you have time to pick up an Italian language book+CD kit it wouldn't take long to get on top of Italian pronunciation - it's simpler than French. Grammatical structure, order of words in a sentence etc. is similar to French (well, my high school memory of French, anyway).

Maybe you should just aim to pick up a few phrases as courtesies rather than in hope of any serious attempt at communication, starting with:
Hi! - ciao (tchi'ow)
Please - per favore (pair fahv'oray)
Thank you - grazie (grahdz'yuh)
Excuse me - scusi (scoosy)
Good day - buon giorno (bwon gi'orno)
Good evening - buona sera (bwonna serra)
Good night - buona notte (bwonna not'teh)
I'm sorry - mi dispiace (mee disp'yahchee)

:-) My essential phrase: "Scusi, c'è un bar qui vicino?" ("Excuse me, is there a bar around here?") Maybe there's not much point asking the question if you're not going to understand the answer, but sign language can work wonders when you're desperate.

ira, my Italian teacher of many moons ago (she'd now despair of me) gave me to understand that "Dov'è il gabinetto?" is a little indelicate, preferring "Dov'è il toletta?". But perhaps things had changed in the years since she left Italy.

one word...prego.

Before my first trip to Italy, I thought it was necessary to learn how to say in Italian, "Easy ladies! I'm only one man."
Thankfully, I never had to resort to such callous, heart-breaking language.
However, some of the ladies on Bus 64 were quite friendly, and unable to keep their hands off me.

Salve!
Grazie to everyone for your links... I'm working on these words but I think I'll probably just resort to pulling out the dictionary when I'm in a pinch!

I love the idea of "a splattering of French" -- which really can happen if you talk with a mouthful of pate de foie.

As for the smattering of Italian that you seek, at this point I think your most useful phrase will be:

Mi dispiace (or "Spiacente" or "Mi spiace") ma non parlo italiano. Parla inglese pure lei?

Just to add a few more:

Due biglietti a Sorrento - Two tickets to Sorrento (or any other destination).

Quant'e' - How much is it??

Ti Amo. (Italy is a very romantic country).