How do you say do you speak Italian in Italian?
Parla italiano?
| Words you should know | Parlare (to speak) + italiano (Italian) |
| When to use this | With 1 person you’re not on familiar terms with |
| When NOT to use this | With groups of people |
Languages and nationalities are not capitalized in Italian.
Lei parla italiano? / Parla italiano?
Do you speak Italian? (formal)
Parli italiano?
| When to use this | With 1 person you’re on familiar terms with |
| When NOT to use this | With groups of people |
Tu parli italiano? / Parli italiano?
Do you speak Italian? (informal)
Let’s say you’re in a crowded room and you can’t go around asking everyone if they speak Italian. What should you do? There’s a specific formula that you can use in both informal and formal settings.
C’è qualcuno che parla italiano?
Is there anyone who speaks Italian?
C’è is the shortened form of ci è, but you will only ever find it as c’è. Ci è is NEVER used, not even in the written language. Qualcuno translates both someone and anyone.
If you want to sound a little more polite, you can say:
C’è qualcuno che parla italiano, per favore?
Is there anyone who speaks Italian, please?
With per favore meaning please. Literally for favor.
Parlate italiano?
| When to use this | With a group of people |
| When NOT to use this | With 1 person |
Parlate italiano?
Do you speak Italian? (plural)
Do you speak… language?
If you want to ask a person if they speak a certain language, you can use the Parla…? formula we saw earlier on how to ask do you speak Italian in Italian and add a random nationality from this list:
- inglese (English)
- spagnolo (Spanish)
- tedesco (German)
- francese (French)
- cinese (Chinese)
- russo (Russian)
- arabo (Arabic)
Parla arabo?
Do you speak Arabic? (formal)
Parlare arabo and parlare turco (speak Turkish) are popular Italian expressions that mean to be impossible to understand.
If someone tells you that you parli arabo, it means that they don’t understand a single word you’re saying!
Parlate tedesco?
Do you speak German? (plural)
Parli cinese?
Do you speak Chinese? (informal)
That’s the end of our lesson, now you know everything you need to ask do you speak Italian in Italian. Don’t be shy and ask away: we love to have a good chit-chat with foreigners, and if we really can’t find a common “spoken means of communication”, we can always speak with gestures! 😉
More free Italian resources
You might want to keep learning Italian online with these free Italian resources:
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Parli cinese? doesn’t that mean do you speak chinese? in italian not german? in the example next to the sentence after; it says it’s german, but it’s pretty obvious this isn’t the italian word for german. i only ask because i am new to learning and wouldn’t want to make a huge mistake…
Hi there, you’re right, the correct translation is actually Do you speak Chinese?. Nice catch, thank you!