Italian Verbs - Learn 7 Useful Verbs that you can use while in Italy

Learn 7 useful verbs that you will use when you will travel to Italy!

1. PRENOTARE – To book

This verb is obviously very useful because when you are visiting country most likely you will need to book in advance a room in a hotel or b&b or a table at a restaurant or tickets to a museum or a flight or maybe a train!

Let’s now look at this verb inside of a conversation... to see the translation check out the video here above!

• Salve! Chiamo perché vorrei prenotare una camera matrimoniale posso il vostro albergo per tre notti… è possibile?
• Certo! Mi dia le date e controllo subito la disponibilità!
• Vorrei prenotare per le notti del 10-11 e 12 agosto.

Sometimes you plan way ahead of your departure date… and unfortunately you have to cancel a reservation… in this case you will use the verb DISDIRE

2. DISDIRE – to cancel

This verb is very much linked to the first verb that we saw because you need to first make a reservation in order to be able to them cancel it… right! You might need to use this in case of unforeseen situations!

Le me give you a dialogue and let’s see how this verb can be used in a normal phone call:

• Pronto? Buongiorno! Vorrei disdire la prenotazione fatta a nome di Laura Rossi. Sfortunatamente stasera non riusciamo a venire al ristorante! Spero non ci siano problemi!
• Certo! Non si preoccupi! 

This third and fourth verb is linked to PRENOTARE… but it is used only when you are looking to book a stay in a hotel or b&b… I put these two verbs together because they are basically synonyms.

3. PERNOTTARE

4. SOGGIORNARE

These verbs are used when you are “staying overnight” in a place or room that is not your usual one… usually when you are traveling you use these to say that you are staying for the night on a specific place.

Let me give you an example in a dialogue

• Sono andata a Parigi e ho pernottato in un albergo di fronte alla Tour Eiffel!

Soggiornare has a similar meaning but can traslate more into “stay on holiday” rather that staying overnight.

Read this example with me:

• Soggiorneremo a Colonia solo per la durata della fiera!

Meaning that you are staying in the city… obviously it is implied that you are also going to sleep there!

You have probably heard the next two verbs a million times especially if you like to fly and you have used an Italian airline company:

5. DECOLLARE 

6. ATTERRARE

Decollare is the take off… and atterrare is the opposite… so the landing!

Let’s look at example with these two verbs:

• Che viaggio terribile! L’aereo era decollato bene in orario… ma poi quando siamo atterrati abbiamo aspettato due ore nell’aereo perché non trovavano la scaletta per farci scendere! Incredibile!

When you travel you arrive at a destination and sometimes, especially if you are a curious traveler you decide to explore the world around you by renting a car! So the next verb that I think is very important to know is

7. NOLEGGIARE

NOLEGGIARE translates to rent… obviously you can also rent many things! not only a car…but since we are talking about verbs used for traveling I will give you some examples with cars, motorcycles and bicycles which are usually the things that we tourists like to rent during our holidays. 

Dialogue 1:

• Buongiorno. Vorrei noleggiare una macchina per 1 settimana.
• Certo! Mi può dare la sua patente per procedere con la registrazione?

Dialogue 2:

• Buongiorno. Quanto costa noleggiare una bicicletta?
• Buongiorno a lei! Allora… per un giorno costa 10 euro… se invece la noleggia per tutta la settimana le costa 25 euro.

Dialogue 3:

1. Salve! Vorrei noleggiare un motorino per questo fine settimana.
2. Mi dispiace! Non abbiamo più motorini disponibili… solo biciclette!

These are only a few verbs… there are many more to learn… but start with these and do the exercise at the end of the video to practice what you have just learned!

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