Italian Language Books

Here are some suggestions for books to help you learn Italian. None of these is as good as my own beginners' Italian course, obviously, but they have their merits.

 

Italian (Teach Yourself Languages) (With Audio CD)
by Lydia Vellaccio, Maurice Elston

The Teach Yourself series is very good for grammatical explanation. The CD allows you to keep practising even when you are driving, ironing or whatever.

Click here to buy this now from Amazon.

 

Italian Vocabulary
by Mike Zollo

A useful system for learning vocabulary.

Click here to buy this now from Amazon.

 
Italian Verbs
by Maria Morris

Verbs are essential to speaking any language. All additional practice is useful!

Click here to buy this now from Amazon.

 
Italian Verb Drills
by Paola Nanni Tate

Sometimes you just have to go over and over something until it sticks… Handy to have a book to guide you through this.

Click here to buy this now from Amazon.

 

Azione Grammatica
by Mike Zollo, Derek Aust

A good, thorough, accessible grammar book with exercises (and answers at the back).

Click here to buy this now from Amazon.

 
Oxford Italian Grammar and Verbs
by Colin McIntosh

A good reference book.

Click here to buy this now from Amazon.

 
A Reference Grammar of Modern Italian
by Martin Maiden, Cecilia Robustelli

An excellent, clear, helpful book.

Click here to buy this now from Amazon.

 
Beginner's Italian Reader
by Daniel Rolfs

Not the most exciting book but a good introduction to reading Italian, for the real beginner.

Click here to buy this now from Amazon.


 
It is very useful, when learning any language, to read as much as possible in that language. In my view, the most satisfactory way of doing this is to read books adapted for students of the language, the graded readers. We can enjoy the stories without having to spend too much time looking up words in the dictionary and we absorb vocabulary, phrases and structures as we go along. I have learnt a great deal from easy-reading books and highly recommend them as a learning tool, as well as an interesting pastime.

Unfortunately, however, there don't seem to be very many available in Italian yet. There are some on Amazon (click here to browse) but you will probably find more - and you will certainly get a better idea of what they are about - if you go to a big, "real-life" bookshop, such as Waterstones.

 
Collins Sansoni Italian Dictionary: Complete & Unabridged

An up-to-date edition of a good, solid, reliable dictionary.

Click here to buy this now from Amazon.

 
The Concise Oxford-Paravia Italian Dictionary
by Cristina Bareggi (Editor)

An excellent dictionary. This is not quite the latest edition (2003) but it is half the price of the 2006 one and perfectly good for the next few years.

Click here to buy this now from Amazon.

 
Italian Dictionary (Collins GEM)

It is always useful to have a pocket-sized dictionary.

Click here to buy this now from Amazon.



Interested in reading more about Italy?

Check out our recommended books about and set in Italy.


Total beginner?

Have a look at our introduction to the Italian language.


Back to Recommended Reading





   

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