Speak Italian from your very first day.

English–Italian Conversation Guide is a complete beginner's course in the Italian people actually use — in cafés, on trains, in shops, at the doctor's surgery and around the dinner table. Every phrase appears in English and Italian side by side, with a simple pronunciation guide written in ordinary English spelling, so you can say it out loud immediately without learning phonetic symbols first.

Seventy situation-based chapters take you from buongiorno to real conversation:

Foundations — greetings, everyday expressions, questions, numbers and money, days, dates and telling the time, and a practical grammar chapter that ties it together.
Everyday conversations — home, family, meeting new people, small talk, work, study, hobbies, daily routines, likes and dislikes, weather and making plans.
Travel — directions, buses, trains, taxis, airports, hotels, sights, museums, and what to say when a journey goes wrong.
Food and shopping — restaurants, ordering, a full food and drink vocabulary, cafés, markets, clothes, electronics, prices and returns.
Work and daily life — offices, business meetings, telephone calls, messaging, appointments, banks, post offices, administrative offices, renting a flat and neighbours.
Health and emergencies — the doctor, the pharmacy, describing symptoms, emergencies, police, lost documents and asking for urgent help.
Social Italian — friendships, invitations, accepting and refusing gracefully, opinions, agreeing and disagreeing, feelings, congratulations, apologies and everyday idioms.

What's inside every chapter: 15–30 essential words and phrases, a set of useful expressions, at least one realistic dialogue with pronunciation and translation, cultural and grammar notes, and practice exercises with answers.

And at the back: Survival Italian, 100 essential phrases, 250 essential words, English-to-Italian and Italian-to-English quick reference lists, consolidated reference tables, the twenty mistakes English speakers make most often, and a guide to the false friends that catch everyone out.

The Italian throughout is Modern Standard Italian — the variety understood everywhere in Italy. Formal and informal address (tu, Lei, voi) is explained clearly and marked on every phrase, and regional differences are pointed out and labelled rather than mixed in.

Written for travellers, students, business travellers, expatriates, people with Italian family or colleagues, and anyone who simply wants to be understood in Italy.

In bocca al lupo — and enjoy the conversation.