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EveryLingua Dictionary
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Italian reading texts by level

57 texts from A1 to C2, 10 155 words in all, with 242 comprehension questions. Each text shows how much of it is explained in this site’s vocabulary — calculated, not claimed.

A1 (10)

A2 (14)

A2  ·  144 words  ·  1 min

StoryEveryday life

Il treno delle sette

A journey, a missed connection and a conversation on the platform.

A2  ·  165 words  ·  1 min

StoryEveryday life

La lettera del vicino

A note in the letterbox, and an afternoon that turns out differently.

A2  ·  134 words  ·  1 min

StoryEveryday life

La domenica al mare

A day trip that starts with rain and ends in sunshine.

A2  ·  156 words  ·  1 min

StoryEveryday life

Il primo giorno in palestra

A resolution, a contract and the question of how long it lasts.

A2  ·  128 words  ·  1 min

StoryEveryday life

Il guasto del riscaldamento

A cold flat, a phone call and a repairman who comes late.

A2  ·  127 words  ·  1 min

StoryEveryday life

Una giornata in ufficio

From nine to six, with a printer that will not cooperate.

A2  ·  124 words  ·  1 min

StoryEveryday life

Il corso di italiano

Eight months of a language course, and the day it works for the first time.

A2  ·  151 words  ·  1 min

StoryTravel

Il traghetto per l’isola

Two friends take the ferry to an island — and a bag goes back on its own.

A2  ·  149 words  ·  1 min

StoryFood and cooking

Il quaderno della nonna

Tommaso finds his grandmother’s recipe book and bakes her cake for the first time.

A2  ·  161 words  ·  1 min

StoryEveryday life

Il primo giorno in ufficio

Davide starts a new job — and ends up in the wrong office.

A2  ·  119 words  ·  1 min

DialogueTravel

Il treno è in ritardo

At the station: a train is late, the platform changes, and Mr Bauer needs help at the ticket desk.

A2  ·  126 words  ·  1 min

DialogueFood and cooking

Che cosa ci consiglia?

Two friends order in a trattoria and ask the waiter for advice.

A2  ·  94 words  ·  1 min

MessageEveryday life

Aiuto per il trasloco

Federico is moving and looks for friends in the chat to help carry things.

A2  ·  105 words  ·  1 min

EmailEveryday life

Un favore per le vacanze

Before her holiday Anna emails her neighbour to ask him to water the plants.

B1 (12)

B1  ·  192 words  ·  2 min

StoryEveryday life

Il colloquio

Forty minutes in a room with two chairs and one question.

B1  ·  195 words  ·  2 min

StoryEveryday life

La lingua della nonna

Why a language disappears when nobody speaks it to a child any more.

B1  ·  162 words  ·  1 min

StoryEveryday life

Il guasto in autostrada

A breakdown, a tow truck and a garage in a village.

B1  ·  156 words  ·  1 min

StoryEveryday life

Il colloquio delle dieci

A job interview, from the door to the last question.

B1  ·  150 words  ·  1 min

StoryEveryday life

Il riso della nonna

A recipe without a book, in five steps and with a test of patience.

B1  ·  204 words  ·  2 min

StoryTravel

Il temporale in montagna

A trip to the Dolomites, an afternoon storm and a night in a mountain hut that nobody had planned.

B1  ·  201 words  ·  2 min

StoryFood and cooking

La pasta fatta a mano

Marco signs up for a cookery course to surprise his girlfriend’s parents. His first home-made pasta turns out as hard as wood.

B1  ·  196 words  ·  2 min

StoryEveryday life

La bicicletta rossa

Lucia’s bike is stolen. Weeks later she sees it again — outside a shop on the other side of town.

B1  ·  140 words  ·  1 min

DialogueTravel

La macchina non parte

A hire car will not start at a motorway service area. A call to the breakdown service.

B1  ·  149 words  ·  1 min

DialogueFood and cooking

Una cena per sei

A couple plan a dinner for guests, one of whom eats no meat and one no fish.

B1  ·  120 words  ·  1 min

MessageEveryday life

Il regalo per la professoressa

A teacher is retiring. The class chat argues about the present.

B1  ·  122 words  ·  1 min

EmailEveryday life

Disdetta della palestra

Because he is moving to another city, Andrea cancels his gym contract.

B2 (7)

C1 (7)

C2 (7)

Learning words one at a time and practising grammar one point at a time is work on separate parts. A text is the first thing that needs both at once — and the only exercise where nobody tells you which rule is being tested.

What makes a graded text is a number: how much of it you already know at your level. If it is too low, reading turns into looking things up. Here that number is calculated for every text against this site’s vocabulary and shown with the text — together with the level that follows from it, next to the level on the label.

Every text is written for this site. Click a word to look it up without leaving the page.

What is measured here — and what is not

Coverage tells you about this site’s vocabulary, not about the text. If a text stands at 96 %, four words in a hundred are not explained anywhere here; they are then in the glossary next to the text.

The measured level can be below the stated one, and that is intentional. A set of minutes made up of perfectly ordinary words can be a very hard text — what makes it hard is the sentences they sit in. That is why the average sentence length is shown alongside.

Whether a text is good is measured by nobody here. That is for the reader to decide.