Books by level / Italian books
First Italian Readings: reading level, length and free edition
First Italian Readings by Various is a reader for learners in Italian. Our team rates it A2. It runs to 44,738 words with 12,136 different word forms, about 3.5–7.5 h of reading at 200 to 100 words per minute, and it is free from Project Gutenberg.
- Author
- Various
- Language
- Italian
- Level
- A2
- Form
- reader for learners
- Words
- 44,738
- Different word forms
- 12,136
- Forms for 95% / 98%
- 9,900 / 11,242
- Reading time
- 3.5–7.5 h
- Free edition
- Project Gutenberg
Raccolta di brevi letture italiane annotate, pensate per chi muove i primi passi.
Is First Italian Readings right for your level?
To recognise 95% of the running words in First Italian Readings, you need its 9,900 most frequent word forms; for 98%, the share at which most readers manage a novel without a dictionary, 11,242.
A word form is any spelling that appears in the text, so “walk” and “walked” count twice, and names count too. These numbers are a guide to how much vocabulary the book asks for, not a test. The level itself was set by hand by our team. Before you commit, read one page of the free edition and count the words you do not know: the one-page test takes two minutes.
Which words should you know before you start?
These are the words that First Italian Readings uses most often but that are not among the 2,000 most common word forms across all 20 Italian books in our library; the number is how many times each appears. Names of people and places are left out. Learning a handful of them first makes the opening chapters easier.
- part 55
- with 35
- that 34
- little 31
- pres 30
- ministro 26
- down 26
- take 25
- again 22
- professor 20
- have 19
- back 19
- been 18
- from 18
- uffiziale 18
How does it begin?
IN the study of Italian, as in that of French, "doubtless the best method of learning to read... is to read ." Copious reading should accompany and supplement the study of the essentials of grammar; and it is to supply material for such early reading that the present book has been prepared.
From the Project Gutenberg edition, which is in the public domain. If this paragraph already feels slow, try a book one level lower.
How long does it take to read?
| Words | 100 wpm | 150 wpm | 200 wpm | 250 wpm |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 44,738 | 7.5 h | 5 h | 3.5 h | 3 h |
Learners reading a book at their level often manage 100 to 150 words per minute, and readers in their first language 200 to 250. Where these speeds come from, and a calculator for your own: How long does it take to read a book?
Where can you read it for free?
The free edition is Project Gutenberg eBook #24072. Project Gutenberg publishes books that are in the public domain in the United States, as EPUB, Kindle and plain text, free and without an account. Copyright terms differ by country: if you live outside the United States, check that the book is out of copyright where you are before you download it.
To read it with a translation over every word you tap, open it in Readlang Mobile on iPhone or iPad.
What to read next at A2
See also all Italian books by level and books at A2 in all five languages.