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italiano · English

Learn Italian with short stories

Read Italian books with English alongside, or English books with Italian alongside: the original and the translation side by side, paragraph by paragraph.

ItalianEnglish

C’era una volta…

Once upon a time there was…

— Un re! — diranno subito i miei piccoli lettori.

“A king!” my little readers will say at once.

No, ragazzi, avete sbagliato. C’era una volta un pezzo di legno.

No, children, you are wrong. Once upon a time there was a piece of wood.

Le avventure di Pinocchio, Carlo Collodi (1883), with our own English rendering.

Free Italian–English stories and ebooks

Stories to read in Italian, with the English beside each paragraph. They open in the browser, with no account needed, and each free one is also a free Italian–English ebook for Kindle, Kobo or any e-reader: downloading needs a free account, no payment (which file to pick).

Open the Italian–English library, where you can search the stories and filter them by level.

Want to hear it too? Italian stories with audio are narrated, free, with a speed control.

By level:

48 of 391 stories shown: the level pages above and the Italian–English library have the rest.

Free graded readers in Italian

Every story here carries its level on the Common European Framework, from A1 for beginners to C1 and beyond, so the library works as a set of Italian graded readers, most of them free: start at the level where you understand most of a page, and move up when the English beside it is something you check only now and then.

Want a book that isn’t here? Make your own Italian–English parallel text from any EPUB or PDF: free preview, and 50 free pages when you sign up.

Reading Italian with English alongside

Italian is a pleasure to read. It is spelled as it sounds, and much of its vocabulary has a Latin cousin in English, so the page gives you more than you might expect from the start.

What trips readers up is literary Italian: the passato remoto of storytelling, pronouns that combine and attach to verbs, and a relaxed word order. A parallel text keeps you in the book while those patterns settle in.

Reading English books with Italian alongside

For Italian speakers, reading English books with the Italian alongside smooths over idioms and colloquial dialogue, so the story never stalls.

Families who read in both languages can share the same book, each following the side they read most comfortably.

391 English stories in the library have Italian alongside: Imparare l’inglese con racconti brevi.

Where a parallel text helps most in Italian

The passato remoto

Italian narrative often uses the passato remoto (disse, venne, fu), a tense many speakers rarely use in conversation. Beside the English, its irregular forms become familiar quickly.

Pronouns that stack

Forms like gliel’ho or dàmmelo pack several words into one. The translation shows who is giving what to whom.

Flexible word order

Italian can move the subject after the verb for emphasis. Reading paragraph by paragraph keeps the meaning clear while your ear gets used to it.

Italian classics to read in parallel

Long out of copyright and easy to find as EPUBs. Any of them makes a good first Italian–English parallel text:

  • Le avventure di Pinocchio, Carlo Collodi
  • I promessi sposi, Alessandro Manzoni
  • Novelle rusticane, Giovanni Verga
  • Cuore, Edmondo De Amicis

Or use a book you already own: the method works best with something you actually want to read. See how to read a parallel text to get the most from it.

Questions about Italian–English stories

Where can I read Italian stories with English side by side for free?

Right here: 349 free Italian–English stories open in the browser with no account, the English beside every paragraph, from A1 to C2.

What is a Italian–English parallel text?

A Italian text placed beside its English translation, paragraph by paragraph, so you can read in one language and glance across to the other whenever you need to.

Which Italian story should I start with?

Pick the level where you understand most of a page: the beginner stories use short sentences and common words, and the levels above them add longer sentences and richer vocabulary. Each story shows its level on the Common European Framework.

Can I read Italian–English stories on a Kindle or Kobo?

Yes. Every free story is also a bilingual ebook; downloading needs a free account, no payment. Subscriber books download with Reader.