If you’ve ever proudly learnt the word for octopus in another language but still panicked when someone asked you a basic question like “What time is it?” welcome! You’re not bad at languages. You just learnt the wrong things first.
Ask me how I know.
For years, my Italian learning looked impressive on paper. I knew food words. Travel words. Random nouns that came up once and never again. And yet, when someone spoke to me in real Italian, my brain shut down completely.
Nothing stuck. Nothing connected.
That’s when I learned something that changed everything.
The Mistake Most Adults Make When Learning a Language
Most adults learn languages the way school taught us to:
topic by topic, theme by theme, word list by word list.
Food.
Travel.
Weather.
Jobs.
The problem? That’s not how language works in real life.
Languages are built on repetition and not all words are used equally.
A small number of words appear all the time. In conversations. In songs. In TV shows. In texts. In everyday speech.
And when you don’t know those words, everything feels impossible.
I realised I wasn’t struggling because Italian was hard.
I was struggling because I didn’t know the glue words the ones that hold everything together.
Why the Most Common Words Matter More Than Anything Else
When I started focusing on the most common Italian words, something clicked.
Suddenly I wasn’t understanding everything but I was understanding enough.
Enough to follow the topic.
Enough to guess meaning.
Enough to feel like Italian wasn’t just noise anymore.
The most common words do something powerful: they train your brain to recognise patterns.
You stop translating every word.
You stop panicking when you miss something.
You start understanding context.
That’s when confidence appears not because you’re fluent, but because you’re no longer lost.
How I Used Common Words Without Studying Like a Student
I didn’t sit down for long study sessions. That never worked for me.
Instead, I:
- Read the same common words daily
- Listened to audio while commuting
- Built simple, boring sentences using those words
- Let repetition do the heavy lifting
“I wake up at 7.”
“I work today.”
“I am tired but happy.”
Not exciting. But incredibly effective.
Once those words were familiar, everything else became easier to learn.
Why This Works (And Why It Sticks)
Your brain loves familiarity.
When it keeps seeing the same words in different contexts, it stops treating them as “study material” and starts treating them as usable language.
That’s how kids learn.
That’s how immersion works.
And that’s how adults make progress without burning out.
If Italian has ever felt overwhelming, chances are you skipped this step.
Want a Simpler Way to Learn Italian That Actually Sticks?
This is exactly why I created my Italian Flashcards and Learning Guides.
They’re built around the most common Italian words the ones you’ll see and hear constantly so your brain can finally relax and recognise what’s going on.
They’re not about perfection or long study sessions.
They’re about making Italian feel familiar, usable, and achievable.
If you want to stop memorising random words and start understanding real Italian, you can explore what’s included here.