How it works
Italian bingo here is vocabulary bingo for a language class, not tombola, Italy's numbers game. The cards open on number words, uno to cento. Four more lists wait in the picker: colors, the calendar, food and family.
Read the full guide
Pairs one letter apart
The family list holds il nonno and la nonna, lo zio and la zia, il cugino and la cugina, il figlio and la figlia. Both halves of a pair can land on one card. Say the Italian twice and lean on the ending, or call the English, grandfather or grandmother, and let pupils choose.
The article is part of the square
Nouns print with il, lo, la, l' or i. Lo stands before z, as in lo zio and lo zucchero. L' stands before a vowel and hides the gender, so the list below adds it for l'acqua, l'uovo, l'uva and l'insalata.
- L'uovo is masculine, but its plural is feminine: le uova.
- Days and months take a small first letter in Italian, and the five days from lunedì to venerdì end in an accented ì.
- Rosa, viola, magenta and indaco keep one form beside every noun; rosso and giallo change their ending.
Questions and answers
Is Italian bingo the same as tombola?
No. Tombola is Italy's own numbers game: numbers from 1 to 90 are drawn and each card holds fifteen of them in three rows, as the Treccani dictionary describes it. This page deals word cards for learning Italian vocabulary.
How do you play Italian bingo in a classroom?
Hand each pupil a different card. Read a word in Italian or give its English, pupils cover the square, and the first with four in a row calls bingo. To check, the winner reads the row back in Italian.
Which Italian words are on the bingo cards?
109 beginner words, among them quattordici, il pane, il gelato, la nonna and lo zio. Each was read in the Treccani dictionary for its spelling and gender and in Wiktionary for its English meaning.
Can I print Italian bingo cards for a whole class?
Yes, at no cost. A class of 30 prints on 15 sheets of Letter or A4 at 2 cards to a page. The call sheet lists every Italian word with its English, or its numeral, and a box to tick.