Motor Trend cambia nome e diventa Turbo
A2 Italian listening practice · Standard Italian · Curated for beginners
What does “Come?” mean in Italian?
This channel promo plays a little joke: “Il canale si chiamerà Turbo. Come? Turbo. Come?” On its own, Come? is how Italians say “Sorry, what?” or “Pardon?”, asking you to repeat something. Literally come means “how,” but a standalone Come? is the everyday “I didn’t catch that.”
It’s a small word that makes you sound natural the moment you use it. A few registers to know: Come? is casual, Come, scusa? is friendlier, and Prego? is politely formal. Don’t reach for Cosa? (“What?”) to mean “pardon”, Italians use Come? for that. One syllable, and you can keep any conversation going.
Vocabulary frequency
How common is the vocabulary in this A2 Italian listening practice listening practice?
General Italian frequency
Spoken Italian frequency
Words above this video’s level
Quick glosses for vocabulary that goes beyond this video’s A2 level.
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · OpenSubtitles 2018 (HermitDave) (spoken). Buckets approximate; exact ranks not stored.
- ▸Any time an Italian misses what you said
- ▸On the phone, asking someone to repeat
- ▸In noisy bars and markets across Italy
- ▸Alongside politer versions Come, scusa? and Prego?
- ▸In Italian TV and ads playing on a catchy name