Ciao and welcome.

Benvenuti and benvenute a coffee break Italian.

I am Carolina and today I have the pleasure of joining you for a coffee break.

In these short episodes we help you improve your Italian a little bit each time.

And in today's mini lesson, I'd like to share

something that happened to me not so long ago and use it as a starting point to talk about a

topic that can sometimes feel a bit tricky, choosing between Tu and Leigh, the informal and formal ways of addressing someone

in Italian.

Forza, commicamo.

I wanted to talk about this because recently I was visiting some friends in Tuscany, in Toscana,

and I met lots of new people.

Now, although I'm a native speaker, I haven't lived in Italy for several years,

so I realized that even for me, sometimes there's that moment

of hesitation. Do I use to or lay? When is it appropriate to address someone informally?

And when should we be more formal?

Ben, let me take you through a few situations that might help clarify things.

Obviously, with friends and people my age, the choice was clear.

I comfortably used two.

For example, during a night out in Fierense, I spoke to some strangers around my age and we naturally address each other with two, given the informal and relaxed

setting. The same applied when chatting with my friends, partners or acquaintances.

In these social situations, two felt perfectly natural.

In Italy, once you're introduced, two is often the norm in friendly, casual contexts.

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