The 45 most common Italian adverbs

These are the 45 adverbs among the 500 most common Italian words, in the order a corpus of everyday writing says you will meet them.

Meanings are given in English on this page. In the app they appear in your own language, translated on your device.

#	Word	Type	Meaning
10	non	Adverbs	not
26	più	Adverbs	more; most
32	anche	Adverbs	also, too, as well, besides
58	prima	Adverbs	before
67	così	Adverbs	so
73	poi	Adverbs	then
74	sempre	Adverbs	always
76	bene	Adverbs	well, nicely, OK, right
77	fa	Adverbs	ago (Note: like in English, fa follows the number.)
80	ancora	Adverbs	still
85	grande	Adverbs	really (intensifier)
90	mai	Adverbs	never
97	già	Adverbs	already, yet
113	qui	Adverbs	here
120	via	Adverbs	away
142	oggi	Adverbs	today
146	certo	Adverbs	certainly, of course, surely, definitely
160	meglio	Adverbs	better
167	tipo	Adverbs	indicating approximation or uncertainty; like, kinda
171	forse	Adverbs	maybe, perhaps, possibly, may, might
180	male	Adverbs	badly, wrongly
199	insieme	Adverbs	together
205	diritto	Adverbs	straight
207	davvero	Adverbs	really, in fact
250	giusto	Adverbs	just, exactly
252	ecco	Adverbs	used to call someone's attention to suddenly
261	adesso	Adverbs	now
275	spesso	Adverbs	often
276	subito	Adverbs	at once, immediately, as soon as possible, shortly
277	infatti	Adverbs	indeed
293	vicino	Adverbs	near
297	inoltre	Adverbs	moreover, also, besides, in addition, furthermore
300	soprattutto	Adverbs	above all, most, most of all
303	appena	Adverbs	barely, hardly
304	ce	Adverbs	reinforcing particle, "do"
312	piano	Adverbs	slowly
349	sicuro	Adverbs	surely; for sure; certainly; definitely; of course
392	basso	Adverbs	low
404	ormai	Adverbs	by now, by this time, now, at this point, by then
411	valore	Adverbs	as much as, as many as
425	chiaro	Adverbs	plainly, frankly, candidly, openly
431	nemmeno	Adverbs	not even
448	diretto	Adverbs	direct, straight
470	cioè	Adverbs	used to rephrase
471	lì	Adverbs	there, in that place

All 500 A1 words are on this page, free, with no sign-up.

The rest of the list

A2A2 Beginner: 500 more wordsaspettare · autore · spazio · abbastanza · possibilità
B1B1 Intermediate: 750 more wordscattivo · nave · capello · dettaglio · ampio
B2B2 Upper intermediate: 750 more wordstavola · causare · esistenza · chimico · agente

A2 to B2 are part of Oqou Pro, in the app, where you can also send any word straight into spaced review and meet it again on the day you are about to forget it.

Where this comes from

The order is measured: it comes from how often each word appears in a large corpus, counted across all the forms of a word rather than each form separately, so a verb is ranked where you really meet it. The band edges are a convention rather than a measurement. Nothing says word 501 is harder than word 500; the levels are cut where established graded reader series cut theirs.

wordfreq 3.1 (frequency order) + en.wiktionary via kaikki.org (part of speech, gender, gloss). Corpus read on 2026-09-16.

Questions

Where does the order come from?

From how often each word appears in a large corpus of everyday writing. Frequency is counted across all the forms of a word and attributed to the dictionary form, so a verb is ranked where a reader really meets it rather than being spread thinly over a dozen endings.

Why are these lists shorter than the ones with 5,000 or 10,000 words?

Because past about 2,500 a frequency rank stops meaning much. Rank 6,000 in a web corpus is not a harder word, it is a word that happens to be common in journalism. Established graded reader series top out near 2,500 headwords for the same reason.

Is every word in the list a real dictionary word?

Yes. Every headword is checked against the language's own Wiktionary entry, which is where the part of speech, the gender and the meaning come from. That check is what removes the proper nouns, single letters and corpus noise that raw frequency lists are full of.

Do I need the app?

Not for this page. The A1 list is free here and free in the app. A2 to B2 are part of Oqou Pro, and the app is also where a word can go from a list into a review queue, which is the part a page cannot do.

Has a native speaker checked these?

Not yet. The frequency order and the part of speech are mechanical, and the meanings come from a dictionary rather than being written by hand, but nothing here has been through native review. If you spot a meaning that is technically right and practically useless, we would like to hear about it.