If you are an expat who moved to Italy like me, you may not have heard “Sarà perché ti amo” by Ricchi e Poveri before you got here, but you will surely have heard it now! This upbeat Italian song is extremely popular and well-loved in Italy and in other parts of Europe, and has been since it was released in 1981. Let’s see how it can help us learn Italian.
How Can I Learn Italian with Songs?
Learning via Italian songs is a great way to get a feel for the language and to make vocabulary and expressions memorable. But if you want to make a lesson out of your music, you have to do a bit more than just put on a song.
A good strategy to use when learning Italian with songs is to choose a song and then find the lyrics for it. Reading the words as you hear them being sung helps you to separate the sounds and identify those words both in that song and in regular conversation. Jolii.ai can help with that by adding AI-generated subtitles to videos, which makes listening and learning easy.
Singing along with a song (or at least repeating the lyrics aloud) can also help you to improve your pronunciation skills. You most likely won’t be singing when you speak Italian with native speakers (life isn’t a musical, after all), but you will have already practiced your speaking skills in a fun and entertaining way so you’ll feel more confident about talking.
Takeaway: Reading along with the lyrics and singing along with Italian songs can help you improve your Italian in an engaging way.
What Is “Sarà Perché Ti Amo” About?
“Sarà perché ti amo” in this context means “It must be because I love you.” The title is an example of using the Italian future tense to make assumptions. The song itself, though, is an optimistic, peppy tune about how the singer is wondering why suddenly everything just seems so wonderful, and supposes that it must be because she is in love. That love makes everything else fade away, and she says that even if there is no love, it is enough to hear a song to make you feel dazed (in a good way).
| Italian Lyrics | English Translation |
| E se l’amore non c’è Basta una sola canzone Per far confusione Fuori e dentro di te | And if love isn’t there One song is enough To make confusion Outside and inside of you |
Using the Future Tense to Make Assumptions in Italian
The future tense in Italian can be a bit tough to learn for students because it is very different from the future tense in English (which, according to many linguists, doesn’t truly even exist because most “future” forms of verbs are just alterations of the present tense). Another element that makes it a little tricky is that you can use this tense for more than just saying what will happen in the future.
Take this piece of “Sarà perché ti amo,” for instance:
Che confusione
Sarà perché ti amo
What confusion
It must be because I love you.
“Sarà” is the third person future tense form of essere, which means “to be.” So in other contexts, “Sarà” would mean “it will be,” but as you can see in this song, it can also be used to express an assumption. Instead of saying something “will be,” it means “it must be.”
Here is another example to make things clearer:
Dov’è Jacopo?
Sarà a casa con Luisa.
Where is Jacopo?
He must be at home with Luisa.
In this case, the speaker doesn’t really know where Jacob is for sure, but they are assuming he is at home with Luisa, probably because that is where he usually is or where he said he would be.
Takeaway: The future tense in Italian can also be used to express an assumption, not necessarily a certainty.
Real Example Sentences — Using the Future Tense for Assumptions
| Italian Sentence | English Translation |
|---|---|
| Sarà perché ti amo. | It must be because I love you. |
| Dov’è Marco? — Sarà ancora in ufficio. | Where is Marco? — He’s probably still at the office. |
| Che silenzio… saranno tutti già partiti. | It’s so quiet… they must all have already left. |
| Sarà stanca dopo il viaggio. | She must be tired after the trip. |
| Non risponde: sarà occupato. | He’s not answering — he must be busy. |
| Saranno le tre ormai. | It must be about three o’clock by now. |
| Fa freddo: si sarà abbassata la temperatura. | It’s cold — the temperature must have dropped. |
| Non è venuta: sarà malata. | She didn’t come — she must be sick. |
| Guarda com’è felice… sarà innamorata. | Look how happy she is — she must be in love. |
| Non la vedo da giorni: sarà in vacanza. | I haven’t seen her for days — she must be on vacation. |
Common Italian Expressions used in “Sarà Perché Ti Amo“
Using Italian songs to learn the language can also be a very handy way to learn common Italian expressions. “Sarà Perché Ti Amo” has several that are often used, and that you, too, can use to sound more like a native speaker.
| Italian Phrase | English Translation | Usage Notes |
| Che confusione | How confusing/What confusion | “Che” can be put in front of many nouns to make an exclamation, i.e.: Che stress! (how stressful!) |
| piano piano | Slowly (literally “slowly-slowly) | This is an often-used phrase to indicate that something happens gradually or |
| te ne frega | You don’t care (but with a meaning more like “you don’t give a damn”) | Note that there is no “non” here, but it is still a negative expression |
FAQs
What is “Sarà perché ti amo” about?
“Sarà perché ti amo” is about the euphoria of being in love. The narrator is so happy with the person she loves that she moves through the world in a daze – something she says can happen to anyone just from listening to a love song.
Is it possible to use Italian songs to learn Italian?
Listening to Italian songs is a good way to supplement Italian lessons because it is an engaging, entertaining way to learn new words as well as hear and pronounce them.
Final Takeaway
“Sarà perché ti amo” is a great song to use to learn Italian because it gives you examples of using the future tense to make assumptions and teaches common Italian expressions. Use Jolii.ai to see a subtitled video of the song and start learning (and singing along) today!
