Speaker (French)
Bonjour, ces tomates viennent de la région ?
Buongiorno, questi pomodori vengono dalla zona?
Bonjour Ciao
Live translation
French ↔ Italian
through one pair of earbuds.
Share an earbud. Pick French and Italian. Each of you hears the other in your own language, live.
A sample exchange
Three turns between French and Italian, the way they'd actually go. Each card shows the original line above the translation.
Speaker (Italian)
Sì, dalla Liguria. Ne assaggi uno, sono al punto giusto.
Oui, de Ligurie. Goûtez-en une, elles sont à point.
Speaker (French)
Vous m'avez convaincu, j'en prends un kilo. Merci.
Mi ha convinto, ne prendo un chilo. Grazie.
What metcha supports for this pair
| French | Italian | |
|---|---|---|
| Apple on-device translation | ✓ | ✓ |
| Deepgram cloud STT | ✓ | ✓ |
| iOS built-in voices | ✓ | ✓ |
| ElevenLabs premium voices (Plus) | 4 voices | 4 voices |
| Voice cloning (Plus, your voice) | ✓ | ✓ |
Why metcha for this pair
France and Italy meet along the Alps and the Riviera, and the border barely slows anyone down: people cross between Nice and Ventimiglia for the Friday market the way others cross town. The languages are close Romance cousins with classic false friends, Italian fermare means to stop while French fermer means to close. metcha's Better Translation path on metcha Plus translates directly between French and Italian, keeping the vous/Lei register natural instead of routing through English.
Common phrases
Hand-picked phrases for everyday Italian-speaking situations. In metcha you don't need to memorize these — but they're useful to anchor what the app sounds like before you try it.
- Greeting
-
French: Bonjour, enchanté.
Italian: Buongiorno, piacere.
- Thank you
-
French: Merci beaucoup.
Italian: Grazie mille.
- Apology
-
French: Désolé, je n'ai pas compris.
Italian: Mi scusi, non ho capito.
- Directions
-
French: Où est le marché, s'il vous plaît ?
Italian: Dov'è il mercato, per favore?
- Ordering
-
French: Je vais prendre le plat du jour.
Italian: Prendo il piatto del giorno.
- Allergy
-
French: Je suis allergique aux arachides.
Italian: Sono allergico alle arachidi.
- Bill
-
French: L'addition, s'il vous plaît.
Italian: Il conto, per favore.
- Hotel
-
French: J'ai une réservation pour deux nuits.
Italian: Ho una prenotazione per due notti.
- Pharmacy
-
French: Avez-vous quelque chose contre le mal des transports ?
Italian: Avete qualcosa per il mal d'auto?
- Taxi
-
French: Pouvez-vous nous emmener à la gare ?
Italian: Può portarci alla stazione?
Where you'd use it
- Day trips across the Riviera border, Nice to Ventimiglia and back
- Italian visitors in Paris and French visitors in Rome See the Paris guide →
- Markets and restaurants on both sides of the border For restaurants →
- Ski seasons in the Alps where the two languages share a lift queue
Common questions
- Does metcha translate Italian to French as well as French to Italian?
- Yes, both directions run in the same session. When someone speaks French, the other person hears it in Italian; when they reply in Italian, you hear it in French. There is no direction to configure and no turn-taking button. See how it works for the full walkthrough.
- Is French ↔ Italian translation in metcha on-device or cloud?
- Both. metcha's free tier uses Apple's on-device Translation framework where supported (available for both French and Italian). metcha Plus optionally routes through a Better Translation cloud path for more natural phrasing, with a quiet fallback to the on-device path when the network is slow.
- Do I need both AirPods to use metcha for French and Italian?
- No. The simplest mode is one earbud each — you keep one, the other person keeps the other. metcha handles both directions through that single shared pair. If you'd rather both wear your own earbuds, you can pair a second phone in seconds via a QR code (still no app install for the other person).
- What about regional accents within Italian?
- metcha's Deepgram STT path handles major regional variants of Italian robustly. The on-device path is more sensitive to accent — if you find the free path missing words, switching to the metcha Plus cloud STT usually fixes it without changing anything else about the conversation.
- Does it work without internet?
- The free on-device path works fully offline once the relevant Apple Translation language packs are downloaded. metcha Plus features that depend on Deepgram, Better Translation, or ElevenLabs voices need a network connection.
- How many voices does metcha ship for Italian?
- 4 curated native-Italian voices on metcha Plus, plus all iOS built-in voices on the free tier (and any Enhanced or Premium voices you've installed in Settings → Accessibility → Spoken Content).
- Are conversations private?
- metcha does not store conversations on our servers, and none of our providers retain audio for training. The free on-device path never sends audio off your phone at all. See the privacy policy for the full data-handling story.