Introduction

 

When it comes to verbal agreement, please note we’re dealing with either one of these two cases: subject-verb agreement or past participle agreement. In the first case (subject-verb agreement), the rule is that the verb stays singular when two or more subjects are connected by a disjunctive conjunction (or) and when the subject is followed by a ‘complemento di compagnia’.

 

Examples

Source text	My son or my daughter are going to call.
✘	Telefoneranno mio figlio o mia figlia.
✓	Telefonerà mio figlio o mia figlia.

 

Source text	Gianni and Maria gave me a watch.
✘	Gianni, insieme a Maria, mi hanno regalato un orologio.
✓	Gianni, insieme a Maria, mi ha regalato un orologio.

 

Another accepted, and simplified form would be:

 

✓ Gianni e Maria mi hanno regalato un orologio.

 

In the sentence above, ‘Gianni’ and ‘Maria’ are the subjects and so the verb is in the 3rd person plural: ‘hanno regalato’.

In the second case (past participle agreement), the general rule is that, when they agree, past participles agree with their subjects. However, when the auxiliary is omitted, then both options are available.

 

Example

Source text	I never said this kind of things.
✓	Mai detto cose del genere.
✓	Mai dette cose del genere.

 

It is crucial to remember that the following forms, even though accepted by numerous grammars, are in fact obsolete: these are cases of agreement with the object of reflexive/middle verbs (verbs with ‘si’) and an explicit object.

 

Examples

Source text	I wrote you a lot of emails.
✘	Ti ho scritte molte email.
✓	Ti ho scritto molte email.

 

Source text:	Maria washed her hands.
✘	Maria si è lavate le mani.
✓	Maria si è lavata le mani.

 

When it comes to adjectival agreement, there are two simple rules:

1. An adjective referring to multiple nouns takes a plural number;
2. If these nouns mismatch in gender, the adjective takes masculine gender.

The two biggest differences between Italian and English are that English uses bare plurals (plurals with no articles) more than Italian, and omits determiners before possessives.

 

Examples

Source text	Dogs bark often.
✘	Cani abbaiano spesso.
✓	I cani abbaiano spesso.

 

Source text	Take my book.
✘	Prendi mio libro.
✓	Prendi il mio libro.

 

However, the trickiest aspect is the proper rendering of possessive adjectives in Italian.

Please check the section ‘Tricky cases and frequent errors - The use of possessives’ for a discussion and some examples.

 

When it comes to prepositions, the most crucial thing is to ensure well formedness of the ‘preposizioni articolate’. They are formed by combining simple prepositions with determinative articles, and they agree by gender and number with the noun to which they refer. Please pay attention to the use of the apostrophe, which follows the same rules as the determinative articles, and is spelled with no whitespace after it.

 

Example

Source text	From the hospital; from the beginning.
✘	Dall’ ospedale; all’ inizio.
✓	Dall’ospedale; all’inizio.

 

Italian, unlike English, is a pro-drop or null-subject language. This means that many subjects are not expressed with overt pronouns as much as in English.

 

Example

Source text	I will let you know.
✘	Lo le farò sapere.
✓	Io le farò sapere.

 

However, please note that when the source text contains a pronoun that has contrastive meaning, it must be translated with an overt pronoun, often in a slightly adjusted structure. Normally, you can infer if the pronouns are contrastive by the context, but occasionally those are even spelled in capital letters. Please see the example below:

 

Example 

Source text	We expect YOU to call us.
✘	Ci aspettiamo che ci chiami.
✓	Ci aspettiamo che sia tu a chiamarci (meaning: ‘e non noi te’)

 

Finally, pay attention to the difference between the literal use of ‘for you’ and the idiomatic one. Note that, in customer support contexts, the idiomatic use is overwhelmingly recurrent and it would be better not to translate it literally.

 

Example 

Source text	I changed your password for you.
✘	Ho cambiato la password per te.
✓	Ho cambiato la password al posto tuo.
✓	Ti ho cambiato la password.

 

When dealing with the proper translation of verbs there are two very tricky cases: the translation of the present continuous and that of conditional sentences.

• Present Continuous

One property of the present continuous is that it can be used as the subject or object of verbs. In Italian, that is done by the infinitive.

 

Examples 

Source text	Cooking an Italian dinner will be fun.
✘	Cucinando una cena italiana sarà divertente.
✓	Cucinare una cena italiana sarà divertente.

 

Source text	Have fun driving through Tuscany.
✘	Divertiti guidando per la Toscana.
✓	Divertiti a guidare per la Toscana.

 

English is losing the use of the simple present that is slowly being substituted by the present continuous. In such cases, please use the present tense, and not the construction ‘stare + gerundio’.

 

Example

Source text	Can you tell us what you are seeing when you click on it?
✘	Ci puoi dire cosa stai vedendo quando ci clicchi sopra?
✓	Ci puoi dire cosa vedi quando ci clicchi sopra?

 

• Conditional Sentences

Pay attention to ‘periodi ipotetici’ and the behavior of their modals. These sentences cannot be translated literally. See example below as reference.

 

Examples

Source text	If you purchased… you would be able to…
✘	Se hai acquistato… potresti essere in grado di…
✓	Se hai comprato… dovresti poter…

 

Source text:	You could then… and that would be…
✘	Dovresti poi poter… e questo è…
✓	Potresti poi… e quindi sarebbe…

 

Source text	But if you waited to purchase… you would still be able to have…
✘	Ma se hai aspettato… potrai ancora avere…
✓	Ma se hai aspettato… potresti ancora avere…

 

There are three ways of doing abbreviations in Italian:

• By contraction (when intermediate material is omitted)

Example

fratelli	f.lli
dottoressa	dott.ssa
gentilissimo	gent.mo
signora	sig.ra

 

If the result of the contraction is an abbreviation of only two or three letters, the ‘ . ’ moves to the end (to signal that it’s an abbreviation).

 

Example

dottor	dr.
confronta	cfr.

• Using one or more letters from the beginning of the word

Example

dottor	dott.
ingegnere	ing.
vvocato	avv.
signor/signore	sig.

• With a consonant cluster that includes the initial letter of the word

Example

seguente	sg.
pagina	pg.

 

Rare cases of pluralization are obtained by duplicating the (final) consonant and are spelled with one single ‘ . ’ ad the end of every pluralised item.

 

Example

seguenti	sgg.
Piazza Santi Apostoli	Piazza SS. Apostoli
Autori Vari	AA.VV.

 

Please treat ‘ok’ as a word and not as an abbreviation:

 

Example

✘	O.K.
✓	ok

 

For a complete list of abbreviations, please refer to this link.

 

In Italian, the apostrophe is used after the determiner, when the last letter of the determiner is a vowel and the first letter of the following word is a vowel too: lo albero → l’albero.

Make sure there is no whitespace in between the apostrophe and the following word.

Please make sure that the following words are always spelled correctly:

 

Examples 

Source text	there is…
✘	cè…
✘	c’é…
✓	c’è…

 

Source text	a bit
✘	un po
✘	un pò
✓	un po'

 

When it comes to capitalization, there are some differences between Italian and English regarding the usage of the capitalized letter and the small one. These cases will be described in the section below:

 

• Capital letter

Italian uses capital letters with proper names (of people, places, events, works of art, etc.) and  at the beginning of any text, after a period (.), after an exclamation mark (!) and after a question mark (?).

 

Please remember that the word following a colon (:) or semicolon (;) is lowercase.

 

Examples

Source text	We’ll do like this: first we go to the train station, then...
✘	Ora facciamo così: Prima andiamo alla stazione, poi…
✓	Ora facciamo così: prima andiamo alla stazione, poi…

 

Source text	Giovanni ate a pizza and he didn’t like it; I had a different one and I liked it a lot.
✘	Giovanni ha mangiato una pizza e non gli è piaciuta; Io ne ho mangiata una diversa e mi è piaciuta molto.
✓	Giovanni ha mangiato una pizza e non gli è piaciuta; io ne ha mangiata una diversa e mi è piaciuta molto.

 

Regarding multiple-word titles (proper names of works of art) only the first letter is capitalized:

 

Example

Source text	The Lord of the Rings Trilogy is composed of three romances: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King.
✘	La Trilogia del Signore Degli Anelli è composta da tre romanzi: La Compagnia Dell’Anello, Le Due Torri e Il Ritorno Del Re.
✓	La trilogia del Signore degli anelli è composta da tre romanzi: La compagnia dell’anello, Le due torri e Il ritorno del re.

• Lowercase

Unlike in English, the small letter in Italian is required in the following cases:

 

1. Days of the week, months and seasons:

Source text	Monday, May, Summer
✘	unedì, Maggio, Estate
✓	lunedì, maggio, estate

 

2. Nationalities:

Source text	My best friends are coming from all over the world: one is Italian, one is English, one is German and the other one is Japanese.
✘	I miei migliori amici vengono da tutto il mondo: uno è Italiano, uno Inglese, uno Tedesco e un altro Giapponese.
✓	I miei migliori amici vengono da tutto il mondo: uno è italiano, uno inglese, uno tedesco e un altro giapponese.

 

4. Greetings:

Source text	Hello Vanessa, Hope you’re doing fine.
✘	Ciao Vanessa, Spero che tu stia bene.
✓	Ciao Vanessa, spero che tu stia bene.

 

Compound nouns, compound adverbs and compound verbs are spelled as one word (sottoscala, oltretomba, malvivente, malvolentieri, manomettere, etc.)

Compound adjectives that emerge by the combination of an adjective and a noun are spelled separated (verde acqua, biondo cenere, etc.), while adjectives made of two adjectives or an adverb and an adjective are, again, spelled as one word (agrodolce, sempreverde, etc.).

 

Please note that while Italian uses most frequently the grave accent ( ` ) some very common words are spelled with the acute accent ( ´ ). The three most common cases are:

1. -che compounds: perché, poiché, affinché, cosicché, sicché, benché, etc.
2. -tre compounds: ventitré, trentatré, settantatré, etc.
3. some forms of passato remoto of verbs ending in -ere: poté, batté, ripeté, etc.

The most important aspect when it comes to the proper use of foreign words and loanwords is to distinguish the two.

A loanword is an originally foreign word that entered the (Italian) lexicon and that undergoes grammatical and phonological processes proper of the language that embeds it.

For instance, it’s pronounced in a consistent way, there is no dispute around its gender (the rule of thumb is to stick to the gender of its Italian counterpart, e.g ‘croissant’ vs ‘cornetto’). Morphology, for instance, diminutive morphology or verbal, can apply to them. Loanwords are not spelled italicized.

 

Example

I had breakfast with a small croissant/a small croissant.

Ho fatto colazione con un croissant/croissantino.

 

Please note that some loanwords have unmarked plural forms: 

 

Example

Source text	You need to clear the cache and delete the cookies. (formal)
✘	Bisogna svuotare la cache e cancellare il cookies.
✓	Bisogna svuotare la cache e cancellare i cookies.

 

Example

Source text	You need to restart the apps on your phone. (informal)
✘	Devi reiniziare le apps nel tuo telefono.
✓	Devi reiniziare le app nel tuo telefono.

 

There are exceptions to the rule that all foreign words are masculine. Please note that, as can be seen from the first example above, ‘cookies’ is always plural masculine in Italian, whilst ‘cache’ is feminine and singular. From the second example, ‘apps' is always feminine and singular, although the plural is realized by the determiner: le (feminine plural). In singular: l’app.

 

Regarding numerals format (written in numbers or transliterated), you must always respect the source text: if they are written as digits in the source text, this should be maintained in the translation; on the other hand, if they are written as words, they should be translated to the target language.

• Cardinal Numbers

Unlike what happens in English, use a point (.) to mark thousands, millions, and billions. And a comma (,) for decimals.

 

Example

Source text	7,500.5
✘	7,500.5
✓	7.500,5 (‘settemilacinquecento virgola cinque’)

 

When translating long sequences of numbers (such as codes or phone numbers) always make sure that there is a perfect correspondence between source and translation.

• Ordinal Numbers

Whenever possible, opt for transliterated forms (primo, secondo, terzo, … ventesimo, etc.) to allow gender and number inflection free of unnecessary spelling complications.

 

Example

Source text	first, third, seventh
✘	5°, 3a, 7i
✓	quinto, terza, settimo

 

Symbols, such as %, /, |, etc. are never preceded and followed by a whitespace when presented in isolation.

 

Examples

Source text	telephone/fax/email
✘	Telefono / fax / email
✓	Telefono/fax/email

 

✘	100 %
✓	100%

 

✘	16 - 17
✓	16-17

 

Please keep in mind that double whitespaces should never occur.

 

Periods, colons, semicolons, commas, question, and exclamation marks are generally used like in Italian. Make sure that you never use commas to divide subjects from verbs, verbs from objects, adjectives from the nouns they modify, and prepositions from their objects.

 

Example

Source text	I had dinner with a Margarita and some Nutella.
✘	Ho, cenato, con un Margarita e un cucchiaio di Nutella.
✓	Ho cenato con un Margarita e un cucchiaio di Nutella.

 

If you use commas to delimit parenthetical information and vocatives, please make sure you use both.

 

Example

Source text	We played with Luce, Mauro’s dog, until late.
✘	Abbiamo giocato con Luce il cane di Mauro fino a tardi.
✓	Abbiamo giocato con Luce, il cane di Mauro, fino a tardi.

 

• Quotation marks

There are three types of quotation marks that can be used in the same way:

(‟ ”): virgolette alte

(« »): virgolette basse

(‘ ’): apici

Use virgolette alte (‟ ”) as primary quotation marks, virgolette basse (« ») as secondary quotation marks and apici (‘ ’) as tertiary quotation marks.

 

Punctuation in greetings and closings is like in English, but keep in mind that after the comma in the greeting, the small letter is always required.

 

Example

Source text	Dear Gary, We found a solution…
✘	Caro Gary,  Abbiamo trovato una soluzione…
✓	Caro Gary, abbiamo trovato una soluzione…

 

 

This section will focus on the Formal Register for Italian. Generally speaking, there are three main differences between formal and informal registers in Italian: grammatical structures, lexical choice, and verbal forms. In what follows, we’ll discuss these main groups and we will look at some critical cases or red flags.

• Grammatical register

The most straightforward aspect of the formal register is what is conveyed through the use of grammatically formal pronouns, formal verbal morphology, and formal possessives. This is the so-called ‘dare del lei’ treatment form.

 

Example

Source text	When we phoned you, you didn’t reply. It would be better if you could get back to us, we would need a copy of your ID.
✘	Quando ti abbiamo telefonato, non siamo riusciti a trovarti. Se ci potessi chiamare tu sarebbe meglio, avremmo bisogno di una copia di un tuo documento.
✓	Quando le abbiamo telefonato, speravamo di trovarla. Se ci potesse chiamare lei sarebbe meglio, avremmo bisogno di una copia di un suo documento.

 

Please note that formal forms should not be capitalized, as it is an overly formal writing style.

 

✘ Quando Le abbiamo telefonato, speravamo di trovarLa. Se ci potesse chiamare Lei sarebbe meglio, avremmo bisogno di una copia di un Suo documento.

 

Please do not use the third person plural and the pronoun ‘voi’ to express formality, as it is extremely obsolete or regional. Most likely, when you find ‘you’ in the source and ‘voi’ in the target, it’s because of the ambiguity of the English pronoun ‘you’, which can either mean ‘tu’ or ‘voi’. When it comes to formal register and when the subject is singular (so it actually means ‘tu’ or ‘lei’), you should always use the ‘lei form’.

 

Example

Source text	When we phoned you, you didn’t reply. It would be better if you could get back to us, we would need a copy of your ID.
✘	Quando vi abbiamo telefonato, speravamo di trovarvi. Se ci poteste chiamare voi sarebbe meglio, avremmo bisogno di una copia di un vostro documento.

 

• Lexical register

The second crucial aspect that characterizes formal register is what is expressed through lexical choice, for instance in greetings (A), in the selection of formal synonyms (B), in disallowing or allowing colloquial idiomatic expressions (C), in accepting or not accepting a wider range or loanwords (D).

 

Example A

Source text	Hello,
✘	Ciao,
✓	Salve,

 

Example B 

Source text	To make those changes...
✘	Fare dei cambiamenti...
✓	Effettuare dei cambiamenti...

 

Example C

Source text	There’s a gap...
✘	C’è un gap...
✓	C’è un divario...

 

Please refer to the tables below for some features of grammatical and lexical registers:

FORMAL REGISTER - Lexical features
Greetings	Salve, Salve [name], Gentile [signor/signore, signora, sig., sig.ra, sig.na, name],
Closings	Cordiali saluti, Distinti saluti,

 

Regarding the formal abbreviation ‘sig.’, please bear in mind that this is the standard form used in Italian, and not ‘sig.re’, which is used to refer to ‘Our Lord’. For a more concise list of Italian abbreviations in Italian used in greetings, please refer to the table below:

Abbreviation in Italian	Extended Italian form	English abbreviation
Sig.	Signor/signore	Mr.
Sigg.	Signori	Messrs.
Sig.na	Signorina	Miss
Sig.ra	Signora	Mrs.
Sig.ra/sig.na	Signora/signorina	Ms.

 

It is important to mention that a very common error is replicating the English greeting ‘Dear [name]’ in Italian. This is slightly ambiguous in Italian and, usually, it’s used in the informal register, such as ‘Caro amico,’. In order to avoid translation errors and ambiguities, we suggest you to follow the example below:

 

Example (formal register required)

Source text	Dear customer,
✘	Caro cliente,
✓	Gentile cliente,

 

The same applies when it comes to proper names, as follows:

 

Example (formal register required)

Source text	Dear Camilla,
✘	Cara Camilla,
✓	Gentile Camilla,

 

FORMAL REGISTER - Grammatical features
Pronouns	lei + verb in the 3rd person singular
Possessives	suo, suoi, sua, sue
Clitics	Le, la, glielo, glieli, gliela, gliele, gliene
Reflexive pronoun	si

 

• Pragmatics of Verbal Forms

Another aspect of formal register is the way politeness is expressed through verbal inflection, for example through proper use of the conditional and the subjunctive:

 

Example

Source text	It’s better if you could call us, we would need a copy of your ID.
✘	Se ci può chiamare lei è meglio, abbiamo bisogno di una copia di un suo documento.
✘	Se ci potesse chiamare lei sarebbe meglio, abbiamo bisogno di una copia di un suo documento.
✓	Se ci potesse chiamare lei sarebbe meglio, avremmo bisogno di una copia di un suo documento.

 

• Red Flags: Please

In Italian, unlike in English, ‘please - per favore’ it’s not used in the same way to indicate politeness. If you remove these instances, make sure the politeness is preserved. You can do that by either adjusting verbs or inserting politeness particles such as ‘forse”, ‘pure’ and ‘tranquillamente’.

 

Examples

Source text	Please note that if you have set…
✘	Per favore tenga presente che se ha impostato…
✓	Tenga presente che se avesse impostato…
✓	Tenga presente che se dovesse aver impostato…

 

Source text	In the meantime, please let me know if you need anything else.
✘	Nel frattempo, per favore, mi faccia sapere se ha bisogno di qualcos'altro.
✓	Nel frattempo, mi faccia sapere se avesse bisogno di qualcos'altro.
✓	Nel frattempo, mi faccia sapere se dovesse aver bisogno di qualcos'altro.
✓	Nel frattempo, mi faccia pure/tranquillamente sapere se avesse/dovesse aver bisogno di qualcos'altro.

 

Generally speaking, the informal register in Italian is the so-called ‘dare del tu’, which differs from the formal one in the usage of pronouns, verbal features and lexical choices. We’ll discuss these properties in the sections below.

• Grammatical register

The most straight forward aspect of the informal register is what is conveyed through the use of grammatically informal pronouns, informal verbal morphology, and informal possessives. This is the so-called ‘TU’ treatment form.

 

Example

Source text	When we phoned you, you didn’t reply. It would be better if you could get back to us, we would need a copy of your ID.
✘	Quando le abbiamo telefonato, non siamo riusciti a trovarla. Se ci potesse chiamare lei sarebbe meglio, avremmo bisogno di una copia di un suo documento.
✓	Quando ti abbiamo telefonato, speravamo di trovarti. Se ci potessi chiamare tu sarebbe meglio, avremmo bisogno di una copia di un tuo documento.

 

• Lexical register

The second crucial aspect that characterizes informal register is what is expressed through lexical choice, for instance in greetings (A), in the selection of formal synonyms (B), in allowing or colloquial idiomatic expressions (C), in accepting or not accepting a wider range or loanwords (D).

 

Example A

Source text	Hello,
✘	Salve,
✓	Ciao,

 

Example B 

Source text	To make those changes...
✘	Per effettuare dei cambiamenti…
✓	Per fare dei cambiamenti…

 

Example C

Source text	There’s a gap...
✘	C’è un divario…
✓	C’è un gap...

 

Please refer to the tables below for some features of grammatical and lexical registers:

INFORMAL REGISTER - Lexical features
Greetings	Ciao, Ciao [name],
Closings	Ciao, Saluti, Arrivederci,

 

INFORMAL REGISTER - Grammatical features
Pronouns	tu + verb in the 2nd person singular
Possessives	Tuo, tuoi, tua, tue
Clitics	ti, te
Reflexive pronoun	ti

 

Proper nouns refer to unique entities, such as persons, places, organizations, brands, events, etc. As foreign proper nouns are concerned, languages may adopt different rules regarding whether they should be translated or kept in the original language. When editing a text, you should follow your language rules for all different types of proper nouns listed below. However, please note that if there is a glossary provided by the client that includes these types of units, you should always apply the glossary items.

 

Names of people are generally left untranslated unless they are names of monarchs or contain title.

 

Example

✘ Queen Elisabeth, President Obama

✓ La regina Elisabetta, il presidente Obama

 

Not every city, country, monument has an Italian translation. If available, please use it (unless it’s obsolete, like Nuova York).

 

Example

Source text	London, United Kingdom, United States, Times Square, Brooklyn Bridge
✘	London, United Kingdom, United States, Piazza dei tempi, Brooklyn Bridge
✓	Londra, Regno Unito, Stati Uniti, Times Square, il ponte di Brooklyn

 

Names of organizations are generally kept untranslated unless there’s an official Italian equivalent (e.g. United Nations, Organizzazione delle Nation Unite, or simply Nazioni Unite).

 

Brands (e.g. Sony) and the products (e.g. PlayStation) are kept untranslated.

 

Famous works of art (paintings, novels, plays, movies, etc.) typically have an established translation. However, newer ones (modern fiction, games, etc.) and brands might not, so if in doubt take some time to find out.

 

Example

✘ The Night Watch, Hamlet, Parco Giurassico

✓ La Ronda Notturna, Amleto, Jurassic Park

 

Please note that proper names of boats, buildings, fairs, and so on must be kept untranslated.

 

Example        

✘ Il Titanico, Il palazzo a ferro da stiro, La mostra dell’arsenale

✓ Titanic, Flat Iron Building, Armory Show

 

Please note that when translating games such as poker etc, you might incur in cases of coexisting lexical items. Always opt for inner consistency, that is to say do not mix different words meaning the same thing.

 

• Acronyms

For every acronym you translate, make sure you are aware if there exists an Italian counterpart. For instance, ‘VIP’ is an acronym that entered the Italian lexicon as such, and its English internal structure (‘very important person’) is not accessible to the monolingual Italian speaker. Note that when there is no Italian translation (i.e. there’s nothing like PMI - ‘persona molto importante’ - or other) it needs to remain untranslated. When acronyms such as ‘IQ’ (‘Intelligence Quotient’) have a corresponding Italian counterpart, in this case QI (‘Quoziente Intellettivo’), they need to be translated.

Unless specified, political, religious and associations of other types should be left untranslated. The same applies to the acronyms of country names such as UK, USA etc. (but naturally not their full names, ‘Regno Unito’, ‘Stati Uniti d’America’. See section on proper names):

 

Example

✘ IQ, UN

✓ QI, ONU

• Initials

The correct spelling of initials of proper names has to respect the following format: capitalized letter - period - space.

 

Example

✘ J.F.Kennedy

✘ J.F. Kennedy

✘ JF Kennedy

✘ J F Kennedy

✓ J. F. Kennedy

 

English differs from other languages by using, in general, the format ‘mm/dd/yy’. When translating into Italian please use the ‘dd/mm/yyyy’ format.

 

Example

✘ 1987/05/26

✘ 05/26/1987

✓ 26/05/1987

 

English differs from other languages by using, in general, an am/pm format. When translating into Italian please use the 24h format and the following spelling: decimal unit colon decimal unit:

 

Example

Source text	Open from 9am to 5pm
✘	Aperto dalle 9am alle 5pm
✘	Aperto dalle 9 alle 17
✓	Aperto dalle 9:00 alle 17:00

 

Measures should only be converted when explicitly specified in the instructions. You should only translate them when they have an equivalent term in your language. Measures and numbers are always separated by a whitespace.

Translate ‘feet’ into ‘piedi’, ‘inches’ into ‘pollici’, etc., but leave all original abbreviations untranslated. 

 

Example

✘ 5.000 feet, 5.000 p

✓ 5.000 piedi, 5.000 ft

 

Currency values should be left as they are in the source text, only translating the currency: for example, 100 euros (EN) → 100 euro (IT). The currency symbol follows the number indicating the amount. Currency symbols, abbreviations, or full names are always separated by a whitespace.

 

Example

Source text	EUR100, 100 euros, €100
✘	100EUR, 100euro, 100€, €100
✓	100 EUR, 100 euro, 100 €

 

For more information about spacing after a monetary value and how to use currency symbols, please refer to this link.

 

• Use of possessives

Please note that general syntactic differences between languages often manifest in the fact that different parts of speech take over different duties. For instance, some of the jobs that Italian clitic pronouns (‘mi’, ‘ti’, ‘ci’, etc.) do are fulfilled by possessive adjectives in English. Pay attention while translating them, in that an excessive use of possessives in Italian sounds odd and non-native: sometimes, for fluency sake, it’s simply better to omit them.

 

Examples

Source text	We’re about to ship your parcel.
✘	Stiamo per spedire il tuo pacco.
✓	Ti stiamo per spedire il Ø pacco.

 

Source text	You can track your training.
✘	Puoi registrare il tuo allenamento.
✓	Puoi registrare l’ Ø allenamento.

 

• Being able to → essere in grado, potere, riuscire

The translation of the English expression ‘being able to do something’ is a tricky one when it comes to translate it into Italian. The main thing here is what this expression means and how we can properly render this without sounding awkward. Let’s have a look at some examples and their meaning:

 

1. Being able to → essere in grado

Source text	If everything goes as planned, I’ll be able to solve the problem.
✘	Se tutto va come previsto, potrò risolvere il problema.
✓	Se tutto va come previsto, sarò in grado di risolvere il problema.

 

In the sentence above, the subject is capable of doing something because of its own internal capacity and there might be a reason or a fact that prevent the subject from doing that.

 

2. Being able to → potere

 

Source text	I’ll be able to send you that email after lunch.
✘	Sono in grado di mandarti quell’email dopo pranzo.
✓	Posso mandarti quell’email dopo pranzo.

 

The example described above is about the subject and its capacity to actually perform some actions without the occurrence of other events. It’s the actual and internal ability of the speaker.

 

3. Being able to → riuscire

 

Source text	After these changes, you should be able to change your password.
✘	Dopo questi cambiamenti, dovresti essere in grado di cambiare la tua password.
✓	Dopo questi cambiamenti, dovresti riuscire a cambiare la tua password.

 

In the example above, ‘being able to’ means that the subject can perform an action as a consequence of someone else’s action. This means that ‘being able to’ is not depending on the subject (so the subject is not capable of doing something because of its own actions). As a rule of thumb, when the source text has the modal ‘should’ followed by ‘being able to’, the construction ‘dover riuscire a…’ is the best translation fit.

 

In the sections below we’re going to talk about the top 3 most frequent errors, being them lexical selection, capitalization and agreement.

• Lexical selection

Being aware of lexical selection errors is a skill that a good editor can develop in time. Accuracy in lexical selection involves a near-native knowledge of the source language (i.e. English), and an even greater command of the target language (i.e. Italian). If in doubt, read your text out loud, try rehearsing it in your mind, does it really make sense? Is that really how you’d say it?

Here follows a list of very frequent errors, and please be weary of translation memory, sometimes those texts retain bad mistakes.

 

Examples

Source text	Customer service, customer care service, customer care
✘	Supporto al cliente
✓	Assistenza clienti
✓	Assistenza al cliente
✓	Servizio al cliente
✓	Servizio clienti
✓	Servizio di assistenza al cliente

 

Source text	A (customer service) ticket
✘	un ticket
✘	un biglietto
✓	una richiesta di assistenza

 

Source text	subscription
✘	sottoscrizione
✓	abbonamento

 

Source text	I’ve gone ahead/go ahead - *idiomatic*
✘	sono andato avanti
✘	ho proceduto
✓	ho cominciato a
✓	ho già (+ verbo al participio passato)

 

‘Provide’ shouldn’t always be translated as ‘fornire’. Sometimes it’s ‘dare’, sometimes is ‘indicare’, etc. Please be careful!

• Capitalization

Regarding capitalization errors, there are some rules that might differ from English and that needs to be applied when translating into Italian. Please refer to the Capitalization section of these Guidelines in order to solve tricky cases.

• Agreement

‘Agreement’ can be tricky in Italian when it comes to foreign words that are not translated and we’re not sure on how they agree in gender and number with determiners, meaning that it’s not always so straightforward to understand if they’re masculine, feminine, singular or plural. As a general rule of thumb, they don’t have plural form (we consider them only in their singular form):

 

Example

Source text	I had a lot of likes in that pic!
✘	Mi hanno messo tanti likes in quella foto!
✓	Mi hanno messo tanti like in quella foto!

 

As can be seen from the example above, even if ‘likes’ is plural in English, in Italian we only consider ‘like’ in its singular form, agreeing with ‘tanti’ in the plural.

For more information on how foreign words are rendered in Italian in gender and number, please refer to the Foreign Words section of these Guidelines.

 

Bilingual dictionaries

WordReference

 

Italian grammar guide

Enciclopedia Treccani

Accademia della Crusca

 

Italian dictionaries

Vocabolario Treccani

Dizionario Etimologico

 

English verb conjugator

Reverso

 

English grammar guide

English Grammar Online

 

English dictionaries

Oxford English Dictionary

Collins English Dictionary

Cambridge English Dictionary

 

Thesauruses

Thesaurus.com

Oxford English Thesaurus

Collins English Thesaurus