Here, we discuss negation, punctuation, and the use of written accents in Italian.
Negation in Italian
Luckily, forming the negation in Italian is a simple procedure, without many exceptions.
We simply add “non” in front of the verb (and before any object pronoun before the verb).
For example, “Non gioco a calcio” (I don’t play soccer), “Non lo voglio” (I don’t want it).
We can have a double negative in Italian without changing the meaning to affirmative, e.g., “Non lo faccio mai” (I never do it).
Punctuation in Italian
In general, Italian punctuation marks are used the same way as in English. For instance, interrogation and exclamation marks are used in Italian at the end of a question or exclamation, such as “Come stai?” (How are you?) and “Che peccato!” (What a pity!).
Punctuation is also important to distinguish a question from a statement. For instance, the sentence “Il caffè è caldo” (The coffee is hot) is a statement. Adding a question mark to the end of the sentence “Il caffè è caldo?”makes it a question. This is how many questions are formed in Italian. Obviously, the intonation needs to change in the spoken language.
Another way to form a “sì” (yes) or “no” (no) question from a statement is to place the subject to the end, e.g., “È caldo il caffè?” (Is the coffee hot?).
We do not use any auxiliary to reorder the sentence using the English approach to form a question, that is, saying “È il caffè caldo?”is grammatically incorrect.
Finally, some contractions in Italian are mandatory, such as “l’acqua” (the water), while others are optional, e.g., “dove è” (where is) is optionally contracted as “dov’è.” Unfortunately, there is no universal rule. You will know which contractions are optional as you practice and go through the lessons.
Abbreviations in Italian
The concepts behind the formation of acronyms and abbreviations in Italian are very similar to those in English.
One notable exception is the doubling of the letters in the abbreviation of some plural nouns. For example, “Poste e Telegrafi” (Posts and Telegraphs) is abbreviated as “PP. TT.”
For more detail on this rule and a list of common abbreviations in Italian, refer to Summary of Acronyms & Abbreviations in Italian.
Capitalization in Italian
The words are capitalized in cases almost identical to those in English. However, there are with a few notable exceptions that are not capitalized in Italian, mainly:
1. Adjectives of nationalities and languages, e.g., “italiano” (Italian), “canadese” (Canadian), “spagnolo” (Spanish), etc.
2. Days and months, e.g., “martedì” (Tuesday), “gennaio” (January), “luglio” (July), etc.
As we will learn in Lesson 5 of this level, there are two forms of the singular second-person subject personal pronoun “you”: one formal, i.e., “Lei,” and one informal, i.e., “tu.” The plural second-person subject personal pronoun “you” also has two forms: one formal, i.e., “Loro,” and one informal, i.e., “voi.” The formal “you” is always capitalized in both singular and plural forms.
It is also worth noting that all alphabet letters are feminine in Italian. For example, when referring to a letter in Italian, one may say: la “a” in “padre” (the “a” in “father”), referring to the letter “a” using the feminine article “la.” We will learn more about masculine and feminine nouns and adjectives in Level I, Lesson 3.
Written Accents in Italian
In Italian, there are two written accents: acute ( ´ ) and grave ( ` ). The only letters that can be accented in Italian are: “a,” “i,” “o,” “u,” and “e.” The letter “e” can take an acute “é” or grave “è” accent to indicate a closed or open vowel sound, respectively. The other four letters can only take a grave accent, i.e., “à,” “ì,” “ò,” and “ù.”
We have encountered one common use of the written accent in Italian, that is, to indicate stress on the last syllable of a word. For example, “città” (city), “caffè” (coffee), “perché” (why), “ventitré” (twenty-three), etc.
In general, the acute accent is used with causal conjunctions ending in “-ché,” e.g., “perché” (why) or compound words ending in “-tré,” e.g., “ventitré” (twenty-three), whereas in most other cases, the grave accent is used.
Another important use of written accents in Italian is to distinguish between the meaning of monosyllabic words that would otherwise be written in the same manner. For example, “e” is used as a conjunction meaning “and,” whereas “è” is the verb “to be” in the second-person singular form of the present tense, meaning “is.” Below are more examples:
| Word without accent | Meaning in English | Word without accent | Meaning in English |
| da | from | dà | gives |
| ne | of it | nè | neither |
| si | oneself | sì | yes |
| se | if | sè | himself/herself |
| la | the | là | there |
Optional Written Accent
An optional use of the written accent is to distinguish between two different meanings of a word depending on the syllable the stress falls on.
For example, “principi” means “princes,” whereas “princìpi” means “principles.”
Similarly, “ancora” is an adverb meaning “still,” whereas “àncora” means “anchor.”
Remember that the use of the accent in these examples is optional. The context can often determine the meaning without the need for an accent.
In this lesson, we covered negation, punctuation, and written accents in Italian. Let us now move to the next lesson on gender and plural.
Other lessons in Level I:
Level I – Basic
1.2. Syllable Stress in Italian
2. Similarities to English & Particularities of The Italian Language
