Basic Italian Sentence Structure
Or where do I put all of the words!?
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First, I want to point out that the sentence structure of Italian is something that you should be grateful for as an Italian language learner, especially if this is your first foray into foreign language learning.
For the most part, it’s pretty straightforward.
But don’t get TOO excited. Italian is known to have a fluid sentence structure.
I’ll go over the basics first and then, toward the end, I’ll describe what having a fluid sentence structure really means.
Four guidelines for creating sentences in Italian
1.) The basic form is: subject (whoever the sentence is about) + verb (the action that’s happening) + object (not the subject)
Esempi:
– Lucia ha paura. – Lucia is scared. (Literally: Lucia has fear.)
(Io) ho una mela. – I have an apple.
(Io) parlo inglese. – I speak English.
TIP: The subject — io — is often dropped because ‘parlo’ is already conjugated to show who is speaking. So you can simply say ‘parlo inglese.’
If you’re into geeky linguistics like me, the above tip means that Italian has a ‘null subject parameter.’ Gasp. So fascinating.
2.) Some adjectives precede what they’re describing.
Esempi:
Una bella ragazza cammina per strada. – A beautiful girl walks down the street.
Il passato è una brutta bestia. – The past is an ugly beast. (This is popular Italian saying!)
È la stessa cosa. – It’s the same thing.
Luca è un bravo ragazzo. – Luca is a good guy.
Other adjectives that typically go before whatever they’re describing are:
buono - good
caro - dear
cattivo - bad
giovane - young
grande - large
lungo - long
vero - true
vecchio - old
piccolo - small
3.) But MOST adjectives go after whatever they’re describing.
Esempi:
il bambino biondo – the blond boy
il romanzo italiano – the Italian romance novel
le ragazze intelligenti – the intelligent girls
il vestito rosa – the pink dress
4.) Nouns agree with adjectives.
If you’ve noticed, the ends of the adjective (like biondo, bella, intelligenti, etc.) change in tandem with what they’re describing. So unlike me and my Italian ex-boyfriend, nouns actually agree with adjectives.
This is because Italian has masculine/feminine and singular/plural nouns.
Need to know more about those? Open up this article.
Need to know more about what it means for adjectives, nouns, and verbs to agree? Read this article.
Esempi:
ragazzo italiano – Italian boy
piazza italiana – Italian piazza
gelati italiani – Italian gelatos
macchine italiane – Italian cars
So, what’s a fluid sentence structure?
A lot of people come to me complaining about how Italian sentence structure confuses them because it’s sometimes equivalent to English but sometime it’s not. I get it, it can feel wishy washy.
For example, a sentence in English might say: Rosa is coming.
We would never say “Coming is Rosa” or just “Is coming.”
But in Italian, you can (!).
In Italian, this example could be spoken as:
– Rosa arriva.
– Arriva Rosa.
– Arriva.*
*You would use this one if it was clear who you were speaking about.
All three are perfectly acceptable sentence structures, and you’ll often find that you just have to get a feel for what native speakers use.
Other Differences from English
Here is a short list of some other notable sentence structure differences from English to Italian
– You’ll often find that you choose the wrong prepositions when you translate directly from English to Italian (or from your native language to Italian). This is because prepositions have a greater variety of definitions in Italian. It also happens because prepositional phrases are common in Italian. That means that certain phrases with prepositions come set in stone and paired with specific verbs like “gomma da masticare - chewing gum.”
– Indirect object pronouns and direct object pronouns – like to her or to him – can go at the beginning of the sentence or tack onto the end of verbs. For example, ti do il mio numero di telefono (I’ll give you my phone number) or così puoi chiamarmi (that way you can call me).
Questions/comments? Drop ’em in the comments below.
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