Top common grammar mistakes even Italians sometimes make

Even after years of study, some people keep making mistakes with certain things. Some grammatical pitfalls and barriers in the Italian language sometimes annoy native speakers too. 7 out of 10 Italians don’t remember grammar and spelling rules.

Learners often struggle with skipping or placing accents and apostrophes incorrectly, using the subjunctive mood, and unclearly using double consonants.

Let’s find out the most common mistakes Italians make when speaking and, especially, when writing. Nobody is perfect, even the Italians!

You can avoid mistakes with a little attention and effort.

⛔️ QUAL’ È ➛ WRONG

You don’t need the apostrophe with qual. Write without the apostrophe.

✅ QUAL È (qual era) ➛ RIGHT

In Italian, form the adjective ‘qual’ by removing the vowel from the adjective ‘quale‘ (called troncamento). This usually happened before a vowel but sometimes even before a consonant.

Examples:

Qual è la tua macchina?

Qual buon vento.

⛔️ UN PÒ ➛ WRONG

The apostrophe, not the accent, indicates the shortening of poco. (troncamento)

✅ UN PO’ ➛ RIGHT

Example:

Vorrei un po’ d’acqua, per favore.

The shortened variant (po’) is used in conjunction with un (the indeterminate article) — un po’, un bel po’.
Otherwise, it is used poco.

Examples:

Ho mangiato poco stasera
Hai poco appetito stasera

⛔️ UN’AMICO ➛ WRONG

In the hypothetical period of possibility, you should always use the imperfect subjunctive instead of the conditional after the hypothesis started by ‘se’.

✅ UN AMICO ➛ RIGHT

Example:

Francesco ha un amico inglese

⛔️ SE AVREI PIÙ TEMPO ANDREI IN PALESTRA ➛ WRONG

✅ SE AVESSI PIÙ TEMPO ANDREI IN PALESTRA ➛ RIGHT

Example:

Se avessi più soldi andrei in vacanza più spesso.

⛔️ DACCORDO ➛ WRONG

Write it with an apostrophe because there is an elision of ‘di accordo‘

✅ D’ACCORDO ➛ RIGHT

Example:

Sono d’accordo con te.

⛔️ PIÙ MEGLIO ➛ WRONG

Meglio is the comparative of bene, so it is wrong to repeat più.

✅ MEGLIO ➛ RIGHT

Example:

Oggi mi sento meglio

⛔️ PENSAVO CHE ANNA DASSE/STASSE… ➛ WRONG

The third-person singular present subjunctive of the verbs dare and stare is desse, stesse.

✅ PENSAVO CHE ANNA DESSE/STESSE… ➛ RIGHT

Example:

Pensavo che Anna stesse in Francia.

⛔️ CARLO CI DA … ➛ WRONG

Write the third person singular of the present indicative of the verb dare with the accent.

✅ CARLO CI DÀ … ➛ RIGHT

Example:

Carlo ci dà i biglietti per lo stadio

⛔️ NE QUESTO NE QUELLO ➛ WRONG

In Italian, always write the negative conjunction with an acute accent – né.

✅ NÉ QUESTO NÉ QUELLO ➛ RIGHT

Example:

Non voglio mangiare né la pasta né la carne.

⛔️ OGGI INCONTRO MONICA E GLI PARLO ➛ WRONG

The pronoun GLI refers to a male subject (= to him, to Marco). The indirect feminine singular pronoun, on the other hand, is LE.

✅ OGGI INCONTRO MONICA E LE PARLO ➛ RIGHT

⛔️ SI, VA BENE ➛ WRONG

Write the adverb of affirmation with a grave accent.

✅ SÌ, VA BENE ➛ RIGHT

Example:

Vieni al mare con me oggi? Sì, certo!

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