Mastering Italian Sentence Structure

Learning Italian sentence structure is an important step for anyone learning to speak Italian. Sentences are the units of language where all the elements of pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar come together. By learning to put these in together correctly, you’ll be able to communicate in a clear and natural way.

When you form Italian sentences, you need to think about word order and the best way to build your sentences. Sentence structure in Italian is a key element of clear communication, because even if you use the right words, your sentences might not make sense or might sound awkward if you don’t follow some basic rules in the way you construct them.

In this article we will lay out these rules and give you plenty of tips and examples of how to build sentences in Italian. Are you ready? Let’s dive deep into the Italian sentence!

Italian sentence structure rules for basic sentences

Like more than 40% of languages in the world, including English, Italian features the basic sentence structure SVO where S is the subject, V is the verb, and O is the object. To define these terms, the subject is the person or thing that performs the action in a sentence, the verb is the action, and the object is the recipient of the action. Bear in mind, however, that an object is not always needed for a sentence to make sense. You’ll find a few examples of this basic sentence structure in the table below.

Implied subject

An important characteristic of Italian which affects this basic sentence structure is that the subject of a sentence does not need to be expressed directly. When the subject is a pronoun, it can be implied (meaning you don’t have to say the subject).

Italian subject pronouns are words like io (I), tu (you), lui (he) and lei (she). These words can be dropped in Italian, and if so the subject is indicated by the verb form.

Object pronouns in Italian sentences

The basic sentence structure SVO is changed when direct object pronouns are used. Direct object pronouns are words that replace the direct object in a sentence – these are words like ‘me,’ ‘him,’ ‘her’ and ‘us’ in English and like mi (me), lo (him), la (her), li (them), le (them) in Italian.

While in English these pronouns follow the main verb, in Italian they normally come before the verb, changing the subject-verb-object word order. Look at the table below to see how the sentence structure changes when a direct object pronoun is used in Italian, while it doesn’t change in English.

The same happens with indirect object pronouns, which are pronouns that replace an indirect object. An indirect object is similar to a direct object, but it comes after a preposition, usually ‘to’ in English and ‘a’ in Italian. Indirect object pronouns are words like ‘mi, ti, gli, le’ (to me, to you, to him, to her) in Italian, while in English they are the same as direct object pronouns.

‘Marked’ sentence structures: Cleft sentences

In Italian, the basic SVO sentence structure can be changed to emphasize a specific part of the sentence. In this case, the part of the sentence that the speaker wants to emphasize moves to the beginning or, less frequently, to the end of the sentence and is reinforced by an ‘extra’ pronoun.

These ‘marked’ sentence structures are called ‘dislocazione a sinistra’ (‘left relocation’) and ‘dislocazione a destra’ (‘right relocation’) in Italian, according to whether the emphasized element moves to the beginning of the sentence (to the left) or to the end of the sentence (to the right). They are called ‘cleft sentences’ in English.

In the table below, you will find examples of regular sentences transformed into cleft sentences. The words in bold are the emphasized words and the extra pronouns that refer to them.

Italian question structure

Italian sentence structure does not change if the sentence is a question rather than a statement. There is no subject-verb inversion like in German or French. There is also no insertion of extra words that signal a question, like ‘do’ or ‘did’ at the beginning of a question in English.

In fact, nothing makes a question different from a statement, apart from the question mark at the end and a different intonation when speaking. The table below shows a few examples.

However, when a question is formed with a question word at the beginning, such as come (how), perché (why) or dove (where), the position of the subject often changes. If the subject is stated directly, it usually moves to the end of the sentence. In the table below you can find examples of this process.

Here is a list of Italian question words with their English translations:

• Come (how)
• Perché (why)
• Dove (where)
• Quando (when)
• Quanto (how much)
• Come mai (how come)
• Che (which)
• Quale or quali(which)
• Quanto or quanta (how much or how many)

Negative sentences in Italian

Negative sentences follow the same word order as affirmative sentences, and are made negative simply with the addition of the negative adverb ‘non,’ which goes before the main verb.

Italian complex sentence structure

Now that we’ve looked at simple sentences, what happens when we try to form complex Italian sentences? The basic sentence structure does not change when the sentence becomes more complex, for example when modifiers or expansions are added to the basic subject-verb-object structure. (Modifiers and expansions are words and phrases that add extra details in a sentence.)

An important rule to observe when moving from a basic sentence structure to a more complex one is that modifiers and expansions have to be placed next to the part of the sentence that they refer to. Look at the examples below, where modifiers and expansions have been added in bold to simple sentences that we looked at earlier.

Maria non mangia la pizza. → Mia sorella Maria non mangia la pizza con l’ananas.
Maria doesn’t eat pizza. → My sister Maria doesn’t eat pineapple pizza.

Non hanno una macchina. → Non hanno una macchina rossa.
They don’t have a car. → They don’t have a red car.

Paolo non ha fatto i compiti. → Paolo non ha fatto i compiti di italiano.
Paolo didn’t do his homework. → Paolo didn’t do his Italian homework.

Quanto costa quel quadro? → Quanto costa quel quadro appeso alla parete?
How much is that painting? → How much is that painting hanging on the wall?

As you can see from these examples, in Italian modifiers and expansions usually go after the part of the sentence that they refer to. Let’s look at the most common categories of modifiers in more detail.

The position of the adjective

Adjectives are words that are added to nouns to describe them (words like beautiful, big, red, intelligent, and so on). In English, adjectives are added before the nouns they refer to. In Italian, on the contrary, adjectives are usually placed after the noun they refer to. See the table below for examples.

However, there are exceptions to this rule. Some adjectives usually come before the noun they refer to – you will find the most important ones in the table below.

*Note: When placed before the noun, the adjective bello has a set of forms for masculine singular and plural that follow the same rules as definite articles. These arebel ragazzo, bell’uomo, bello specchio, bei ragazzi, and begliuomini.

Moreover, there are adjectives that can either come before or follow the noun they refer to. Usually, in these cases the position of the adjective changes its meaning. You will find a list of the most common of these adjectives in the table below.

The position of the adverb

Adverbs are words that modify verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, or groups of words, including entire sentences. In English, adverbs include words that end in ‘-ly,’ like ‘gladly,’ ‘safely’ or ‘beautifully.’ They also include words that describe time and place, like ‘today,’ ‘sometimes,’ ‘always’ and ‘there.’

In Italian, adverbs do not always have a fixed position in sentences. Their position can be flexible. However, there are a few rules and tips that you can follow to place adverbs in the correct place.

Adverbs that modify other adverbs or adjectives come before the adverb or adjective that they describe:

Sono molto stanco. → I am very tired.
Stai guidando troppo lentamente. → You are driving too slowly.

Adverbs that modify verbs usually go after the verb they refer to:

Il dottore mi ha visitato accuratamente. → The doctor checked me carefully.
La bambina giocava allegramente. → The little girl was playing cheerfully.

However, the position of adverbs of time and place is more flexible:

La bambina giocava ieri. → The little girl was playing yesterday.
Ieri la bambina giocava. → Yesterday the little girl was playing.
La bambinaieri giocava. → The little girl yesterday was playing.

In general, when an adverb refers to a whole phrase, its position is flexible.

Onestamente, non mi è piaciuto il film. → Honestly, I didn’t like the film.
Non mi è piaciuto il film, onestamente. → I didn’t like the film, honestly.

Domani vado al mare. → Tomorrow I’m going to the beach.
Vado domani al mare. → I’m going tomorrow to the beach.
Vado al mare domani. → I’m going to the beach tomorrow.

Qui non c’è niente! → Here there’s nothing!
Non c’è niente qui! → There’s nothing here!

Finally, with compound verbs, meaning verbs made of two words, some adverbs are commonly placed in between the two words. These adverbs are già, appena, sempre, non… ancora, and non… mai. For the last two in the list, ‘non’ goes before the verb and ‘ancora’ or ‘mai’ in between the two parts of the verb.

Sei già arrivato a casa? → Have you already arrived home?
Ho appena mangiato. → I’ve just eaten.
Lara ha sempre detto che voleva fare l’insegnante. → Lara always said that she wanted to be a teacher.
Non hanno ancora visto la casa. → They have not seen the house yet.
Non sono mai stata in Sicilia. → I have never been to Sicily.

Wrapping up

While there’s more flexibility allowed in building Italian sentences compared to a language like English, it is useful to know a few rules to make sure your sentences are clear and sound as natural as possible.

In this article we’ve provided you with the basic patterns of Italian sentence structure and explored some unique features of the Italian sentence, including how to form basic and more complex sentences. By learning and practicing these, you will be able to understand Italian speech better and produce more natural sentences, improving your fluency and confidence in speaking Italian.