{"id":69956,"date":"2018-07-12T02:42:40","date_gmt":"2018-07-12T06:42:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/learn\/italian-word-order\/"},"modified":"2025-06-09T12:23:59","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T16:23:59","slug":"italian-word-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/italian\/italian-word-order\/","title":{"rendered":"Italian Sentence Structure: A Guide to Basic Italian Word Order"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Italian saying “Conosco i miei polli”<\/em> (“I know my chickens”) really means: “I know what I’m talking about.”<\/p>\n

Applied to your language skills, your ability to put Italian vocabulary<\/a> in proper word order is what indicates that you really know functional Italian. The basic sentence components\u2014subject, verb and object\u2014must all be present, and the other players\u2014like adverbs and adjectives\u2014have to fall in line in the right ways.<\/p>\n

Let’s go over basic Italian sentence structure and some slight variations<\/strong> to give you a solid foundation of Italian word order.<\/p>\n

[fluentu-toc]<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Basic SVO Sentence Structure<\/h2>\n

So now that we’ve got our chickens assembled, let’s start getting to know them!<\/p>\n

In Italian, the general sentence structure is: the subject<\/strong> (who is doing the action), then the verb<\/strong> (the action), then the object<\/strong> (who or what the action is being done to). This is known as SVO word order.<\/p>\n

The good news is that English follows the same structure! <\/strong>So if you’re an English speaker, then this isn’t anything new to you.<\/p>\n

Let’s consider this example:<\/p>\n

Io bevo caff\u00e8.<\/em> (I drink coffee.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Io<\/em> (I) is the subject, bevo <\/em>(drink) is the verb and caff\u00e8<\/em> (coffee) is the object.<\/p>\n

Not a big deal, is it? Of course not. You learned how to do this when you learned to speak English.<\/p>\n

Note that it’s also very easy to negate these types of simple Italian sentences<\/strong>\u2014simply add the word non\u00a0<\/em>(not) before the verb:<\/p>\n

Maria\u00a0<\/em>non<\/em>\u00a0mangia la pizza.\u00a0<\/em>(Maria does not eat pizza.)<\/p>\n

As you might have noticed, both the subject and the object of an Italian sentence can be either a noun or a pronoun, which brings us to our next point…<\/p>\n

The VO Sentence Structure<\/h2>\n

A pronoun is a word that replaces a noun. They include: I, you, he, she, it, they, etc.<\/p>\n

Here’s where we depart from the English similarities:\u00a0In Italian, you can\u00a0omit the subject pronoun<\/a>\u00a0when the subject is implied by the sentence.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For instance:<\/p>\n

Bevo <\/em>caff\u00e8.<\/em> ([I] drink coffee.)<\/p>\n

This isn’t something that you can do in English (“drink coffee” simply becomes a command), but in Italian it’s perfectly normal to omit the subject pronoun.<\/p>\n

That’s because we know who’s drinking the coffee based on the conjugation of the verb<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Native Italian speakers rarely use pronouns<\/strong> because the verb endings indicate that information. It’s one way to sound “more Italian” when you speak\u2014just leave off the implied pronouns!<\/p>\n

Notice that I said implied. If it’s unclear who’s doing the action (if you’re in a group, for example, or you mentioned multiple subjects), don’t omit the pronoun:<\/p>\n

Giuliana<\/i>\u00a0beve caff\u00e8.<\/em> (Giuliana drinks coffee.)<\/p>\n

Beve caff\u00e8.<\/em> (He\/She drinks coffee.)<\/p>\n

If we’re drinking coffee with Giuliana, Joe and Vincenzo, we need to keep subjects in place for clarification. Just saying “Beve caff\u00e8”<\/em> doesn’t tell us who’s actually doing the drinking.<\/p>\n

In other words, if the pronoun is essential to understanding the sentence, leave it in!<\/strong><\/p>\n

How to Add Indirect Objects<\/h2>\n

Some verbs in Italian can take an indirect object.\u00a0<\/strong>A popular example of an Italian verb that takes an indirect object is dare<\/em> (to give):<\/p>\n

Vincenzo da un libro<\/em>\u00a0a Maria<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em>\u00a0(Vincenzo gives a book\u00a0to Maria<\/strong>.)<\/p>\n

Vincenzo\u00a0<\/em>(the subject) gives a book (the direct object) to Maria (the indirect object). Once again, this works the same as it does in English.<\/p>\n

In Italian, indirect objects are generally introduced with the preposition\u00a0a<\/em>\u00a0(to)<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0they come after the direct object.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If, however, the direct object is longer than a couple of words, the indirect object can come before it. For example:<\/p>\n

Vincenzo da\u00a0<\/em>a Maria\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>un libro che ha comprato al negozio.\u00a0<\/em>(Vincenzo gave\u00a0Maria\u00a0<\/strong>a book that he bought at the store.)<\/p>\n

The direct object here (un libro che ha comprato al negozio<\/em>) is rather complex, so the indirect object must come before it in order to prevent confusion.<\/p>\n

How to Add Prepositions<\/h2>\n

Italian prepositions<\/a> normally accompany a noun<\/strong> (showing ownership) or a verb <\/strong>(showing direction or location) and come right after that noun or verb:<\/p>\n

Ho la penna\u00a0<\/em>di Lucrezia<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(I have Lucrezia\u2019s pen.)<\/p>\n

The preposition\u00a0di<\/em>\u00a0shows that Lucrezia owns\u00a0la penna<\/em>.<\/p>\n

One complication\u00a0is that\u00a0prepositions\u00a0often combine with the articles that follow them<\/strong> to create contractions.<\/p>\n

Andiamo<\/em>\u00a0al <\/em><\/strong>banco<\/em>.<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(We are going\u00a0to the <\/strong>bank.)<\/p>\n

The preposition\u00a0a<\/em>\u00a0(to) combines with the article\u00a0il<\/em>\u00a0(the) to create\u00a0al\u00a0<\/em>(to the), showing us the direction we’re headed.<\/p>\n

How to Add Adjectives<\/h2>\n

Time to move on to adjectives<\/a>\u2014these words describe or modify nouns, pronouns or other adjectives.<\/strong><\/p>\n

They add a little something extra\u2014a little “oomph” to the spacious, lemon-scented, vibrant<\/em> chicken coop! (Why is it lemon-scented? Who cares! But it sure gives it character, doesn’t it? That’s the power of adjectives!)<\/p>\n

In Italian, there are two things you need to keep in mind:<\/p>\n

1. Adjectives follow nouns.<\/strong><\/p>\n

2. Adjectives agree in gender and number<\/strong> with the word they’re modifying.<\/p>\n

The second point means that if you’re speaking about multiple chickens, the adjective should reflect this with its ending. Changing adjectives from singular to plural and determining their gender can be done with these general rules:<\/p>\n