Index / Language / Records / Italian / Register
Which Italian you are writing — the codified one, or the one educated Italians actually use and increasingly print. The gap is smaller than Brazil's and the stakes in an exam are the same.
The control text · argumentative
Vietare il cellulare in classe sembra una misura drastica, ma i dati suggeriscono che funzioni. Nelle scuole che hanno introdotto il divieto, gli insegnanti segnalano meno interruzioni e un calo dei casi di cyberbullismo. È vero che lo strumento serve anche allo studio, e sarebbe ingenuo negarlo. Resta il fatto che il costo della distrazione ricade su chi ha meno sostegno a casa. Finché non ci saranno prove che l'uso libero migliori l'apprendimento, l'onere della prova spetta a chi difende il permesso.
Where the two part
Standard · the base
The codified standard, as grammars and exams describe it.
Regional · the contrast
Not regional but generational and medial. Italiano neostandard is the variety of educated speech and informal writing, and several of its features are now unremarkable in print.
10 options
Standard Egli ha risposto. · Ella ha scritto.
Regional Lui ha risposto. · Lei ha scritto.
The tellLui and lei where the codified standard wants egli and ella.
This one has effectively won. Egli now reads as archaic in almost any register, and lui is safe in print.
Almost none — which makes it the clearest evidence that the standard moves.
Standard Le ho scritto. · Ho scritto loro.
Regional Gli ho scritto. — for her, or for them
The tellGli doing the work of three different pronouns.
Universal in speech and increasingly in writing. Recognising it prevents mis-reading the referent.
Still marked in formal writing, and in an exam le and loro are the expected forms.
Standard Penso che sia un errore.
Regional Penso che è un errore.
The tellA verb of opinion with the indicative.
Extremely common in speech at every level, and treating it as ignorance would be wrong.
It is the single form an examiner most reliably watches for. In writing, use the subjunctive.
Ci ho fame · ci hai ragione — a ci carrying no meaning
The tellA particle with no semantic content in front of avere.
Everywhere in speech. Knowing it is meaningless stops you searching for a sense.
Outside the standard, and its written form is worse than its spoken one.
Standard Ho già mandato la ricevuta.
Regional La ricevuta, l'ho già mandata.
The tellThe object moved to the front and echoed by a clitic.
Extremely common, entirely systematic, and it is how Italian marks topic. It also forces participle agreement, so it demonstrates GRM-08.
In formal writing it can read as spoken. In speech, refusing it makes you sound like a textbook.
Il giorno che sono andato · il libro che ti ho parlato
The tellChe covering slots that require in cui or di cui.
Very frequent, and recognising it as spoken rather than as an error you have misremembered is useful.
Marked wrong in writing, and it is on the examiners' list — see GRM-10i.
The remoto replaced by the prossimo even in narrative
The tellA compound past used for something plainly historical.
The northern spoken system, and correct in speech throughout the North.
In written narrative the remoto is expected, so this is a register switch and not a free choice.
Full subjunctives, le rather than gli, no dislocation — produced aloud
The tellWritten-standard grammar in conversation.
Correct for a presentation, an interview or an oral exam, and it is what educated Italian speech does in those settings.
In casual conversation it reads as performing education rather than as speaking.
So che sia vero · Egli mi disse che… in an email
The tellA form reached for because it sounds educated, in a place that does not want it.
Worth naming: the characteristic error of an advanced learner is no longer the spoken form, it is this.
Wrong or absurd in both registers, so it buys nothing anywhere.
Si prega di stornare. Poi fammi sapere. Riservandomi ogni azione.
The tellThree heights in three sentences.
On the sheet because it is the most common real failure in advanced writing, and reading aloud catches it every time.
An examiner reads it as loss of control rather than as range.