The correct word order in Italian

You have used the correct words, the correct articles, the correct endings of a noun or adjective. You thought you had thought of everything. So what went wrong?

You want to say something in Italian, but you mixed up the phrases and now the teacher says it's wrong. The word order in Italian. It is often not grammatically wrong per se, but often it is the case that you have made a choice that does not occur often in practice. You're putting the emphasis wrong.

Some words are always together

The article, adjective and noun: the beautiful man, l'uomo bellothe little dog, il cane piccolo always belong together. However, sometimes an adjective comes after a noun and sometimes before it. Usually the adjective is after it, sometimes it is before it, if the adjective is central and not the noun.

Also, a pronoun often precedes a verb. Gli ho dato una penna, l'ho visto ieri, ci andiamo domani.

In Italian, no words are placed between the auxiliary verb and the past participle. You say Ho visto il cane and not Hi il cane visto.

However, this sort of thing is usually not the problem. You often do this automatically.

Soggetto, verb, oggetto

In Italian and in Dutch, the order of most frequently used sentences is Soggetto, Verbo, Oggetto (Subject, Verb, Direct Object).

In Italian, however, there is something strange going on. The subject (subject) is usually implicit. That is because the subject is often hidden in the verb, but it is not mentioned. In the sense Vado a sculola is io (the personal pronoun 'I' in Dutch) an implicit subject.

After all, this is in vado. This makes it more difficult to follow a grammatical order as a guideline, even though it is often the same in Italian. You can easily get confused.

Rhema and theme

For the word order in Italian it is better to look at the rhema and the theme, two concepts from linguistics. The theme is what the sentence is about (the psychological subject).

In the rhema things are specified that are about the theme. In Italian, just like in Dutch, comes the theme first and then the rhema. Take, for example, this Italian phrase.

Andrò dal parucchiere in Via Barbieri domani mattina (I'm going to the hairdresser's in Via Barbieri in the morning). 

(Io is then an implicit subject, which is after all in andr). The theme is Andrò dal parucchiere, that's the most important message you want to get across. The rest is secondary and the rhema. You don't hear any special intonation in a normal sentence.

If the psychological topic in the first sentence is tomorrow morning, if you want to emphasize that, then turn it around. The stress is usually at the front of the sentence. You put a different phrase before the usual order of Subject, Verb, Subject.

Domani mattina andrò dal parucchiere in Via Barbieri.

In other words, the phrase that is most important (the psychological subject of the sentence) must come first in the sentence!

Can you always put phrases first?

There are two kinds of exceptions where the phrases don't follow the usual order or where the stress is at the end of the sentence.

1. Compound sentences with a main clause and a subordinate clause are sometimes preceded by the subordinate clause. These are, for example, subordinate clauses that revolve around time: When you arrive there is a regalo or subordinate clauses in the periodo ipotetico: Se avrò tempo andrò a trovare Maria. You get this from level B1.
2. Sentences with a orderly marcato. These are special phrases such as the phrase scissa, la phrase con dislocuzione a destra, la phrase con dislocuzione a sinistra of  la phrase a tema sospeso. However, this only becomes important in writing if you are at level C1 with your Italian. In the spoken language, however, you will already notice that it is widely used in Italy, even if you are at level A2. An example is: to Gianni I gave it (A Gianni, l'ho dato) or A me, mi peace (I like it!).

Why do things often go wrong?

When you have to translate sentences in your assignment book, you are often more concerned with individual words than with the meaning of the sentence. You have to choose the correct personal pronoun, the correct endings of the verb, the correct articles and so on.

You are working on a word level, not a sentence level. When you've translated all the words, try to look at the theme and rhema as well, at the tenor of the sentence as a whole. Then put the phrases in the correct order. Remember that what comes first in the sentence is usually the main message of the sentence.

As you can see above, you can therefore also make an alternative construction for literary or stylistic considerations. These are grammatically correct, but the teacher will still reject them if you are working on your A1 or A2 (unless you accidentally get it all right in one go!).

They are grammatically sometimes too complex. You can only really make them right if you also grammar behind those structures. If you do not have your A swimming diploma yet, you should not go rescue swimming.