English and Italian prose differ in many ways. It is not just a matter of words and structure or different linguistic roots. The differences between English and Italian are between the lines, and you must literally read them carefully in order to translate the original text in a way that will resonate with the target reader as intended.

For example, Italian uses many more synonyms than you might find in an English text. While repeating the same word is no big deal in English, it is considered the next worst thing to original sin in Italian. It is the linguistic equivalent of putting pineapple on a pizza or ketchup on your spaghetti. A skilled translator will therefore sometimes need to slightly edit the original texts to make them richer in synonyms in the target text.

Another big difference is that articles and adjectives always change based on number and gender. So “my dear friend” is either “il mio caro amico” when we’re referring to a man, or “la mia cara amica” when we’re referring to a woman. And the third person masculine in the plural is used even when there are both males and females in the group. This has nothing to do with sexism, it is just the way the language has evolved from Latin over the centuries.

Verbs are conjugated in Italian, unlike English, and the verb changes depending on who’s speaking, among other things. Again, the gender of the past and passive forms comes into play, since they take the gender of the noun they refer to.

Formal and informal language

The typical challenge for anyone translating from English into Italian is getting the tone and registry right. While English uses YOU even with monarchs, Italian uses the female third person singular LEI in formal contexts. However, depending on the setting, the second person plural VOI is used. This is true for historical novels set before 1930, when LEI began to replace VOI or even LORO, the third person plural, as a formal address.

The hybrid Germanic and Latin (mostly through Norman French) roots of Modern English can create ambiguities between the two languages. Latin was the language of the clergy, the aristocracy, and the educated. This is reflected in the fact that Germanic terms-which often mean the same thing-are the rough, common versions of Latin words. “Veracity” and “truth” are two examples, as are “lateral” and “side.

The fact that so many Italian words have English equivalents with similar sounds and meanings, but in different registers, presents a difficulty for translators working between Italian and English. Choosing the right equivalent for a given context is one of the most difficult tasks in capturing the spirit of a text in the target language.

Translating and editing

Italian makes extensive use of linking words (e.g., infatti, inoltre) to explain the relationship between adjacent sentences or paragraphs. English is more comfortable leaving this implicit. Italian is also known for its love of long sentences, and is rich in descriptions and Latinisms, whereas English writing is generally concise, to the point, and streamlined.

Translators are not usually asked (nor eager) to change the structure of a text as a whole. However, the structure of a sentence is closely related to its final effect on the target reader. Therefore, while Italian-English translators often have to unravel and reconfigure the meaning crammed into an Italian sentence into two or three sentences in English, the opposite is true for English-Italian translators.

While this labor is not exactly transcreation, it does require some editing skills and a sense of what is considered fluent prose in each language to achieve a good result in the target text.

Different doesn’t mean worse

When approaching a translation, it is important to let go of preconceptions. Combining two English sentences into one in Italian is sometimes necessary to make the text feel natural to a native Italian speaker. If this does not detract from the overall style of the text, the final result may benefit from a little structural editing. However, when adding “grease” to make the English text flow in Italian, one must be careful not to lose the essential meaning or unique style.

In this respect, always use professional translators who know the subtleties of both languages and how to render them in the target language; they are your best ally in a foreign field.