Mission Statement

The title says it all, really. This blog is about some of the common mistakes Italian people make when speaking English. By mistakes in this context I don't mean grammatical errors. If you want to conquer the present perfect or find out where to put that adverb, find yourself a good teacher. I'm talking about the little things that keep coming up, often but not always when people translate word for word from Italian that, while we often have no trouble understanding you, just sound a bit, well, funny. I want to keep this blog to log some the common ones, some of the funniest ones, and of course, some of the most potentially embarrassing ones. I hope to do so in an entertaining way, so you can laugh while you learn.

Now, before I start I want to make one thing very clear to any Italian readers. I'm not laughing at you or at your inability to speak English. In fact, I get so many students beating themselves up about how bad their English is and how badly Italians speak English in general. There's always room for improvement of course, but Italian, like other Latin languages, really is very different from English, so I think it is not all that easy to learn for you guys and, in any case, I respect anyone who speaks more than one language - many English speakers can't say the same thing! I also know that my Italian is far from perfect. If someone wants to start the blog "Things that foreigners always get wrong in Italian" I'd be its first follower!

Finally some of the rules.

I allow comments from anyone, but I moderate all of them. It might take me some time to get around to doing them, so please be patient if you don't see your comment.

I'll publish any reasonable comment, and in fact I'm more than happy to hear about it if you think I'm wrong about some aspect of English, Italian or just in general. However, please keep it friendly, constructive and civil.

Finally, I already have a list of mistakes that I want to write about. However, if you have thought of one you think I ought to talk about, please send me a mail and I will see if I can use it.