Italian punctuation and rhythm: commas, colons, dashes

Italian punctuation does two jobs at once. Part of it is syntactic: some commas are required and others are simply wrong, whatever the writer’s taste. The rest is a matter of choice: the same sentence can be punctuated in several correct ways, and each choice changes the relation between ideas, the pace of reading and what the reader notices.

At this level you choose marks for the logical work they do. Compare «La sala riapre domani: i lavori sono finiti» with «La sala riapre domani. I lavori sono finiti». The colon presents the second fact as the explanation of the first; the full stop gives each fact its own weight and leaves the connection to the reader. Neither is more correct. They say slightly different things.

Punctuation also shapes rhythm, the alternation of long and short units that lets a text breathe or hurry. But marks are not breathing instructions. A pause in speech does not always correspond to a comma in writing, and the commonest errors of advanced writers are commas placed wherever they would pause aloud.

The comma: required, possible and forbidden

Some commas are forbidden. A single comma never separates the subject from its verb, however long the subject: «Il responsabile dell’ufficio tecnico del comune ha firmato il progetto», with no comma before ha. Nor does it separate a verb from its object or from a che-clause that completes it: «Penso che sia tardi», never «Penso, che sia tardi».

Some commas are required. An inserted phrase («inciso») needs a comma on both sides, so that it can be lifted out: «Il direttore, appena rientrato da Roma, ha convocato la giunta». A vocative is always set off: «Marco, vieni qui». Non-restrictive relative clauses take commas and restrictive ones do not, and the difference changes the meaning. «Gli studenti che non hanno consegnato la tesina rifaranno l’esame» selects some of the students. «Gli studenti, che non hanno consegnato la tesina, rifaranno l’esame» says that none of them handed it in.

In a simple list Italian puts no comma before the final «e», so there is no equivalent of the English serial comma. A comma before e is possible when e opens a new clause with a different subject, or for deliberate emphasis. Between clauses, a comma before «ma» is usual.

• I ragazzi, stanchi del viaggio, sono andati subito a dormire. · The boys, tired from the journey, went straight to bed.
• I passeggeri che avevano il biglietto sono saliti per primi. · The passengers who had tickets boarded first.
• Ho comprato pane, latte, uova e un po’ di frutta. · I bought bread, milk, eggs and some fruit.

Semicolon and colon: joining with a stated relation

The semicolon («punto e virgola») joins two clauses that could stand as separate sentences but belong together, often in parallel or in contrast: «Il primo piano è pronto; il secondo è ancora un cantiere». It also separates the items of a list when the items contain commas. It is a mark of planned written prose, and used too often it makes a text sound stiff and slow.

The colon («due punti») announces that what follows explains, specifies or results from what precedes: «Il motivo è semplice: mancano i fondi». It also introduces lists and direct speech. In Italian the word after a colon normally takes a lower-case letter, unless it begins direct speech or is a proper noun. Use one colon per sentence at most, or the reader loses track of which explanation belongs to which claim.

The same two facts can be punctuated three ways, with three effects. «Il treno era in ritardo: abbiamo perso la coincidenza» states cause and effect. «Il treno era in ritardo; abbiamo perso la coincidenza» sets the facts side by side and lets the reader infer the link. «Il treno era in ritardo. Abbiamo perso la coincidenza.» gives two separate beats, which in narrative builds tension.

• Il problema non è il prezzo: è la qualità. · The problem isn’t the price: it’s the quality.
• Al convegno parleranno tre relatori: un medico, che aprirà i lavori; una giurista; un economista. · Three speakers will address the conference: a doctor, who will open the proceedings; a legal scholar; an economist.

Dashes, parentheses and quotation marks

An aside can be framed by commas, dashes or parentheses, and the choice sets its volume. Commas integrate it into the sentence; dashes («lineette») make it stand out, almost like a raised voice; parentheses lower it to a note in passing. Compare «Il quaderno, trovato per caso, è nella scatola», «Il quaderno – trovato per caso – è nella scatola» and «Il quaderno (trovato per caso) è nella scatola». Italian publishers use either a spaced en dash or an em dash; whichever you choose, use it consistently and in pairs, except when the aside closes the sentence.

Italian has three kinds of quotation marks: guillemets « » («caporali»), double quotes “ ” («virgolette alte») and single quotes ‘ ’ («apici»). Guillemets are widely used for direct speech and quotations, especially in books; double quotes are equally standard in many publications and serve for a quotation inside a quotation; single quotes often mark a word used in a special sense. Some novels introduce dialogue with a dash instead.

Suspension points («puntini di sospensione») are always three. They signal an omission, a hesitation or an allusion left unsaid: «Se solo l’avessi saputo…». Like the exclamation mark, they lose force with repetition, and in formal prose both are rare.

• La riunione – lo sapevamo tutti – sarebbe finita tardi. · The meeting, as we all knew, would end late.
• Il museo (aperto solo nei fine settimana) ospita una piccola collezione di strumenti. · The museum, open only at weekends, houses a small collection of instruments.

Sentence length, rhythm and emphasis

Rhythm comes from variation. A long sentence keeps related information together and shows how it connects; a short one isolates a point and gives it weight. «La biblioteca, chiusa da due anni per lavori di consolidamento, riaprirà lunedì con un nuovo orario serale. L’ingresso resta gratuito.» The second sentence lands because the first is long. A paragraph of sentences of identical length, by contrast, makes every detail sound equally important.

The end of a sentence and the end of a paragraph are positions of emphasis: writers put there what they want remembered. They lead up to it with thematic progression, in which the theme (the starting point of a sentence, usually known) of one sentence picks up the rheme (the new information) of the one before: «La sala ha una nuova finestra. Da quella finestra si vede il porto».

Journalism adds the verbless sentence («frase nominale») for punch: «Nessuna decisione sul nuovo orario». Speechwriters add deliberate repetition and lists of three. All these devices work only when the logic is already sound. Rhythm can emphasise a claim, but it cannot connect two ideas that have no relation, and it cannot make a missing fact true.

• Abbiamo aspettato tre ore. Poi, finalmente, è arrivato il medico. · We waited three hours. Then, at last, the doctor arrived.
• Nessun ferito, solo tanta paura. · No one hurt, just a lot of fear.