C1 · The finish
Turning the sentence round
Nothing here is ungrammatical — and that is what makes it hard to correct.
Italian usually leaves the subject out. Putting it in is one decision, and where to put it is a second. Marco è arrivato reports; È arrivato Marco answers the question who has come.
The subject after the verb is the new information. Ha telefonato tua madre — your mother rang, not somebody else. At the front she would be the known thing that something is being said about.
After direct speech the inversion is compulsory: « No », disse lei. English does the same here — « No, she said » — so this one costs nothing. With the verbs of happening it is the rule: arrivare, succedere, mancare — È successo qualcosa, Manca il pane.
Nobody who puts the subject first makes a mistake. They simply sound like a translation, on every sentence, with nothing a proofreader can underline. English carries this weight in the voice and loses it the moment the sentence is written down; Italian keeps it on the page, in the order.
Die Form
| Marco arrived — new: who did | è arrivato Marco |
| Marco arrived — new: that he did | Marco è arrivato |
| your mother rang | ha telefonato tua madre |
| « No », she said | « No », disse lei |
| something has happened | è successo qualcosa |
| there is no bread | manca il pane |
Die Regeln im Einzelnen
The subject after the verb is the new information.
Chi ha pagato? — Ha pagato Luca.Who paid? — Luca did.
The subject before the verb is the known thing being talked about.
Luca ha pagato e se n’è andato.Luca paid and left.
After direct speech the inversion is compulsory.
« Torno subito », ha detto lui.« I will be right back », he said.
With the verbs of happening the subject stands last.
È arrivata una lettera per te.A letter has come for you.
Woran man es erkennt
- è arrivato
- ha telefonato
- è successo
- manca
- disse
Beispielsätze
Ha vinto la squadra di casa.The home team won.
Mancano ancora due firme.Two signatures are still missing.
« Aspetta », mormorò lei.« Wait », she murmured.
È scoppiato un temporale.A storm broke.
Die typisch deutsche Falle
Aufgepasst
Nothing in this theme is a grammar mistake, which is exactly why it survives. Tua madre ha chiamato is a correct Italian sentence; it is simply not an answer to Chi ha chiamato?. English answers that question with the voice — it was MARCO who came — and a written sentence has no voice to raise, so English builds « it was Marco who » instead. Italian moves the name to the end and is done.
What is new goes last — the subject included.
Jetzt selbst
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