Bank and post office

Sixth on the list is la commissione, the kind of false friend that lets a reader through the first door before tripping him at the second. At a bank counter the two words really do overlap: la banca applica una commissione di due euro is a slice taken by somebody standing in the middle, which is exactly what « commission » names in English. The committee sense is shared as well — la commissione d’esame is the examining board. Because those two fit so neatly, the word gets carried outside, and outside it fails. Devo fare delle commissioni has nothing to do with money or with committees: it says there are errands to run, the bank, the chemist, the post office, and uscire a fare le commissioni is an ordinary Saturday morning. « Commission » has never done that job in English. One practical note from this same list: the flat charges a bank makes are not le commissioni but le spese bancarie, further down. La commissione is what an intermediary earns; le spese are what the counter costs.