Bank accounts and switching banks in Italian

Twice on this list the word for what money earns or costs turns up in the plural — gli interessi sullo scoperto and gli interessi sul saldo attivo — and both times English has to put it back into the singular. Italian treats l’interesse as a thing that can be counted: one rate yields un interesse, several yield gli interessi, and the plural is simply what a statement prints. English makes « interest » a mass noun in this sense, alongside « money » and « rent ». It takes a singular verb — « the interest is credited each quarter » — and it refuses « an interest » and « two interests » alike. The trap is that « interests » does exist and means something quite different: what a person cares about, or a stake held in a business. So gli interessi della banca has to be read twice. Where it names a sum standing on an account it is « the interest »; where it names what the bank is protecting it is « the bank’s interests ». The Italian plural settles nothing, and the sentence around it settles everything.