Italian grammar
A period is a long pause that allows you to breathe and gives rhythm to your speech. An Italian period can also introduce a new topic or additional information about something. My Italian teacher used to tell us, “tap your index finger once on your desk and you get a comma, tap it twice and you get a period”.
How to use periods
Put an Italian period at the end of any sentence, just as in English.
Fra due giorni partirò per Londra.
I’m leaving for London in two days.
Abbreviated words such as dott. for dottore (doctor) and pag. for pagina (page) also require a period.
Ho un appuntamento alle 3 con il dott. Franchi.
I have an appointment at 3 with Dr. Franchi.
Vai a pag. 366 per approfondimenti.
Go to p. 366 for more information.
You use 3 periods in a row to form an ellipsis, called puntini di sospensione (suspension periods) in Italian. These are used to interrupt a sentence, whether to convey embarrassment or a pause in speech.
Non pensavo che Luigi fosse così… puntiglioso.
I didn’t think Luigi was so… fussy.
Dunque… hai deciso di… insomma, vuoi davvero salire sull’ottovolante?
So… you’ve decided to… I mean, do you really want to ride on the roller coaster?
Finally, some Italian acronyms also use periods.
La coppa piacentina è un prodotto D.O.P.
Coppa piacentina is a P.D.O. product.
(Di Origine Protetta)
You will notice that I didn’t add a second period after D.O.P. This is because in Italian you don’t add two periods in a row.
More free Italian resources
You might want to keep learning Italian online with these free Italian resources:
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