Grammar · C2

Regional variation

Q: Is scendi il cane wrong?

It is Southern regional Italian: transitive scendere and salire (scendi il cane, sali la spesa) are widespread in the South, listed in dictionaries as regional, and famously discussed by the Crusca. In local informal speech they work: in exams, formal writing and the North, keep portare giù / portare su.

by Alessio · teacher of Italian as a foreign language, ITALS master’s

The Battle of the Oranges at the Ivrea carnival, the teams in their kit · Italian grammar C2 — From Ivrea to Palermo the same festival changes its name: geography shows.

Standard Italian lives in books; in the streets lives the Italian of the regions: anguria in Milan, cocomero in Rome, melone d’acqua in Sicily. C2 does not judge: it recognises where a sentence speaks from, and knows that at the table geography is heard more than anywhere else.

6min reading
15min exercises
C2level

What you learn

anguria, michetta (Milano), formaggio grattugiato
How it works: regional variation
The same thing, three names
Vocabulary: la tavola regionale

Italian and English side by side

English speakers rarely hear Italian regional variation, but it is everywhere: esci il cane for porta fuori il cane, the passato remoto in Sicily for this morning's events, non ci sta nessuno in Rome and the South. It is not error but regional Italian, and it does not belong in writing.

25 graded readers and a 4,000-word dictionaryApp Store★★★★★(6)by Alessio, a teacher since 2018Continue in the app →

The words on this page

Drag each Italian word onto its definition, or tap a word first, then its box.

The same thing, three names

North	Centre	South
anguria	cocomero	melone d’acqua
michetta (Milano)	rosetta (Roma)	panino
formaggio grattugiato	pecorino romano sull’amatriciana	caciocavallo, ricotta salata

Grammar with an accent

Trait	Where	Example
passato remoto nel parlato	Sud	ieri andai al mercato e comprai i pomodori
articolo coi nomi propri	Nord	la Giulia porta il tiramisù
stare per essere	Centro-Sud	sto qua, il vino sta sul tavolo
mica rafforzativo	Centro-Nord	mica male questo vino!

Regional does not mean wrong: it means situated. In a job interview the standard passato prossimo is safer; at a Sicilian dinner, the host’s remoto is local music. C2 means knowing where you are.

The most common mistakes

~~il cocomero è il nome sbagliato dell’anguria~~ → they are regional names for the same thing: neither is wrong
~~dire «la Giulia» è un errore di articolo~~ → it is a Northern regional trait, informal but alive
~~a Palermo parlano male perché usano il passato remoto~~ → in Palermo the remoto in speech is the local norm

Did you know?

At unification in 1861, by Tullio De Mauro’s famous estimate, only about 2.5% of the population could speak Italian: other scholars raise it to roughly ten: everyone else lived in dialect. The national language spread through schools, conscription, internal migration and, decisively, television: Italian became the mother tongue of the majority only within living memory.

Exercises

Five exercises in order of difficulty. The last ones bring back what you have already seen.

01 Nord o Sud
Scrivi N o S secondo l’area in cui l’uso è più diffuso.
1. Sono stato dal dottore. / Sono ito dal dottore. →
2. Ho lavorato tutto il giorno (passato prossimo per fatti lontani) →
3. Lavorai tutto il giorno (passato remoto per l’ieri) →
4. Ci ho parlato ieri (uso estensivo di ci) →
5. Ti telefono io / Io ti telefono (soggetto ripetuto) →
6. Vado in giù / Scendo giù →
02 Parole diverse, stessa cosa
Scrivi la forma standard.
1. anguria / cocomero / melone d’acqua →
2. scannetto / sgabello →
3. mocio / straccio per pavimenti →
4. cocco / noce di cocco →
5. tovaglietta / tovagliolo →
6. spanna / palmo →
03 Dal regionale allo standard
Riscrivi in italiano standard.
1. Esci il cane. →
2. Mi sa che oggi non ci sta nessuno. →
3. Ci siamo visti a Natale scorso. →
4. Sali la valigia. →
5. Non ci ho tempo. →
6. Vengo con lui, che dici? →
04 Standard, regionale o dialettale
Scrivi S (standard), R (italiano regionale) o D (dialetto).
1. Non ci sta nessuno. →
2. Non c’è nessuno. →
3. Nun ce sta nisciuno. →
4. Vado a comprare il pane. →
5. Vado a fare la spesa dal panettiere. →
6. Te lo dico mo’. →
05 Il dialogo da rifare
Riscrivi il dialogo in italiano standard, senza appiattire il tono.
Review linguaggi settoriali · costruzioni marcate
1. — Allora, che fai di bello oggi? →
2. — Niente, sto a casa che devo studiare. →
3. — Ma dai, esci un attimo che è bello fuori! →
4. — Non ci ho voglia, sono stanco assai. →
5. — Va bene, ci sentiamo dopo allora. →
6. — Ci vediamo, statti bene. →

These five are a taste. There are over seven hundred on the site, free and with no sign-up. All the exercises →

Take this page with you

This chapter’s sheet as a printable PDF (tables in Italian): rules, typical mistakes and the quiz with answers. A teacher’s tip: grammar sticks by reviewing it often, not by studying it once.

Download the sheet (PDF)

One more go

Geography at the table:

A Milano la chiamano anguria, a Roma .
«Ieri andai al mercato»: chi parla è probabilmente del .
«La Giulia porta il dolce»: tratto tipico del .
«Mica male questo pecorino!» Qui mica .
Sull’amatriciana, a Roma, va il .

Frequently asked questions

Are Italian dialects corrupted Italian?

No: they are Latin’s other children: Sicilian, Venetian, Neapolitan and the rest evolved directly from spoken Latin in parallel with Florentine, which became the standard for literary prestige, not linguistic superiority. Many have their own literature: sisters of Italian, not its mistakes.

Why do some Italians say la Giulia, with the article?

Northern regional habit: the article before female first names (la Giulia, la Franca) is normal from Lombardy to Tuscany, in some areas for male names too (il Marco). The standard omits it: in formal writing, plain Giulia: at a Milanese dinner table, la Giulia is simply how she is called.

Is scendi il cane wrong?

It is Southern regional Italian: transitive scendere and salire (scendi il cane, sali la spesa) are widespread in the South, listed in dictionaries as regional, and famously discussed by the Crusca. In local informal speech they work: in exams, formal writing and the North, keep portare giù / portare su.