Locale It 001

Reference data for the Italian locale — endonym Italiano, written in the Latin script, left-to-right (LTR).

Identifiers

• BCP 47 tag: it-001
• ISO 639-1: it
• ISO 639-3: ita
• Script: Latn (Latin)
• Region: 001 (World)
• Text direction: ltr — left-to-right (LTR)

Speakers (approximate)

• L1 (native): 65,000,000
• L2 (additional): 20,000,000
• L1+L2 (total): 85,000,000

Regional variants

This is the base/macro locale for Italian. Region-specific variants in this dataset:

• Locale It Ch (Italian (Switzerland))
• Locale It It (Italian (Italy))

Pluralization

CLDR plural categories for this locale: one, many, other (3 forms).

• one — i = 1 and v = 0 (e.g. 1)
• many — e = 0 and i != 0 and i % 1000000 = 0 and v = 0 or e != 0..5 (e.g. 1000000, …)
• other — everything else (e.g. 0, 2~16, 100, 1000, …)

See Unicode Messageformat for writing plural messages using these categories.

Translating into this locale

Italian has one written standard, with small differences between Italy, Switzerland, and the diaspora. See Locale It It and Locale It Ch.

Translate ideas, not words.

• Italian favors longer sentences with subordination and explicit connectors (quindi, tuttavia, inoltre), where English prefers short sentences. Join English fragments, but keep instructions in separate steps.
• English noun stacks and phrasal verbs become prepositional phrases and precise verbs: "user account settings" is "impostazioni dell'account utente"; "to log in" is "accedere".
• The English passive often becomes an active verb, the impersonal "si", or a reflexive: "The file was deleted" is "Il file è stato eliminato" or "Il file viene eliminato".
• Subject pronouns are usually dropped ("Salviamo le modifiche"), and Italian prefers verbs to nominal groups.
• Re-express idioms by meaning: "it's a piece of cake" is "è un gioco da ragazzi" or "è facilissimo".

Grammar that trips translators.

• Two genders (masculine, feminine) with articles that depend on the next sound: il, lo, l', la, i, gli, le, with one-sound rules ("lo studente", "gli studenti", "l'amico").
• Prepositions combine with articles (nel, sul, dal, del, alla), and English prepositions rarely map directly: "dipendere da", "interessato a", "pensare a".
• The subjunctive follows verbs of opinion, hope, and doubt ("Penso che sia utile"); the conditional is used for politeness.
• Loanwords stay invariable in the plural ("i file", "gli screenshot") and take a gender ("la password", "il database", "l'e-mail" is feminine).
• The "ed", "ad", and "od" forms are used before the same vowel ("ed" before "e"); the euphonic "d" is a style choice.

Register.

• "Tu" and "Lei" (polite singular, with a capital L in many styles) are the two options; consumer apps increasingly use "tu", whereas banks, public bodies, and legal texts use "Lei". "Voi" is the plural for both. Do not mix within a product.
• Commands in UI use the imperative ("Salva") or the infinitive ("Salvare"); keep one convention. Formal letters use "Gentile" or "Egregio", and close with "Cordiali saluti".

Orthography and typography.

• Use the accent on final stressed vowels: "è" (is) vs "e" (and); capital "È" (not "E'"). Apostrophes are curly or straight, never accents. Use "perché" with acute accent.
• Quotation marks are « » or " "; Italian text uses sentence case in titles and lowercases days, months, and languages.
• Numbers: decimal comma, period or space for thousands ("1.234,56"), currency after the amount ("12,50 €"). Dates: "17 ottobre 2026", with "1°" for the first.
• Inclusive language: the schwa (ə) and asterisk are discussed in Italy but are not recommended by the Accademia della Crusca for institutional text; prefer neutral wording ("il personale", "le persone").

Common pitfalls

• Using English-style title case and capitalized months and days.
• False friends: "attualmente" is "currently", "eventualmente" is "possibly", "libreria" is a bookshop, "sensibile" is sensitive, "assumere" can mean "hire", "realizzare" means "to carry out", "camera" means "room".
• Dropping accents ("e" for "è") or using the apostrophe instead.
• Mixing tu and Lei.
• Gender and article mistakes with loanwords.
• Overlong calqued English noun phrases.

Learn more

• Locale for BCP 47 identifiers, locale-sensitive formatting, pluralization, and text-direction concepts that apply across all locales.
• Unicode Messageformat for writing plural/selection messages correctly for this locale's grammar.
• Accademia della Crusca (https://accademiadellacrusca.it) and Treccani dictionaries (https://www.treccani.it)
• Microsoft Localization Style Guide, Italian (https://aka.ms/italian-styleguide)