5

In English, the items of a list are written like in the following sentence.

I have done all my today's jobs:

  • Prepared breakfast for the family
  • Made sure everybody was awake in time for doing what they had to do
  • Washed the dishes from the previous night's dinner
  • Cleaned home
  • Prepared lunch for me, and dinner for everybody

How should I write the same sentence in Italian? Should I capitalize every item in the list? Should I avoid adding a period at the end of each item? In the case the single items are sentences, should I add the period at the end of each sentence?

Charo
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apaderno
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2 Answers2

10

The general idea is that you are completing the first part of the sentence before the list, so punctuation goes with it. Example:

Lavorare con noi ti permette di

  • andare a casa ogni giorno alle cinque,
  • avere pranzo gratis e
  • ricevere una gratificazione natalizia.

As you can see it's a typographical convention over a correct, Italian sentence. Another example:

Ecco i benefit che offriamo:

  • 30 giorni di ferie all'anno;
  • assicurazione sanitaria privata;
  • due monitor per sviluppatore.

Similarly, it still reads as a sentence (albeit a boring, long, list-like one using semicolons to separate concepts). A different case in which lists are composed of sentences:

Ecco alcune domande che potremmo chiederti:

  • Quanti dì conta novembre?
  • Di che colore era il cavallo bianco di Napoleone?
  • Come si neutralizza il fantasma Formaggino?

In this case, everything still reads as normal Italian, but each sentence is capitalized and ends with a punctuation mark (in this case a question mark, but periods and exclamation marks also work).

Community
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Sklivvz
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8

The common style is to use a semicolon at the end of every list item, and start items with lowercase letters.

There is an alternative style, ending each sentence with a full stop and starting each item with a capital letter.

They can be both used. It depends mainly on the publisher (for books, magazines and newspapers).

Shu
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