Capitalization

Many words that are capitalized in English are not capitalized in Italian. These include: the days of the week, the months of the year, proper adjectives, a few proper nouns, and titles such as Mr., Mrs., and Miss.

Arriva domenica. He is arriving on Sunday.

Il signor Neri è italiano. Mr. Neri is Italian.

Gli americani sono industriosi. Americans are industrious.

Apostrophe

The apostrophe (l’apostrofo) is generally used to indicate the dropping of the final vowel before the word that follows it.

l’amico instead of lo amico (the friend)

l’automobile instead of la automobile (the automobile)

un’università instead of una università (a university)

d’Italia instead of di Italia (of Italy)

dov’è instead of dove è (where is)