An Italian brand writing in English carries a signature that reads charming in some contexts and expensive in others. Charming when the audience is Italian. Expensive when the audience is British, American or Australian — because they read it as translated, and they discount everything on the page by whatever they feel they're paying for the accent.
Below is the working checklist we use to catch translation smell before it ships. It's designed for review, not for the initial draft — most Italian brands hire someone competent to write the first pass and then miss the specific patterns below.
The five tests
1. The register test
Italian business writing runs about half a register more formal than English business writing. "We would be delighted to welcome you" reads warm in Italian, stiff in English. The English version should almost always drop one degree of formality.
Fix: read the copy aloud in an English accent. Anything a native English speaker wouldn't say to a friend at dinner is probably too formal for a marketing page.
2. The article test
Italian uses definite articles where English doesn't. "The dinner is served" is a direct translation. English says "Dinner is served." Every sentence that starts with "The" needs a second look — often the article can be cut, and the sentence tightens.
3. The verb-tense test
Italian defaults to compound tenses and future forms where English uses simple present. "We are going to be reaching out to you" is Italian thinking in English words. "We'll be in touch" is the English version.
Fix: scan every sentence for future or continuous constructions. Ask if simple present or simple past says it more directly. Usually yes.
4. The adjective test
Italian trails adjectives — "una casa bellissima". English leads them — "a beautiful house". Direct translations preserve the Italian order, which reads either poetic or slow depending on context. Reordering to English pattern is a five-minute pass with outsized impact.
5. The connective test
Italian loves "moreover", "furthermore", "in addition", "however". English business writing uses "also", "but", "and". A page dense with three-syllable connectives reads translated; the same page with English-native connectives reads native.
"Translation smell doesn't come from bad translation. It comes from good translation that preserves the source-language rhythm."
The parallel-voice document
The checklist catches individual sentences. What it doesn't build is consistency across a whole site — that requires a parallel voice document written from scratch for the target market. Not a translation of the Italian voice guide. A parallel one, in the target market's register, with:
- A brand promise sentence, written natively
- Three to five voice principles, each with a "we say this / we don't say that" pair
- Product-name conventions (translated? italicised? kept in Italian?)
- A glossary of Italian terms the brand keeps and terms it translates
The Brand Positioning & Localisation engagement is where this document gets built. Once it exists, the checklist above becomes the enforcement layer for whoever writes the next page.
What to keep in Italian
Not everything should be translated. Some Italian words carry the brand more than any English equivalent does. Product names, hospitality terms (agriturismo, aperitivo), region-specific words (Franciacorta, Barolo, Chianti), and craft vocabulary (pizzaiolo, sartoria) tend to be stronger left in Italian. The rule of thumb: if the English reader is reaching for the Italian word anyway, leave it.
The failure mode is over-translating for anxiety and losing the differentiator. The other failure mode is under-translating and losing comprehension. The parallel voice document draws the line.
Where to start
Run the five tests against the homepage and the top three product or service pages. Count the sentences that fail each test. If more than a third of the copy trips at least one, the brand needs a parallel voice document before it needs new pages.
For a specific site, the fastest entry is a strategy session — bring the URL and we run the checklist live. Related engagements: Brand Positioning & Localisation, Italian Consumer Brands.