5 Checks Before Pressing ‘Send’ 📨📨📨

You’re a professional. You know how to write an email, right? Right. But…what if you are making a bad impression (stai facendo una brutta figura) in-company or with contractors, and you don’t even realise it?

Here are 5 essential checks before you click ‘invia’!

Stage 1: Vibe check

Are you writing to someone in a highly structured, very formal company? Then be sure to use a starter such as ‘To whom it may concern’, if you don’t know the name of the person you’re emailing. If you have the contact’s name, then feel free to use something like “Dear Mr./Ms./Mrs X”.

On the other hand, avoid overly formal greetings for contacts in those businesses you already know have a much more relaxed workplace culture. While “Hi, [name] or ‘Good morning everyone” would be fine here, do avoid going too informal, and using phrases like “Yo Jimmy!” to start your message. Even if you’re emailing a work friend, refrain from addressing them as you would when you go for a spritz after work. Oh, and please…no emojis 😬

Stage 2: Spell check

While most people are not the spelling police and won’t mind the odd spelling error now and then (ogni tanto), especially if they know you’re not a native speaker, do spend some time checking your spelling – especially names! If I had a Euro for each time I’ve received an email addressed to Corrine, Corrin, Corinn, Korin, Karen, Cohen or Carol, I’d be rich enough to give up teaching.

Double-check the spelling of peoples’ names. It’s usually part of their email address or email sign off. If you want to be really sure, then just copy and paste their name into your email body to compare what you’ve written with what they provided. It’s a small thing, but it really rubs people up the wrong way (prende la gente dal verso sbagliato).

Stage 3: Fact check

Before you send that email, get your facts straight. Ensure all links work, make sure you’ve attached all relevant files and documents, and check the list of recipients. Are they all relevant stakeholders? Do any of them need to be BCC?

Errors of this type make you look far more careless than the occasional spelling or grammar error, so make sure you triple-check your documents!

Stage 4: Never-ending sentence check

When writing in Italian, sentences seem to go on and on…and on….and on! Most of the time, English writing is more succinct. Make sure you aren’t simply re-stating one idea several times within the same sentence. Once is enough, I promise. Similarly, your phrasing doesn’t have to be particularly poetic. It can be, if that’s what you want, but often people simply want to get to the point (andare al punto/sodo).

Stage 5: Italian formality check

It’s a famous meme that written Italian is far, far more formal and complex than the spoken language. Introductions and sign-offs are often long and very formal, with capitalisation in strange places (to the English eye). In English, things tend to be simpler and more direct in writing. Yes, we can use modal verbs to show politeness (I would very much appreciate it if you could please provide the minutes from our meeting on 04/09/25), but when compared to Italian written formality, there’s no contest.

When signing off an email, keep it simple. Instead of literally translating “In attesa di un Suo cortese riscontro, porgo cordiali saluti”, you could simply write “I look forward to hearing from you soon. Kind regards, [your name].

And there you go! Once you’ve checked all 5 areas, you’re good to go (sei pronto/a)!