A survey conducted on approximately 1,600 Italians has highlighted a worrying phenomenon: almost 7 out of 10 Italians (68%) make recurring errors in writing and speaking. The study conducted by Liberiamo investigates causes and consequences, attributing much of the difficulties to the pervasiveness of the web, the widespread use of anglicisms and the simplification of language on social media, all factors that are slowly eroding the mastery of the rules of our language.
The most frequent errors
Among the most reported critical issues are the apostrophe (problem for 62% of the sample), the subjunctive (difficult for 56%), the declension of verbs (uncertainty for 50%) and punctuation (reported by 52%). These areas are not just “oversights”: they reveal a loss of confidence with basic grammatical structures, which translates into evident inaccuracies especially in formal writing.
The most cited blunders range from irregular forms such as quali’è (instead of “qual è”) to pultanto or propio, up to lexical confusions such as evaquare instead of “evacuate” or profaquo instead of “profitable”. Other common mistakes include incorrect use of ne and nor, putting the wrong accent on a bit, and overusing K to replace C/CH in colloquial expressions.
The roots of the phenomenon: technology, school and habits
According to experts, the cause is multifactorial: the predominant use of short and informal texts online, the decrease in hours dedicated to manual writing at school and the spread of automatic tools that encourage cognitive laziness. The investigation also highlights the influence of dialects and colloquial registers, which often impose divergent structures compared to the standard norm.
However, this situation is not irreparable. Any examples? Read regularly (recommended by 66% of the sample), write by hand (43%) to train spelling memory, and limit the use of chatbots (55%) which, although useful, can induce addiction and linguistic flattening. Among the effective strategies, we also suggest systematic practice through language games and retrieval practice, techniques that consolidate long-term memory.
Our language is a fundamental shared heritage: preserving it requires commitment from schools, media and families. Revitalizing Italian is not nostalgia, but a cultural investment and we must all commit to making this happen, forgetting social media, hastily written WhatsApp messages and abbreviations that make us forget what is most beautiful about us.
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