Prima di inviare l’email, controllo l’allegato.

Because prima di + infinitive is the normal pattern when the subject is the same as in the main clause.

Here, the sentence means:

• Before sending the email, I check the attachment.

The person who sends the email and the person who checks the attachment are both I, so Italian uses:

• prima di + infinitive
• prima di inviare

If the subject changes, Italian usually uses prima che + subjunctive, for example:

• Prima che tu invii l’email, controllo l’allegato.
• Before you send the email, I check the attachment.

So in your sentence, prima di inviare is the natural choice.

It is in the infinitive because it follows prima di.

After many prepositions in Italian, a verb appears in the infinitive form. Here:

• prima di = before
• inviare = to send

So literally, this part is something like:

• before sending
• or more literally, before to send

That is why you do not conjugate inviare here.

Controllo is the 1st person singular present indicative of controllare:

• io controllo = I check

In Italian, the present tense can cover several ideas that English often separates:

• I check the attachment
• I am checking the attachment
• I do check the attachment
• sometimes even a habitual sense: I check the attachment before sending the email

The exact meaning depends on context.

Italian often leaves out subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows who the subject is.

Here:

• controllo clearly means I check

So io is not necessary.

You could say:

• Io controllo l’allegato

but that usually adds emphasis, contrast, or clarity, for example:

• Tu invii l’email, io controllo l’allegato.
• You send the email, I check the attachment.

In a normal neutral sentence, leaving out io is more natural.

L’ is the shortened form of the definite article used before a singular noun beginning with a vowel.

So:

• la email becomes l’email
• lo allegato becomes l’allegato

This shortening is called elision.

A few useful points:

• email is usually treated as feminine in Italian, so the full article would be la
• allegato is masculine, and the full article would be lo

Because both nouns begin with a vowel, they become l’ in the singular.

Good question: in the singular, l’ does not show gender by itself.

You know email is usually feminine because Italians normally say:

• l’email in the singular
• le email in the plural

The plural article le shows that it is feminine.

You may also sometimes see e-mail, but email is very common in modern Italian.

Italian usually uses an article where English sometimes does not.

In English, you can often say:

• I check the attachment
• I check my attachment
• sometimes even just I check attachment in very informal or technical language

In Italian, a noun like allegato normally needs an article here:

• controllo l’allegato

It sounds complete and natural because it refers to the specific attachment connected with the email.

Without the article, controllo allegato would sound wrong in standard Italian.

Yes. Italian allows some flexibility.

Your sentence is:

• Prima di inviare l’email, controllo l’allegato.

You can also say:

• Controllo l’allegato prima di inviare l’email.

Both are correct.

The version with prima di inviare l’email first slightly emphasizes the time sequence: before sending the email... The version with controllo l’allegato first starts with the main action: I check the attachment...

Both are natural.

The comma separates the introductory time phrase from the main clause:

• Prima di inviare l’email, = introductory part
• controllo l’allegato. = main clause

This is very common and helps readability.

If you put the time phrase at the end, you normally would not use that comma:

• Controllo l’allegato prima di inviare l’email.

So the comma is linked to the structure and positioning, not to the words themselves.

In this sentence, controllare means to check, to inspect, or to look over.

This is an important false-friend point for English speakers:

• Italian controllare often means to check
• English to control usually means to direct or to have power over

So here:

• controllo l’allegato = I check the attachment

not

• I control the attachment

Inviare is pronounced roughly like in-vyah-reh.

The i is part of the verb stem:

• inviare = to send

A helpful way to see it is by forms such as:

• invio = I send
• invia = he/she sends
• inviare = to send

The stress falls on -a-:

• in-vi-A-re

So the i is not extra; it belongs to the word itself.