Devo spedire una raccomandata, ma prima controllo il nome del destinatario.

Devo is the 1st person singular present tense of dovere, which means to have to / must.

So:

• devo = I have to
• spedire = to send / to mail

Together, devo spedire means I have to send.

Italian often uses the present tense where English uses have to + verb.

Italian usually drops subject pronouns when they are not needed, because the verb ending already shows who the subject is.

• devo clearly means I have to
• controllo clearly means I check / I am checking

So io is optional here. You could say Io devo spedire..., but it would usually add emphasis, like I have to send...

After modal verbs such as dovere (must / have to), volere (want), and potere (can), Italian uses the bare infinitive directly.

So:

• devo spedire = I have to send
• voglio andare = I want to go
• posso entrare = I can enter

English uses to in have to send, but Italian does not add a preposition there.

No. Raccomandata is a very common false friend for English speakers.

In postal language, una raccomandata means a registered letter / registered mail item, not a recommended letter.

You may also hear:

• lettera raccomandata = registered letter
• mandare una raccomandata = to send a registered letter

In everyday speech, Italians often shorten lettera raccomandata to just raccomandata.

Because raccomandata is a feminine singular noun, so it takes the feminine singular indefinite article una.

Compare:

• una raccomandata
• una lettera
• un pacco
• un documento

Even though it originally comes from lettera raccomandata, the shortened noun raccomandata is still feminine.

Yes, in many contexts you could, but there are slight differences.

• spedire often sounds especially natural for mailing / dispatching something physically
• inviare can be a bit more formal and is also common for emails, messages, or documents
• mandare is very common and general, often less formal

So:

• Devo spedire una raccomandata = very natural for postal mail
• Devo inviare una raccomandata = possible, a bit more formal
• Devo mandare una raccomandata = also possible in many contexts

Here, spedire is a very good choice because the sentence is clearly about postal sending.

Here prima means first or before that.

In this sentence:

• ma prima controllo... = but first I check...

It works as an adverb, not as an adjective.

Common uses:

• Prima controllo, poi spedisco. = First I check, then I send it.
• Lo faccio prima. = I do it first / earlier.

So here it introduces the action that happens before mailing the letter.

Because prima modifies the action and helps organize the sequence of events:

• ma prima controllo... = but first I check...

This is a very natural word order in Italian. It highlights first before stating the verb.

You could sometimes rearrange things for style or emphasis, but ma prima controllo is simple and idiomatic.

Italian uses the simple present much more often than English does.

So controllo can mean:

• I check
• I am checking
• sometimes even something close to I’ll check in context

Here it sounds natural because the sentence describes what the speaker needs to do and what they do first as part of that process.

Also, be careful with the verb controllare: it often means to check / verify / inspect, not only to control in the English sense.

So:

• controllo il nome = I check the name
• not necessarily I control the name

Italian usually uses articles more often than English.

So:

• il nome = the name
• del destinatario = of the recipient

Italian prefers the full structure:

• il nome del destinatario

rather than dropping the article the way English often does in phrases like the recipient’s name.

Del is the contraction of di + il.

So:

• di = of
• il = the
• del = of the

Therefore:

• il nome del destinatario literally = the name of the recipient

This is one of the very common Italian article-preposition contractions:

• di + il = del
• di + lo = dello
• di + la = della
• di + i = dei
• di + gli = degli
• di + le = delle

Destinatario means recipient / addressee.

Yes, it has a feminine form:

• destinatario = masculine singular
• destinataria = feminine singular
• destinatari = masculine plural or mixed plural
• destinatarie = feminine plural

So if the recipient is known to be female, you could say:

• il nome della destinataria = the name of the female recipient

It is very natural and standard here.

The sentence has two linked parts:

• Devo spedire una raccomandata
• ma prima controllo il nome del destinatario

The comma helps separate the two clauses and makes the sentence easier to read. In short informal writing, people do not always punctuate perfectly, but this comma is a good standard choice.

Not perfectly. A word-for-word rendering would be something like:

• I have to send a registered letter, but first I check the name of the recipient.

That is understandable, but in natural English you might more often say:

• I have to send a registered letter, but first I check the recipient’s name.
• I need to send a registered letter, but first I’m checking the recipient’s name.

This is normal: Italian and English often use different structures even when the basic meaning is the same.