Learn Italian: Chi non fa niente non sbaglia mai. - Those who do nothing never make mistakes.

Chi non fa niente non sbaglia mai.

Those who do nothing never make mistakes.

Breakdown of Chi non fa niente non sbaglia mai.

Questions & Answers about Chi non fa niente non sbaglia mai.

Why does the translation say "Those who" (plural) but the Italian uses the singular verbs fa and sbaglia?

Chi translates to "whoever" or "the people who". Grammatically, chi is always treated as a singular pronoun in Italian, so it must take third-person singular verbs like fa and sbaglia, even if the English translation uses a plural like "those who".

Could I use quelli che instead of chi here?

Yes! You could say Quelli che non fanno niente non sbagliano mai. However, because quelli che is plural, you would have to change the verbs to their plural forms (fanno and sbagliano). Chi is very common in proverbs and general statements like this because it is shorter.

Why are there so many negative words (non, niente, non, mai) in this sentence?

Italian uses double negatives. When a negative word like niente (nothing) or mai (never) comes after the verb, you must place non right before that verb. So non fa niente literally means "does not do nothing," and non sbaglia mai means "does not never make mistakes."

Why does the Italian use sbaglia instead of translating "make mistakes" word-for-word?

While you can say fare un errore (to make a mistake), Italians frequently use the single verb sbagliare (to make a mistake / to get it wrong). It sounds much more natural and concise in this context.