Learn Italian: La commissione non ha deciso niente di nuovo. - The committee didn't decide anything new.

In Italian, collective nouns that refer to a group of people, like la commissione (the committee), la famiglia, or la gente, are strictly treated as singular grammatical subjects. Because the noun itself is singular, the verb must match it. Therefore, we use the third-person singular ha deciso instead of the plural hanno deciso.

Why is there a di before nuovo?

When you use an indefinite pronoun like niente (nothing/anything) or qualcosa (something) followed by an adjective, you must connect them with the preposition di. So 'anything new' translates to niente di nuovo.

Why do we need both non and niente here?

Italian requires a double negative when words like niente, nessuno, or mai come after the verb. Because niente is placed after the verb ha deciso, you must put non before the verb. It literally translates to 'The committee has not decided nothing new.'

Would the ending of deciso ever change to decisa to match the feminine subject la commissione?