Breakdown of È troppo facile criticare gli sbagli altrui.
essere
to be
facile
easy
lo sbaglio
the mistake
troppo
too, too much, too many
altrui
of others / other people's
criticare
to criticize
Questions & Answers about È troppo facile criticare gli sbagli altrui.
How does the word altrui work here, and why does it come after the noun?
Altrui is an indefinite possessive adjective that means "other people's" or "belonging to others". Unlike most possessive adjectives (like mio or tuo), it is invariable, meaning its ending never changes. It is strictly placed immediately after the noun it modifies, which is why we say gli sbagli altrui.
Why isn't there a di before altrui to say "of others"?
Because altrui is an adjective, not a noun, so it translates directly to "other people's" rather than "others". If you wanted to use di, you would need a pronoun or noun instead, such as gli sbagli degli altri (the mistakes of the others). Using altrui directly is a very elegant and common way to express this.
Why is there no preposition between facile and criticare?
In the impersonal construction "it is [adjective] to [verb]", Italian pairs the adjective directly with the infinitive verb, with no preposition in between. So, È troppo facile criticare translates perfectly to "It is too easy to criticize." If you were describing a specific subject instead of a general "it", you would use da, as in Questi sbagli sono facili da criticare (These mistakes are easy to criticize).
Just to review, why is the plural article gli used for sbagli instead of i?
The singular noun sbaglio starts with an "s" followed by a consonant, known as an "impure s". Masculine nouns starting with this sound require the definite article lo in the singular (lo sbaglio) and gli in the plural (gli sbagli).
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