Breakdown of È severamente vietato leggere la corrispondenza altrui.
essere
to be
leggere
to read
la
her/it (direct object)
severamente
strictly
vietato
forbidden
altrui
of others / other people's
la corrispondenza
the correspondence / the mail
Questions & Answers about È severamente vietato leggere la corrispondenza altrui.
Why does altrui come directly after the noun corrispondenza?
Altrui is a special possessive adjective meaning 'other people's' or 'belonging to others'. Unlike standard possessives (like mio or tuo), it is strictly placed after the noun it modifies.
Does altrui ever change its ending to agree with the noun?
Why is the adjective vietato masculine singular here when la corrispondenza is feminine?
The word vietato describes the action of reading (leggere), not the mail itself. When an infinitive verb acts as the subject of a sentence, it is treated as grammatically masculine and singular.
Why use severamente instead of strettamente to mean 'strictly'?
In Italian, severamente vietato is a fixed collocation, meaning these words naturally pair together to mean 'strictly forbidden'. While strettamente means 'strictly' or 'tightly', it is rarely used for official prohibitions.
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