Command or environment that forces math text to be put on italics

Being as straight forward as I can, I want to create a command or an environment that forces \mathit within it. For example:

\begin{turnmathit}Let $x$ and $y$ be real numbers. Then $x + y$ is also a real number.\end{turnmathit}


I wanted the whole text above to become italic (text and math) with this hypothetical turnmathit environment (or maybe just a command, whichever is easier to handle). Any tips or solutions you guys know? Thanks for the attention.

• Would text italics be OK for the text (non-math) part of the turnmathit environment, or does it have to be math italics too? (TeX's math italic mode automatically gobbles spaces, including all interword spaces. That would make the text rather hard to read, wouldn't it?) – Mico Apr 30 '17 at 5:32
• Is your query a variation of your earlier, Italic environment, posting? – Mico Apr 30 '17 at 7:37
• In this case I ask specifically for a command and/or an environment and make a MWE, kind of. Sorry if it sounded ambiguos. – Italo Marinho Apr 30 '17 at 18:24

I want the whole text to become italic (text and math).

The \emph directive may be what you're looking for.

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\emph{Let $x$ and $y$ be real numbers. Then $x + y$ is also a real number.}
\end{document}

• Isn't this a case where \textit is more appropriate than \emph? – gernot Apr 30 '17 at 8:33
• @gernot -- For sure, \textit wouldn't be wrong. :-) What's more appropriate -- \textit or \emph -- depends crucially on the OP's use case, about which we know next to nothing so far. If the objective is "render the material in italics, no matter what", then \textit would certainly be the way to go. If the objective is a bit broader, say, "emphasize the material", then \emph would be better since it is context-sensitive, in the sense that it distinguishes between "outer" and "inner" mode. I had interpreted the OP's query as leaning towards the "emphasize the material" direction. – Mico Apr 30 '17 at 9:10
• Sorry for being so clearless: I'm typing questions for a book, and right below there'll be the answers. So, I want the whole question text to be in italics and the answers in regular text. And @Mico , I think I've found the problem: since I haven't provided a decent MWE, there would be no way for you to know that I also use the euler family font on my math texts. Thing is, it has no italics family on it. When I use mathit what it does is bring it back to basic CM, I guess. Is there a way to change the math font inside emph? – Italo Marinho Apr 30 '17 at 18:43
• @ItaloMarinho - I'm not sure I understand your setup. I thought that euler is a math-only font package -- not text component at all. (And, euler glyphs are upright by design, not slanted/italic.) Generally, one pairs the euler math font with a text font such as Palatino. Or, if one wants to emulate the look of the Concrete Mathematics textbook, one could use the Concrete text font. Are you looking to replace the euler math font with a slanted font in the emphasized parts? It would help very much if you edited your posting to state your document in (much) greater detail. – Mico Apr 30 '17 at 19:30
• There's not much else than that. It's exactly as you said: replace euler math font with a slanted font within emphasized parts. . – Italo Marinho Apr 30 '17 at 19:55