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HSC Italian Extension study materials
HSC Italian Extension study resources

HSC Italian Extension: Accuracy and Range in Written Italian

HSC Italian Extension · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

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Accuracy and Range in Written Italian

Writing that earns marks for both correctness and ambition

Extension candidates are expected to write Italian that is not only accurate but varied. Accuracy covers agreement, tense and mood, pronouns and spelling. Range covers subordination, lexical variety, connectives and appropriate register. The two are assessed together: a safe, error-free but simple essay will not reach the top band.

Concepts to master

  • Agreement and concordance: article–noun–adjective agreement, including irregular plurals (uomini, braccia as body part, città invariable).
  • Mood: subjunctive after expressions of opinion, doubt, necessity and conjunctions such as benché, affinché, prima che; correct sequence of tenses (penso che sia, pensavo che fosse).
  • Pronouns: direct and indirect object pronouns, combined forms (glielo, me ne), relative che/cui/il quale, and the si passivante.
  • Connectives for argument: tuttavia, pertanto, d'altronde, in primo luogo, di conseguenza, sebbene, nonostante.
  • Register: avoid English calques and over-colloquial fillers; use precise verbs (sostenere, evidenziare, suggerire).
  • Punctuation: Italian uses commas more sparingly than English; avoid comma splices.

Traps to avoid

  1. Subjunctive avoidance - using che + indicative where the subjunctive is required.
  2. False friends: attualmente (currently, not actually), eventualmente (possibly, not eventually), fattoria (farm, not factory).
  3. Anglicisms: realizzare for 'to realise' (use rendersi conto), supportare where sostenere is meant.
  4. Overlong sentences that lose agreement mid-clause.
  5. Repeating the same connective (inoltre) throughout.

Rule of thumb

Plan, draft, then audit. Leave time to check three things in order: verb forms and agreement; pronoun reference; connective variety. Reading your final paragraph aloud catches most agreement slips.

Worked example. Weak: Penso che il testo è molto interessante perché l'autore vuole mostra la realtà. Corrected and extended: Ritengo che il testo sia particolarmente efficace perché l'autore, ricorrendo a immagini concrete, riesce a mostrare la realtà senza dichiararla esplicitamente.