QCAA Italian cheat sheet

Register rule: use tu with peers, family, and children; use Lei (with third-person verbs and object pronouns La/Le) with strangers, officials, teachers, and elders; switch only if the other speaker invites it.

Formal Lei agreement: Lei è, Lei ha, Lei può; object pronouns La (m/f direct), Le (indirect), and possessives Suo/Sua - not tuo/tua.

Turn-taking markers: allora, quindi, comunque, appunto, davvero?, ma dai!, certo signal uptake; rising intonation with no question word marks yes/no questions.

Question formation: inversion is optional (Tu vieni? / Vieni tu?); question words include chi, che cosa, dove, quando, come, perché, quanto.

Common spoken fillers: insomma, cioè, praticamente, comunque, magari; magari + imperfect subjunctive expresses a wish (magari potessi).

Politeness formulas: Per favore, Per piacere, Scusi/Scusa, Mi dispiace, Grazie mille, Prego, Figurati/Si figuri, Ci mancherebbe.

Negation: non before the verb; double negatives are standard (Non ho visto nessuno); mica softens or reinforces (Mica male!).

Pronunciation decision rule: c/g before e or i is soft (/tʃ/, /dʒ/); before a/o/u or consonant it is hard (/k/, /g/); h inserts hardness (chi, ghi); gn = /ɲ/, gl before i = /ʎ/.

Passato prossimo: avere + participle for most verbs; essere + participle with intransitive motion/state verbs (andare, venire, arrivare, partire, nascere, morire, restare, essere, stare), with participle agreeing in gender/number with the subject.

Imperfetto vs passato prossimo: imperfetto = background, habit, description, ongoing state; passato prossimo = completed single event that advances the narrative.

Trap pairs: sapere (knew a fact) vs conoscere (met a person/place) in passato prossimo; volere (decided) vs non volere (refused).

Future tense also expresses probability or conjecture: Sarà a casa (he's probably home); sarà stato (it must have been).

Conditional for reported speech and hedging: Ha detto che sarebbe arrivato; vorrei, potresti, dovresti soften requests.

Pronoun placement: attached to infinitive, gerund, and imperative (dammi, andandoci, farlo); otherwise before the conjugated verb (lo faccio); with passato prossimo the participle agrees with a preceding direct object pronoun (Le ho comprate).

Ci and ne: ci replaces a luogo (Ci vado) or 'there is/are' (C'è); ne replaces a partitive quantity (Ne ho due, Quanti ne vuoi?).

Inference cues in audio: intonation peaks mark focus; discourse markers (invece, però, quindi, d'altra parte) signal contrast and consequence for main-idea questions.

Text-type conventions: email (Oggetto, Gentile/Gentilissima, Cordiali saluti), letter (Carissimo/a, Distinti saluti), article (title, lead, paragraphs), diary (Caro diario), review (rating + verdict).

Congiuntivo present forms: che io sia, che tu sia, che lui sia; che io abbia; che io vada; che io faccia, che io dica, che io possa, che io voglia; regular -are → -i, -ere/-ire → -a.

Subjunctive triggers: perché, affinché, benché, sebbene, purché, prima che, senza che, è importante che, penso che, nonostante; verbs of opinion/belief/emotion take che + congiuntivo.

Hypotheticals: se + congiuntivo imperfetto → conditional present (Se potessi, verrei); se + congiuntivo trapassato → conditional past (Se avessi saputo, sarei venuto).

Accents change meaning: è (is) vs e (and); sì (yes) vs si (reflexive); né (nor) vs ne (of it); dà (gives) vs da (from); perché, cioè, città, caffè, università always accented.

Agreement: adjectives agree in gender/number with the noun; articles and partitives follow the same pattern (il/lo/l'/i/gli/le; del/dello/della/dei/degli/delle).

Cohesion devices for writing: innanzitutto, in primo luogo, inoltre, d'altra parte, tuttavia, quindi, di conseguenza, in conclusione, per riassumere.

Formal written register: avoid contractions and slang; use Lei forms, passive or impersonal si (si ritiene che), and connectives rather than short spoken sentences.

Italy has 20 regions; five have special autonomous status: Valle d'Aosta, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Sardegna, Sicilia.

Recognised linguistic minorities include German (Alto Adige), French (Valle d'Aosta), Slovene (Friuli-Venezia Giulia), Ladin (Dolomites), Friulian, Sardinian, Albanian (Arbëreshë), Greek (Griko), and Catalan (Alghero).

Regional languages/dialects differ from standard Italian: napoletano, siciliano, veneto, piemontese, romanesco, milanese; they are not corruptions of Italian but sister Romance varieties.

Standard Italian derives from Tuscan, codified largely through Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio; the Accademia della Crusca (founded 1582 in Florence) is a key language institution.

Made in Italy sectors: moda (Milano), design and automotive (Torino, Modena), food and wine (Emilia-Romagna, Toscana, Piemonte), tourism and heritage.

UNESCO sites in Italy number over 50, the most of any country; examples include Roma historic centre, Pompei, Cinque Terre, Alberobello, and the Dolomites.

Festivals and customs: Carnevale (Venezia, Viareggio), Palio di Siena, Ferragosto (15 agosto), Befana (6 gennaio), onomastico, and the passeggiata.

Italian diaspora: large communities in Argentina, Brazil, the USA, Canada, and Australia; Italian is an official language in San Marino, Vatican City, and Switzerland (Ticino, Grigioni).