QCAA Italian flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

tu vs Lei

Informal tu addresses peers, family, and children; formal Lei addresses strangers, officials, and elders and takes third-person singular verbs and pronouns such as La and Le.

Formal Lei possessives

With formal Lei, use Suo and Sua instead of tuo and tua, for example Come sta Sua madre? Direct object is La, indirect is Le.

magari + congiuntivo

Magari followed by the imperfect subjunctive expresses a wish or hypothetical, as in Magari potessi venire, meaning if only I could come.

Italian double negative

Standard Italian requires non before the verb even when a negative word follows, as in Non ho visto nessuno or Non parlo mai, unlike English.

Pronunciation of ci and gi

Before e or i, c and g are soft, pronounced like English ch in cheese and j in jam; before a, o, u or a consonant they are hard.

GN and GL sounds

The digraph gn represents the palatal nasal sound in gnocchi and bagno; gl followed by i represents the sound in famiglia and figlio.

Politeness formulas

Key courtesy expressions include per favore, grazie mille, prego, mi scusi, mi dispiace, and figurati or si figuri for informal and formal replies to thanks.

Turn-taking discourse markers

Allora, quindi, comunque, appunto, and ma dai signal uptake, agreement, or a shift in a conversation and help learners follow the thread of spoken exchange.

Essere verbs in passato prossimo

Intransitive verbs of motion or state such as andare, venire, arrivare, partire, nascere, morire, restare, essere, and stare take essere, with the participle agreeing with the subject.

Imperfetto versus passato prossimo

The imperfetto sets background, habits, and descriptions, while the passato prossimo reports completed events that move a narrative forward.

Sapere versus conoscere

Sapere means to know a fact or how to do something; conoscere means to know or meet a person or place. In the passato prossimo, ho saputo means I found out.

Future of probability

The future tense can express conjecture rather than future time, as in Sarà a casa, meaning he is probably home, or Sarà partito, meaning he must have left.

Conditional in reported speech

After a past reporting verb, the conditional replaces the future, as in Ha detto che sarebbe arrivato, meaning he said he would arrive.

Ci and ne pronouns

Ci replaces a place or the idea of there being something, as in Ci vado or C'è; ne replaces a partitive quantity, as in Ne ho due.

Pronoun attachment rules

Object pronouns attach to infinitives, gerunds, and informal imperatives, as in farlo, dammi, andandoci; otherwise they precede the conjugated verb, as in lo faccio.

Agreement with preceding object

With the passato prossimo and avere, the participle agrees with a preceding direct object pronoun, as in Le ho comprate, meaning I bought them.

Inference cues in listening

Rising intonation marks questions, stressed words mark focus, and connectives such as invece, però, and quindi signal contrast and consequence for main-idea questions.

Congiuntivo present of essere and avere

The present subjunctive forms are che io sia, che tu sia, che lui sia and che io abbia, che tu abbia, che lui abbia; these are irregular and must be memorised.

Irregular congiuntivo forms

Common irregular present subjunctives include vada, faccia, dica, possa, voglia, venga, esca, and stia, all used after expressions of doubt, will, or emotion.

Subjunctive trigger expressions

Expressions such as perché, affinché, benché, sebbene, purché, prima che, senza che, nonostante, and è importante che require the subjunctive in the dependent clause.

Hypothetical se clauses

Se with the imperfect subjunctive takes the present conditional, as in Se potessi, verrei; se with the past perfect subjunctive takes the past conditional.

Accents that change meaning

Accents distinguish è (is) from e (and), sì (yes) from si, né (nor) from ne, and dà (gives) from da (from); final accented vowels appear in città and caffè.

Email conventions in Italian

A formal Italian email opens with Gentile or Gentilissima plus name, includes an Oggetto line, and closes with Cordiali saluti or Distinti saluti.

Cohesion connectives

Written Italian uses connectives such as innanzitutto, inoltre, tuttavia, quindi, di conseguenza, and in conclusione to link ideas and structure an argument.

Impersonal si in writing

The impersonal si with a third-person verb, as in si ritiene che, creates a formal, detached written register common in articles and reports.

Regions with special status

Italy's five autonomous regions with special status are Valle d'Aosta, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Sardegna, and Sicilia, each with expanded local powers.

Recognised linguistic minorities

Protected minority languages include German in Alto Adige, French in Valle d'Aosta, Slovene in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Ladin in the Dolomites, and Greek and Albanian communities in southern Italy.

Regional languages and dialects

Napoletano, siciliano, veneto, piemontese, and romanesco are Romance varieties with their own structures, not corrupted versions of standard Italian, and many are actively spoken.

Origins of standard Italian

Standard Italian developed from Tuscan, shaped by Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, and the Accademia della Crusca, founded in Florence in 1582, promoted its codification.

Made in Italy sectors

Italy's export identity rests on fashion in Milano, design and automotive industries in Torino and Modena, and food and wine from Emilia-Romagna, Toscana, and Piemonte.

Italian UNESCO heritage

Italy has more than fifty UNESCO World Heritage sites, the most of any country, including Roma's historic centre, Pompei, Cinque Terre, Alberobello, and the Dolomites.

Italian diaspora and official status

Large Italian-descended communities exist in Argentina, Brazil, the USA, Canada, and Australia; Italian is also official in San Marino, Vatican City, and parts of Switzerland.