WACE Italian Background Language ATAR flashcards

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

Lei form

Formal second-person address using third-person singular verbs and pronouns, capitalised in writing: Le chiedo scusa, La ringrazio. Used with strangers, officials, teachers, and elders.

Cordiali saluti

Standard formal closing for letters and emails to unknown or senior recipients. Less personal than un caro saluto, which suits known professional contacts.

Conditional for politeness

The conditional softens requests and refusals: Vorrei, Potrebbe, Sarebbe possibile. The bare imperative or present indicative reads as abrupt in service encounters.

Pronto?

Word used when answering the telephone in Italian. The caller typically replies with a greeting and identifies themselves; Con chi parlo? asks who is speaking.

Complaint structure

A formal complaint states the problem, supplies evidence such as dates or order numbers, requests a specific remedy, and closes politely, reserving escalation language for the final sentence.

Turn-taking markers

Expressions such as appunto, infatti, comunque, allora, quindi that manage spoken interaction, signalling agreement, digression, or return to topic during conversation and oral assessment.

Register consistency

Matching interlocutor, purpose, and channel throughout one text. Mixing tu and Lei, or slang and formal formulas, is penalised as an error of appropriateness.

Digital register

Informal written style of messaging, using abbreviations and omitted accents. It is acceptable between peers but inappropriate in emails to institutions or employers.

Cronaca text features

News report type marked by a dateline, third-person reporting, and past tenses, often passato prossimo for recent events. Answers who, what, when, where in the opening paragraph.

Passato remoto function

Narrative past tense typical of written historical and literary texts, marking distance from the reader. Journalism about recent events prefers passato prossimo instead.

Cleft sentence

Emphatic construction such as È stato lui a decidere or È qui che... , which foregrounds one element. Recognising it prevents misreading the focus of a statement.

Hedging with sembra che

Construction taking the subjunctive to present information as unconfirmed: sembra che sia, pare che venga. It signals the writer distances themselves from the claim.

Evaluative suffixes

Suffixes such as -ino, -etto, -one, -accio that modify a noun's tone: libretto, librone, ragazzaccio. They convey attitude and are often the target of inference questions.

Clitic ne

Particle meaning of it or of them, replacing a partitive quantity: Ne ho comprati tre. The past participle agrees with the quantity when ne precedes the verb.

Cohesive connectors

Words such as tuttavia, quindi, inoltre, d'altra parte that mark contrast, consequence, or addition. Tracking them reveals the argument's structure for summary tasks.

Comparator phrases

Expressions such as rispetto a, il doppio di, la metà di, su cento that set up statistical comparisons. Misidentifying the reference group is a common comprehension error.

Congiuntivo triggers

Subjunctive follows verbs of opinion and emotion, impersonal expressions, and conjunctions such as benché, affinché, purché: penso che sia, benché venga.

Periodo ipotetico types

Three conditional patterns: reality with indicative, possibility with congiuntivo imperfetto plus condizionale presente, and unreality with congiuntivo trapassato plus condizionale passato.

Participle agreement with clitics

A past participle agrees with a preceding direct object pronoun: L'ho vista, Li ho comprati. With ne it agrees with the replaced quantity, as in ne ho letti tre.

Formal email structure

Components in order: oggetto, formula di apertura, body paragraphs, formula di chiusura, firma. Each element keeps the same formal register to the final line.

Impersonal si

Construction removing the agent: si ritiene, si prega di, si comunica. Standard in notices and formal writing, replacing first-person statements such as io penso.

Accent minimal pairs

Pairs distinguished only by accent: è/e, né/ne, dà/da, sì/si, sé/se. Misplacing the accent changes meaning and is separately penalised in marking.

Paragraph functions

Each paragraph carries one argumentative function, opened by a connector such as innanzitutto, in secondo luogo, pertanto, and supported by a concrete example rather than further assertion.

Review text conventions

A recensione summarises the work, evaluates it with evidence, and recommends or discourages. Evaluative adjectives and a final verdict are its identifying features.

Italian unification

The Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed in 1861; the republican referendum followed in 1946. Festa della Liberazione falls on 25 April and Festa della Repubblica on 2 June.

Regional languages

Idioms such as siciliano, napoletano, veneto, sardo, and friulano coexist with standard Italian; the Constitution recognises minority linguistic groups, and regional identity remains strong.

Italian diaspora

Large-scale emigration from the late nineteenth century onward created communities in Argentina, Brazil, the United States, Australia, and Canada, shaping global perceptions of Italian identity.

Post-war migration to Australia

Migration from southern Italy and the Veneto after 1945 shaped food production, farming, and construction in Australian cities, including Perth, Melbourne, and Adelaide.

Campanilismo

Attachment to one's own town and its traditions, often stronger than national feeling. It explains local festivals, patron saints, and rivalry between neighbouring communities.

Made in Italy

Branding of Italian craft, fashion, design, and food as markers of national quality. It is a constructed image that often omits regional and industrial diversity.

Meal structure

Traditional pranzo is the main midday meal and cena is later and lighter. Regional dishes index place rather than a single national cuisine.

Comune and questura

The comune is the local administrative authority for residency and registry matters; the questura issues permits of stay. Both are routine reference points in identity documents.