Analisi delle strutture: grammatica dentro il testo
What is tested
This section mixes completion exercises (with and without options), transformations and lexical matching. The grammar core at B2 is: the subjunctive in subordinate clauses, the hypothetical period, tense agreement and the reported past, the pronoun system (ci, ne, combined pronouns, relative che/cui/il quale), prepositions and articulated prepositions, and verb-plus-preposition patterns (pensare di, riuscire a, dipendere da). On the lexical side expect collocations, prefixes and suffixes, and near-synonyms.
The traps
Most errors come from over-applying a rule. Penso che takes the subjunctive, but secondo me, è vero che, so che take the indicative. Benché, affinché, purché, prima che, senza che always take the subjunctive; dopo che normally takes the indicative. In the hypothetical period, an unreal past needs se + congiuntivo trapassato and condizionale passato («se avessi saputo, sarei venuto»), while a real condition needs the indicative («se piove, resto a casa»). Ci replaces a place or an entire clause; ne replaces a quantity or a partitive - mixing them is the single most common slip.
Working method
Before choosing a form, identify the subject and the governing verb, then check what the clause depends on. If the sentence contains a conjunction from the subjunctive list, the choice is already made; if it contains a comparative or a factual verb, be suspicious of the subjunctive.
Worked example
«Se l'avessi saputo prima, ___ (venire) volentieri.» The se clause is congiuntivo trapassato, so the main clause must be condizionale passato: sarei venuto. «Se lo sapevo prima, venivo» is acceptable in informal Italian but not the expected answer in a written test. Second example: «Quanti biglietti hai comprato? - ___ ho comprati tre.» The quantity tre calls for ne: Ne ho comprati tre. Rule of thumb: replace the pronoun with the phrase it stands for and see which one fits.