Catalonia PAU Italian (Italià) common mistakes
Catalonia PAU Italian (Italià) · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Answering reading-comprehension questions by matching words that appear in both the text and the option, without checking that the whole option is actually supported by the passage.
Under time pressure candidates scan for lexical overlap and treat repeated vocabulary as proof of the correct answer; distractors are often built precisely from words lifted out of the text, so this shortcut rewards the wrong option.
What to do instead
For each option, go back to the sentence it depends on and underline the exact clause that confirms or contradicts it. Reject any option whose support you cannot point to in one specific line, even if its vocabulary echoes the text. Practise with two options that share vocabulary with the passage but differ in one qualifier (negation, tense, subject).
Treating a question about the author's attitude, purpose or the text's implied meaning as if it were a factual detail question, and choosing the option that is merely true rather than the one that answers what is asked.
Candidates default to 'which statement is true' mode and stop at the first factually correct option, ignoring the inferential framing (implica, scopo, atteggiamento) that requires reading tone markers and connectors.
What to do instead
Before reading the options, restate the question in your own words and label it as 'fact' or 'inference'. For inference items, locate evaluative language (aggettivi, avverbi, connettivi come tuttavia, purtroppo, persino) and choose the option consistent with that stance, not just with the content.
Guessing the meaning of an unknown word from its shape in Catalan or Spanish and committing to that guess, instead of using the surrounding sentence to infer it.
Catalan-speaking candidates rely on intercomprehension and false friends (e.g. Italian words that resemble Catalan but differ in meaning or register), and the surface resemblance feels reliable enough to skip contextual checking.
What to do instead
For each unknown item, cover the word, read the full sentence, predict a meaning from context, then uncover it and compare. Keep a personal list of Italian-Catalan/Spanish false friends and near-misses, with one authentic example sentence each, and review it before practice tests.
Choosing a vocabulary option because it is grammatically possible in isolation, without checking collocation, register or the preposition the surrounding sentence requires.
Lexical items in this section are usually tested in context; candidates evaluate each word alone rather than as part of a fixed combination (e.g. verb + preposition, noun + adjective) and miss that only one option collocates naturally.
What to do instead
Read the gap with the words immediately before and after it as a single unit, and test each option inside that unit aloud. Memorise high-frequency Italian collocations and prepositional patterns as chunks rather than single words, and note the ones where Catalan patterns diverge.
Filling in verb-tense gaps by translating the tense used in Catalan, especially in hypothetical sentences and in past narration where Italian distinguishes passato prossimo, imperfetto and passato remoto.
The tense system and its discourse functions differ between the languages, and candidates map their native tense choice onto Italian without checking the temporal or aspectual cues in the sentence.
What to do instead
Identify the trigger first: explicit time markers, hypothetical conjunctions (se, purché, qualora), or aspectual cues (durata, ripetizione, azione conclusa). Then apply the Italian rule for that trigger. Drill the se + congiuntivo/condizionale combinations and the imperfetto-versus-passato-prossimo contrast in narrative passages.
Mixing up the use of congiuntivo and indicativo after conjunctions and verbs of opinion, or avoiding the congiuntivo entirely by choosing an indicative option that 'sounds fine'.
The subjunctive is weaker or differently distributed in Catalan colloquial usage, so the indicative feels natural; candidates also lack automatised lists of triggers and rely on intuition.
What to do instead
Build a trigger list organised by function (volition, emotion, doubt, impersonal expressions, conjunctions like benché, affinché, prima che) and practise transforming indicative sentences into subjunctive ones. In the exam, name the trigger before selecting the form.
Ignoring pronoun and clitic behaviour: choosing the wrong form or position for direct, indirect and combined pronouns, and overlooking agreement of the past participle with clitic objects.
Clitic clusters (glielo, me ne, ce lo) and their positioning with infinitives and imperatives are a dense area, and candidates focus on the verb form while treating the pronoun as a separate, low-stakes decision.
What to do instead
Treat verb plus clitic as one unit when choosing the answer. Practise rewriting sentences by substituting noun objects with clitics, including compound tenses, so participle agreement becomes automatic; check each answer by re-expanding the clitic back into the full noun phrase.
Writing the guided production task as a list of short, disconnected sentences that answer the prompt points one by one, with no linking devices and no paragraph structure.
Candidates treat the prompt bullets as a checklist and write to satisfy each point minimally, which feels safe under time pressure but produces text that scores low on coherence and range.
What to do instead
Before writing, spend two minutes on a skeleton: an opening sentence that frames the topic, one short paragraph per prompt point, and a closing sentence. Insert explicit connectors (innanzitutto, inoltre, d'altra parte, in conclusione) and vary sentence length. Practise the same plan on three past-style prompts so the structure becomes routine.
Sticking to a narrow, safe vocabulary and repeating the same basic verbs and adjectives throughout the written task, and staying under the required word count without noticing.
Candidates prioritise avoiding errors over demonstrating range, and they do not count words during writing, so the text ends short and lexically flat, losing marks on range and task fulfilment.
What to do instead
Prepare a personal bank of 15–20 topic-neutral upgrades (e.g. precise verbs for 'dire', 'fare', 'essere importante') and deliberately place three or four in each piece. Count words at the planning stage by allocating a target per paragraph, and check the total before finishing.
Answering language-awareness items about Italian linguistic and cultural reality (regional variation, registers, institutions, media, geography of the Italian-speaking world) from general knowledge or from the Catalan context, without evidence from the item.
This domain rewards specific, current knowledge that candidates often have not studied systematically; they substitute plausible generalities or transfer Catalan institutional and cultural assumptions to Italy.
What to do instead
Build a one-page reference sheet per theme (regioni e capoluoghi, differenze tra italiano standard e dialetti, registro formale/informale, principali istituzioni e media) and update it from reliable sources. In the exam, eliminate options that are factually wrong before choosing, and prefer the option consistent with what the item's own wording signals.