Language structures and vocabulary (strutture e lessico)
What this domain tests
This module checks control of Italian grammar in context - articles, prepositions, tense and mood, pronouns, agreement - plus lexical choice at word and collocation level. Items are typically gap-fill, sentence transformation or multiple choice. The distractor is usually grammatical but wrong in meaning, agreement or register.
Noun phrase and prepositions
- Articles: il/lo/l' (lo before s + consonant, z, gn, ps, x, y; l' before a vowel), un/uno/una/un'; partitive dei/degli/delle.
- Place prepositions: a Roma, in Italia, in Sicilia, in centro, al mare, sul tavolo, al bar.
- Duration with da: Vivo qui da tre anni (and still do); per marks intended duration.
- Articulated prepositions must agree: dalle nove alle cinque, nei confronti di.
Verb system
- Passato prossimo for a completed event; imperfetto for habit, description and background; passato remoto for remote narrative.
- Auxiliary: essere with movement and change-of-state verbs and with reflexives; the participle agrees with essere, and with a preceding object pronoun (Le ho viste).
- Congiuntivo after opinion, doubt, emotion, impersonal expressions and conjunctions such as benché, affinché, purché, prima che; se + imperfect/trapassato subjunctive in hypotheticals.
- Condizionale for politeness and future-in-the-past; si passive/impersonal (si vende, si parla italiano).
Word formation
Suffixes build abstract nouns and adverbs: -zione, -mento, -ità, -ezza, -mente; evaluative suffixes: -ino (small), -one (big), -accio (bad).
Worked example
«Da bambino ___ (vedere) spesso quel cartone animato.» → vedevo. Reasoning: da bambino sets a past frame and spesso marks repetition, so the imperfect is required; ho visto would report one completed viewing.
«Penso che lui ___ (avere) ragione.» → abbia. An opinion verb triggers the subjunctive; ha is the classic error.
Traps that cost marks
- più buono where migliore is meant; comparison with di before nouns and pronouns, che before verbs, prepositions or same-category items (più furbo che intelligente).
- Combined pronouns: me lo, glielo, ce ne, gliene - never gli lo.
- ne versus ci: ci penso (about it), ne parlo (of it).
- Lexical pairs: sapere (facts) vs conoscere (people, places); guardare vs vedere; uscire vs partire.