Pragmatics and communication (pragmatica)
What this domain tests
The pragmatics section asks whether you can choose language that fits the situation: register and forms of address, speech acts (requesting, apologising, refusing, complaining), conversational routines, and the conventions of Italian emails and letters. Items often present two or three versions of the same message and ask which is appropriate for a stated recipient.
Register and address
- tu with family, friends, children, peers who have agreed to it; Lei by default with strangers, officials, service staff and older people; voi as the plural of both.
- With Lei the verb stays third person singular: Lei ha, Lei può. Object pronouns are La and Le; the capital Lei/Le is conventional in business correspondence.
- Register must be consistent across the whole text - greeting, body and closing.
Speech acts and formulae
- Request: Potrebbe…? Le dispiacerebbe…? Mi scusi il disturbo, volevo chiedere se…; vorrei is softer than voglio.
- Apology: Mi scusi / Scusi (formal), Scusa (informal), Mi dispiace (regret).
- Thanks and response: La ringrazio / Grazie mille → Prego, Non c'è di che, Si figuri / Figurati.
- Refusal: Purtroppo non potrò…, Mi dispiace ma…, Magari un'altra volta.
- Letter frame: Gentile Dott.ssa Rossi, / Egregio Signor…, / Spettabile…; opening Le scrivo in merito a…; closing Cordiali saluti / Distinti saluti / Resto a disposizione.
Worked example
You must cancel a booking at a hotel you have never contacted. Option A: «Ciao, ti scrivo per disdire la prenotazione.» Option B: «Gentile Signora, Le scrivo per annullare la prenotazione.»
Reasoning: the recipient is unknown and the setting is a service transaction, so Lei is the default; the greeting and closing must match. Option B is correct. Combining Gentile Signora with ti scrivo is an automatic register error even though every word is grammatical.
Traps that cost marks
- Register drift: opening with Lei and sliding into tu later in the same message.
- Translating “Dear Sir/Madam” as Caro - too intimate for a stranger; use Gentile or Egregio.
- Scusi vs Scusa; Permesso (asking to pass) vs Permettete?
- Bare imperatives in formal writing (Mi mandi…) read as rude without a mitigator.
- Idioms misread literally: Ci mancherebbe! (no problem / absolutely), Magari! (I wish), Mica male (not bad), Figurati! (don't mention it).