Grammar and language accuracy
Grammar and language accuracy is not a separate paper section: it is marked in writing, speaking and through discrete items in the written paper. The core system is the Italian verb, but pronouns, prepositions and agreement decide most lost marks.
Core rules
- Tenses: passato prossimo for completed events, imperfetto for background, habits and description; futuro also expresses probability; condizionale for polite requests and hypothetical results; congiuntivo after penso che, spero che, benché, affinché, prima che.
- Auxiliaries: most verbs take avere; movement, change-of-state and reflexives take essere, with participle agreement (siamo andati/e).
- Pronouns: direct lo/la/li/le, indirect gli/le, combined me lo, gliela; ne = of it/them; ci = there/of it.
- Prepositions: a + city, in + country/region; in with vacanza, montagna, centro; al mare; a casa.
- Piacere agrees with the subject: mi piace il film / mi piacciono i film.
Worked example
«Mentre ___ (leggere) in giardino, il telefono ___ (squillare).» Reasoning: mentre frames an ongoing background action, so imperfetto leggevo; the phone ringing interrupts it, so passato prossimo ha squillato. Result: «Mentre leggevo in giardino, il telefono ha squillato.»
Traps
- Using the present after se in unreal conditions: se avessi tempo, verrei, not se ho tempo, verrei.
- Sapere (know a fact/how to) versus conoscere (know a person/place).
- Missing agreement with ne: Ne ho comprati tre.
- Ci vado (I go there) versus ne parlo (I speak about it).
- False friends and literal English prepositions (dipendere da, pensare a).