Analisi delle strutture: choosing between clitics and moods, not translations
A candidate is working on Prova n. 2, completamento a scelta multipla, and has three items left.
Item 12: «- Sei andato in comune? - Sì, ___ sono andato stamattina, ma non ___ trovato aperto.» A) ci / l'ho B) ne / ho C) ci / ho
Item 13: «Vorrei che tu mi ___ il documento prima di firmarlo.» A) fai vedere B) facessi vedere C) farai vedere
Item 14: «Non sapevo che Maria ___ già partita.» A) era B) fosse C) sia
The candidate's method is to translate each sentence into English mentally and then choose the option that 'sounds natural' in the English version. On item 12 this produces C, because English 'I went there... I didn't find it open' does not show the clitic.
1. Solve item 12 and explain why the chosen option is the only grammatical one.
Read the worked answer
A) ci / l'ho.
First gap: the verb is andare in comune. The clitic ci replaces a complement introduced by in / a when it expresses a place or an already-mentioned destination: ci sono andato = 'I went there'. Ne replaces complements with di or a partitive quantity (ne ho due, ne parlo), so B is excluded.
Second gap: trovare aperto is transitive and its object is il comune (masculine singular). The direct-object pronoun lo becomes l' before a vowel: non l'ho trovato aperto. Option C leaves the object unexpressed, which is not possible here because the object is not recoverable from context without the pronoun.
Why the translation method failed: English 'there' and 'it' behave differently from Italian clitics, and Italian also has obligatory elision (lo → l'). Match the Italian structural slot - what preposition or object the verb requires - before you translate.
2. Solve item 13 and state the rule that decides it.
Read the worked answer
B) facessi vedere.
The main clause Vorrei che expresses a wish about an action performed by a different subject (io wish, tu show). In Italian this requires the congiuntivo in the subordinate: vorrei che tu facessi.
Options A (fai) and C (farai) are indicativo forms. They are ungrammatical after vorrei che, however plausible they sound, because the indicative is not admitted in this structure in standard Italian.
The pronoun mi is already the indirect object, so no a me is needed; adding it (a me mi) would be redundant. On this kind of item, the trigger («vorrei che», «penso che», «benché», «prima che») is the thing to circle before looking at the options.
3. Item 14 is genuinely borderline. How should the candidate decide in an exam?
Read the worked answer
Mark B) fosse, but understand why A is tempting.
After a past-tense main verb (non sapevo), the standard sequence is congiuntivo imperfetto in the subordinate when the main clause is a statement of non-knowledge in the negative: non sapevo che Maria fosse già partita.
However, non sapevo che era già partita is widely used in informal Italian and is accepted by several grammars when the subordinate reports a fact presented as real rather than as an opinion. So a candidate who 'hears' option A is not inventing it.
In a multiple-choice exam, choose the form that is always grammatical in the written standard: B. Option C (sia) is excluded because the congiuntivo presente after non sapevo would shift the event to the present, contradicting già partita.