MATSEC AM Italian key terms

The spoken section of the exam, in which the candidate talks with an examiner, usually starting from a short text, photo or topic and then answering follow-up questions.

Listening comprehension: understanding a recorded or live Italian text and showing that understanding by answering questions, summarising or completing notes.

A short fixed saying or proverb whose meaning cannot usually be worked out from the single words, so it must be learned as a whole unit.

An idiomatic expression such as 'in bocca al lupo' or 'prendere in giro', whose overall meaning differs from the literal sense of its parts.

The level of formality of language, from informal speech with friends to formal address with strangers or officials; choosing the wrong level sounds rude or comic.

To address someone with the informal singular 'tu' and its verb forms, normal with family, friends, children and peers, but risky with strangers and superiors.

To address someone with the polite singular 'lei', using third-person verb forms; standard with strangers, officials, customers and older people in formal situations.

The rise and fall of the voice across a sentence; in Italian it often carries the difference between a statement and a question, or between neutral and emphatic speech.

The stress placed on one syllable of a word, which in Italian is not predictable and can change meaning, as in 'àncora' (anchor) and 'ancòra' (still).

A tongue-twister: a short phrase built from similar sounds, used to practise clear pronunciation and speed, for example 'trentatré trentini entrarono a Trento trotterellando'.

A summary that condenses a text into its main points in the candidate's own words, keeping the essential information and dropping examples and repetition.

Rewording a passage in different words while keeping its meaning, often used to check that a candidate has really understood rather than memorised the original.

The central point a paragraph or whole text is making, which the other sentences support; identifying it is the first step in most comprehension tasks.

A conclusion drawn from clues in the text rather than from an explicit statement, for example working out a speaker's mood from what they choose not to say.

The surrounding words, situation and purpose that let a reader fix the meaning of an ambiguous word or phrase without reaching for a dictionary.

A word with a meaning close to another, such as 'casa' and 'abitazione'; true synonymy is rare, so register and collocation usually decide the choice.

A word expressing the opposite of another, such as 'alto' and 'basso'; useful for building vocabulary and for recognising contrast inside a text.

A linking word or phrase such as 'tuttavia', 'quindi' or 'd'altra parte' that signals addition, contrast, cause or consequence between clauses and paragraphs.

The way sentences hold together through pronouns, connectors and repeated or substituted words, so a text reads as one piece rather than a list.

The logical consistency of a text: its ideas follow one another and nothing contradicts what was said earlier, whatever the grammatical links used.

Agreement between words that must match in gender and number, such as article with noun, adjective with noun, and past participle with its subject or object pronoun.

The grammatical class of nouns and adjectives, masculine or feminine in Italian; it decides article and adjective endings and often cannot be guessed from meaning.

The grammatical category of singular or plural, shown by endings and by matching articles and adjectives, with some irregular plurals such as 'uomini' and 'città'.

The mood of possibility, doubt, wish and subjective comment, used after expressions like 'penso che', 'sebbene' and 'affinché'; its present and imperfect forms are exam favourites.

A conditional sentence with an 'if' clause and a main clause, in three types: real ('se piove, resto'), possible ('se piovesse, resterei') and impossible ('se fosse piovuto, sarei rimasto').

The rules matching the tense of a subordinate clause to the tense of the main verb, for example present main verb with present subjunctive, past main verb with imperfect subjunctive.

The verb form ending in -ato, -uto or -ito, used to build compound tenses with 'avere' or 'essere' and to form passive and relative clauses.

The compound past tense formed with a present auxiliary plus past participle, used for completed events with present relevance; choosing 'essere' or 'avere' is a common trap.

The simple past tense describing ongoing states, habits and background in the past, in contrast with the passato prossimo, which reports single completed events.

A written accent mark, compulsory on words stressed on the final syllable ('città', 'perché') and used to distinguish pairs such as 'e' and 'è' or 'si' and 'sì'.

The mark showing that a vowel has been dropped, as in 'l'amico' or 'un'ora'; knowing where it is required, optional or forbidden is a frequent accuracy point.

The definite article, whose form depends on the noun's gender, number and first sound: 'il', 'lo', 'la', 'l'', 'i', 'gli', 'le'.

Two vowel sounds pronounced in one syllable, as in 'piede' or 'buono'; recognising them helps with spelling, stress and clear pronunciation.

A late thirteenth-century poetic movement centred on Florence, praising a noble, spiritualised love and a refined style; Guido Guinizzelli is a forerunner and Dante its greatest voice.

Dante's narrative poem in three parts, Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso, written in terza rima and describing a journey through the afterlife guided first by Virgil and then by Beatrice.

A three-line stanza, specifically Dante's terza rima, where the first and third lines rhyme and the middle line rhymes with the first and third lines of the next stanza.

A fourteen-line poem, usually in hendecasyllables, divided into two quatrains and two tercets, with a fixed rhyme scheme; the standard form for love poetry from Petrarch onwards.

The nineteenth-century movement and series of wars that led to Italian political unification, associated with figures such as Mazzini, Cavour, Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel II.

The creation of a single Italian state, proclaimed in 1861 with Victor Emmanuel II as king and completed with the annexation of Rome in 1870.

The long-standing economic and social gap between the industrialised north and the poorer south of Italy, a recurring theme in post-unification literature and political debate.

A late nineteenth-century Italian literary movement aiming at impersonal, objective portrayal of ordinary life, especially rural and southern life; Giovanni Verga is its leading author.

The French nineteenth-century movement, linked to Zola, that applied scientific observation to fiction; it strongly influenced Italian verismo and its choice of humble settings.