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Common mistakes students make in Italian essays
Agreement
did you check whether articles and adjectives referring to a noun are in the
same gender and number?
articles
are you using the articles according to the first letter of the noun?
Never use “di Italia”
with Italy or any other country. Use the nationality adjective instead:
italiano, ecc.
Avoid repetition
use pronouns to refer to something mentioned before
Molto and poco
agree with a noun but never with an adjective – una città molto bella, but
ho visto molti paesi
Dopo
will always be folloed by either a noun or a past infinitive – dopo cena
siamo andati a casa or dopo aver cenato siamo andati a casa
Prima
is always followed by di
Allora
means then. To say now you need to use either adesso or ora
Tutto il tempo
is a literal translation from all the time. Prefer the use of sempre.
Adverbs
need to follow the verbs
The use of anche
depends on the context. If used to strengthen a verb (I study and also
work) it will follow it just like an adverb (studio e lavoro anche). If it is
used to strengthen a pronoun or a noun, someone who is also involved or
included in an action, you would place it in front of the noun or pronoun
(Me too, I am going to the movies – vado anch’io al cinema, vieni anche
tu?)
Verb agreement.
Be careful when talking about the past to always use the past tenses:
imperfect to describe and the passato prossimo to talk about completed
actions. The present can be used only if you are referring to something
that still exists or can be mentioned in the present. (Quando ero piccolo
andavo al mare con la mia famiglia. Una volta siamo andati in Sicilia, ma
eravamo tutti in ritardo. Mia madre era arrabbiatissima! Sai, mia madre è
una persona molto organizzata - she is still alive and you can describe how
she usually still is, not just in the past- e in quel momento era furibonda
all’idea di perdere l’aereo -you use the imperfect because here you are
describing how she was because of the delay in the past)
SUBJUNCTIVE SUBJUNCTIVE
Yep, that’s right, using subjunctive in your essays gives you tons of points.
Only if you use it properly though! Remembers that you cannot just replace
the indicative with it just because you like it… the subjunctive is used after
verbs of opinion or doubt, a few expressions like sebbene, anche se, in the
periodo ipotetico, otherwise just count on the indicative mood (presente,
passato prossimo, imperfetto, futuro, trapassato) when referring actions
that happen, happened or will happen.