HIGHER ITALIAN — THE ESSAY

Introduction and Index Page

This page is meant to help you prepare for the Listening/Writing Paper. Following the Listening, you will be asked to write 120-150 words on a topic closely related to the theme of the Listening.

Read introduction about how to express an opinion and then scroll down; you will find a list of passages in English for you to translate into Italian. The passages contain the sort of material which you should try to include in your essay.
This essay is more difficult to prepare for than the Directed Writing, but you can be fairly sure that it will ask you to express an opinion, so be sure that you know how.

Expressing an opinion:

1. Use a phrase:

in my opinion	secondo me
in my opinion	a mio parere

 

 

2. Use a verb like pensare or credere BUT BEWARE!
These verbs are followed by che and the verb goes into the subjunctive; e.g.:

I think that it is a good idea	penso/credo che sia una buona idea
I think that friends are important	penso/credo che gli amici siano importanti
I thought that it was more important ...	ho pensato che fosse più importante ...
I believed that he was right	ho creduto che io lui avesse ragione

 

 

 

 

Remember: Whenever you use verbs like think, believe, suppose, imagine etc., if you follow them with a verb in the present or past tenses, you must use the subjunctive mood. If you follow with a future or a conditional there's no problem:

I think that it will be possible	penso/credo che sarà possible
I think that attitudes will change	penso/credo che gli attegiamenti si cambieranno
I think that it would be better .....	penso/credo che sarebbe meglio...
I don't think that people would understand	non penso/credo che la gente capirebbe

 

 

 

3. Use a conditional verb like:

I would like	vorrei
I would like	mi piacerebbe
I would prefer	preferirei

 

 

 

If you are not sure when and when not to use the subjunctive, go and have a look in the grammar pages!

INDEX:

You will find below and list of essay topics; these are in fact pieces of English which you have to translate into Italian and they contain the sort of grammar and structures which you should try to include in your essay. These are essay topics from past papers.

1 Secondo voi, mangiare insieme è veramente importante nella vita di una famiglia?
   ( In your opinion, is eating together really an important part of family life?)

2 Siete contenti della vostra vita o preferireste vivere altrove?
   (Are you happy with your life or would you prefer to live somewhere else?)

3 Se tu vincessi la lotteria, in quale modo si cambierebbe la tua vita?
  (If you were to win the lottery, in what way would your life change?)