Italian, one word at a time.
Pizzamandolin is a spaced-repetition trainer for Italian vocabulary and grammar, built around the same reference material the official certifications use.
How it works
Every word starts in a lesson: you see it with an example sentence and, when useful, a short grammar note, then you check it in a quick quiz. From there it enters the review cycle: eight stages, from Apprentice to Burned, with growing intervals between reviews. Answer correctly and the word climbs; miss it and it comes back sooner.
Meanings with alternatives (house / home) accept any one of them; leading articles and the to of infinitives are forgiven, and notes in brackets are never required.
The curriculum
105 levels, 2,487 items, A1 to C2.
A1–B2 contain the complete lexical inventory of the Profilo della lingua italiana (CVCL, Università per Stranieri di Perugia): the reference specification behind the CELI and CILS certifications — 486 lemmas at A1, 1,037 at A2, 1,538 at B1 and 2,078 at B2. Level themes and the grammar taught at each level follow the PLIDA syllabus of the Società Dante Alighieri.
C1 and C2 cover the advanced grammar those syllabi require (futuro anteriore, condizionale passato, the past subjunctives, participles, trapassato remoto, stylistic uses of the imperfetto) plus academic, legal, rhetorical, idiomatic and literary vocabulary.
Certification levels
- A1 — CILS A1 · CELI Impatto · PLIDA A1
- A2 — CILS A2 · CELI 1 · PLIDA A2
- B1 — CILS UNO · CELI 2 · PLIDA B1
- B2 — CILS DUE · CELI 3 · PLIDA B2
- C1 — CILS TRE · CELI 4 · PLIDA C1
- C2 — CILS QUATTRO · CELI 5 · PLIDA C2
Pizzamandolin is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with the certifying bodies.
Sources
- Profilo della lingua italiana — lexical lists A1–B2 (Spinelli & Parizzi, La Nuova Italia, 2010)
- Sillabo PLIDA — Società Dante Alighieri
- Common European Framework of Reference — Council of Europe
All example sentences and notes are original. Questions or corrections: [email protected].