UNIVERSALS

Interrogativi:
chi, cosa, dove, come, quando, perché, quanto
Modali e frasi con infinito:
posso, devo, voglio, vorrei, andare a, ho bisogno di, ho voglia di, sono stanco di
Strutture negative
non, non ...mai, non ...più, non...ancora
Comparare e contrastare
più/meno...di
Opinioni
secondo me
Descrivere
c’è/ci sono, è, sembra, ha l’aria di
Esprimere emozioni e stati
mi sento triste, sono triste
Tempo
tutti i giorni, la sera, qualche volta
Connettivi & c.
E, o, ma, anche se, mentre, infine, prima di tutto, poi, inoltre...
Posizioni:
vicino a, lontano da, accanto, davanti a, dietro a...
UNIVERSALS IN YR 8

As Year 7 universals + Imperfect, Talking about the best and the worst and Vorrei / Potrei +
infinitive and deletion of Comparing and contrasting, Indicating location, Phrases to express
emotions
The imperfect will appear frequently, hence you will need to prepare scaffolding. I choose the
imperfect with my year 8s because in this year I teach EXPLICITLY the perfect tense in year 8
and the imperfect in year 9, so I am seed-planting the imperfect for next year.
Also, please note the following:
(a) You will use different and more elaborate vocabulary and a wider range of chunks and
patterns than in year 7 (e.g. for time markers, since you will be using the imperfect in your
universals, you will ask them to use past time markers)
(b) You will use them with the perfect and the imperfect as often as possible

Question structures
(present and past)
Negative structures
(present and past)
Phrases used to express and support opinions (past and subjunctive)
Non penso che sia…
Phrases used to describe events, places, people
(do this across all the tenses learnt so far: Present, Immediate future and Perfect tense if you
have introduced it already)
Time markers (past)
Ieri, la settimana scorsa, il mese scorso, due anni fa…
Connectives and other discourse markers
expand on last year
Imperfect
Talking about the best and the worst
Il peggio, il meglio, quello che preferisco, quello che detest di piu’, quello che mi piace di piu’...
Vorrei/Potrei + infinitive (to recycle and teach new verbs in the infinitive)
UNIVERSALS YEAR 9

The EXPLICIT focus this year is on the IMPERFECT in all its facets for two terms and the
conditional in term 3.
So a big focus in the universals is in seed-planting the conditional.

Questions structures
all tenses studied
Negative structures
all tenses studied
Phrases used to describe events
all tenses studied
Perfect tense
focus on areas not automatized yet – e.g. verb in ETRE and Reflexives
Connectives
If clauses
Si + Imperfect, Je + conditional
Je voudrais / pourrais + infinitive
Talking about problems and solutions
(conditional)
UNIVERSALS YEAR 10

Question structures
focus on processing speed
Negative structures
Reporting / describing things/people/events in three basic tenses
do switch tenses activities every day
Relatives
BANGS and irregular adjectives
If clauses
Si + imperfect, Je + conditional
Talking about problems and solutions
Plans after school end-of-lesson activity
alternate future and conditional

UNIVERSALS YEAR 11

Question structures
focus on processing speed
Negative structures
Relatives
Irregular adjectives
Reporting / describing things/people/events in three basic tenses
(1) switch tenses activities every day – c’è- ci sono / ci sarà- ci saranno / c’è stato- ci sono stati
/ c’era-c’erano / ci sarebbe- ci sarebbero
(2) embed compare and contrast here, e.g. adesso c’è bello, prima c’era brutto, in futuro ci
sarà nuvoloso;
(3) expand on range of phrases taught in the previous 5 years
Extending sentences
Phrases with the subjunctive
(e.g. è impossibile che, a meno che, affinché etc.)
Plans after school
(alternate future and conditional)