LEVEL A1 (Elementary 1). Learners at this level are able to fulfil primary communication needs.

They posses the following capabilities:

Language capability:

They know the present and the near past (passato prossimo) of the principal verbs; the articles, adjectives, nouns and pronouns.

Lexical and semantic capability:

They have a passive vocabulary of around 600 words; can use common words and expressions; can affront everyday life, family life, can talk about free time activities, can introduce themselves, etc.

LEVEL A2 (Elementary 2). Learners at this level can understand common terms and expressions, related particularly to everyday life.

They posses the following capabilities:

Language capability:

They know the main tenses of the indicative mood, both regular and irregular; the commoner forms of the imperative as well as the more intuitive and practical forms of the subjunctive; they can use adjectives, pronouns, the principal adverbs and interrogative pronouns; they can use simple and combined prepositions with ease.

Lexical and semantic capability:

They have a passive vocabulary of around 1,000 words; thanks to this, they can understand not overtly complex texts taken from general interest newspapers, magazines or radio and television transmissions; they can resume texts that deal with social life, work and study.

LEVEL B1 (Intermediate 1). Learners at this level can maintain a simple conversation (face to face or by telephone); they can communicate their own experiences, impressions, hopes, opinions and plans.

They posses the following capabilities:

Language capability:

They know particular uses of the indicative and of the conditional; they can understand and use the present and past subjunctive; they know relative pronouns, the placing of combined pronouns and of qualifiers; they know how adverbs are formed and know the impersonal form.

Lexical and semantic capability:

They have a passive vocabulary of around 1,500 words; they can understand and communicate feelings and moods; they can affront social subjects (youth subjects and problems, work and free time, social relations...); can understand without particular difficulty newspaper and television news and articles.

LEVEL B2 (Intermediate 2). Learners at this level can relate without problems with mother tongue speakers, both formally and informally; they can get the gist of texts presenting particular difficulty and can give opinions about complex and abstract subjects.

They posses the following capabilities:

Language capability:

They know the imperfect (imperfetto) subjunctive, the anterior past (trapassato) and the indefinite forms; they recognise and use the passive form, the hypothetical period and reported speech.

Lexical and semantic capability:

They have a passive vocabulary of around 2,000 words; they can affront with no particular difficulty subjects of everyday life, modern life, entertainment, and culture as well as research and opinion polls that reflect various aspects of the society in which they live.  

LEVEL C1 (advanced 1). Learners at this level use the language effectively and naturally; they can understand the foreign language with ease and can carry a conversation in a positive and efficient manner; they can construct complex and well-articulated phrases, even if their expression is not always perfect and well-finished.

They posses the following capabilities:

Language capability:

They know and use well all verb tenses and modes, they use with relative ease all speech parts (adverbs, prepositions, pronouns...); they can make a profound and productive reflection on morphology.

Lexical and semantic capability:

They have a passive vocabulary of around 2,500/3,000 words; besides this, they can explain shades of meaning of many words that are not part of the so-called “basic vocabulary”; they can recognise and explain semantic relations between words (synonyms and antonyms) and can reflect efficiently on semantic organisation.

LEVEL C2 (advanced 2). Learners at this level have reached a level of precision and property that shows great mastery over the language, be it linguistic or communicative.

They posses the following capabilities:

Language capability:

They can not only reflect on morphological subjects, but also possess a good mastery over syntax, over both simple and complex phrases; they can reflect deeply on all grammatical subjects; they know exactly what they say and their communication is coherent and terse.

Lexical and semantic capability:

 They have a passive vocabulary of between 3,000 and 4,000 words; besides a large number of words making part of specialised vocabulary; they can understand the shades of meaning, the various meanings of words and expressions and they have made an in-depth study of semantic organisation; they have reached a level of excellence in the learning of the foreign language and can express themselves with ease, using the language naturally.