B1 Italian Vocabulary List, Intermediate CEFR Words

Intermediate Italian for expressing opinions, discussing experiences, work, and health vocabulary.

Roughly 1–2 years of study. CELI B1.

About B1

B1 Italian introduces the congiuntivo presente (voglio che tu venga, spero che abbia ragione), the imperfetto for descriptions and habits in the past (quando ero piccolo...), and the contrast between imperfetto and passato prossimo that shapes Italian narration. Vocabulary climbs to around 2,000 words for opinions, work, health, and abstract topics.

Who this list is for

If you can hold a 15-minute conversation, follow a slow news segment, and write a short complaint email, you're around B1. Most learners reach B1 after 1–2 years. CELI 2 / B1 is sometimes accepted for university preparation programs.

How to study

B1 is where the congiuntivo arrives, and it's used much more in Italian than in many learner languages. Don't memorize tables; memorize trigger phrases (penso che, credo che, è importante che, bisogna che) and let pattern-matching do the work. Use spaced repetition for imperfetto/passato prossimo contrastive sentence pairs, and listen to RAI Easy Italian podcasts daily.

The list (970 words)

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