Master CILS Italian Vocabulary: 613 Flashcards and the Three Gaps to Patch First

Deck BJ4071, CILS Italian Vocabulary (A1–B2), holds 613 English→Italian cards arranged in strict thematic blocks. It is a solid core list — and it has three specific holes that are worth patching before you start reviewing, not after.

How the 613 cards are grouped

Greetings and survival phrases (1–26) · numbers (27–42) · colours (43–53) · days, months and time words (54–86) · family and people (87–108) · house, rooms and objects (109–146) · food and restaurant (147–206) · clothes (207–225) · city, nature, weather and seasons (226–268) · transport, travel and directions (269–307) · work, professions, shops and money (308–340) · health and the body (341–369) · 103 verbs in the infinitive (370–472) · 99 adjectives (473–571) · adverbs, frequency and quantifiers (572–613).

You will drill Ricevuta, Contanti, Carta di credito, Stipendio, Ferie, Ricetta, Emergenza, Ambulanza, body parts from Testa to Sangue, and the full emotional adjective set — Arrabbiato, Preoccupato, Timido, Sciocco, Maleducato.

Ten cards from the deck

Three holes to patch first

No conjunctions at all. In 613 cards there is no e, no ma, no o, no se, no che, no anche, no però, no quindi. Card 303 gives you Perché glossed only as why — in Italian it is also because, and it is the single most useful connector you own. Write six conjunction cards yourself: the B1 and B2 writing tasks are graded on exactly these.

The number line stops. Cards 27–42 give one to ten, then jump to Venti, Trenta, Quaranta, Cinquanta, Cento, Mille. Eleven through nineteen are missing — including the irregular undici, dodici, quindici — and so are sixty through ninety. Add those fifteen cards.

Eighteen backs collide. The same Italian word answers two different English fronts: Ora (hour / now), Orologio (clock / watch), Fare (to do / to make), Sentire (to hear / to feel), Alzarsi (to get up / to stand up), Grande, Alto, Bello, Sicuro, Ancora (still / yet), Presto (soon / early), Forse, Abbastanza, and Spesso — thick on card 484, often on card 575. Three fronts collide in the other direction too: Orange (Arancione / Arancia), Right (Destra / Giusto), Free (Gratis / Libero). Merge or tag them, or the review is unanswerable.

Two tips specific to Italian

Say the article out loud on every noun card. The deck prints bare nouns, so gender is invisible: Chiave, Ponte, Fiore and Mano are all unguessable from their endings (la chiave, il ponte, il fiore, and la mano despite the -o). Three cards in the body block hide Italian's irregular plurals: Braccio → le braccia, Uovo → le uova, Dito → le dita. Put the plural in the hint field.

Flag the two register traps. Card 7 gives Scusi — the formal Lei form — while cards 13, 15, 20 and 24 are all tu (Come stai?, Come ti chiami?, Di dove sei?, Puoi aiutarmi?). A CILS oral exam will place you in the formal register, so add the Lei twin to each. And card 523 glosses Excited as Eccitato, which in Italian carries a sexual connotation: say Entusiasta or Emozionato.

One last catch: cards 201–202 answer Hungry and Thirsty with Fame and Sete, which are nouns — Italian says ho fame, ho sete. And while the 103 verbs are still grouped together, mark the ones taking essere in the passato prossimo: Andare, Venire, Partire, Arrivare, Tornare, Entrare, Uscire, Restare, plus the reflexives Svegliarsi, Alzarsi, Sedersi.

Same 613-card list in another language: the Goethe German deck. For the phrases this deck skips, see Italian for Travel and Daily Life.

Deck BJ4071 is in your library at flip-it.app.