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Essere Conjugation

essere means "to be" in Italian. Present: io sono, tu sei, lui / lei / Lei è, noi siamo, voi siete, loro sono. Below: all 23 tenses we teach, with examples.

Present Presente

Add the present endings to the stem; used for habitual actions, general truths and (as in English) near-future plans.

Present continuous Presente progressivo

stare (present) + gerund; stresses that an action is happening right now, more emphatic than the simple present.

Present perfect Passato prossimo

avere/essere (present) + past participle; the everyday spoken past for completed actions, especially in the north.

Imperfect Imperfetto

Describes ongoing or habitual past actions, background scenes and states ('was/used to speak'), without a defined endpoint.

Pluperfect Trapassato prossimo

avere/essere (imperfect) + past participle; a past action completed before another past action.

Historical past Passato remoto

Literary/narrative simple past used in writing and, in Tuscany and the South, in speech for the same range as the passato prossimo. Many -ere verbs have alternate short forms (credetti, credette, credettero alongside credei, credé, crederono).

Literary pluperfect Trapassato remoto

Literary only (marked as such): avere/essere (passato remoto) + past participle, used almost exclusively after quando/dopo che/appena with a passato remoto in the main clause.

Simple future Futuro semplice

Stem drops the infinitive's final vowel (parler-, creder-, dormir-, finir-) before future endings; used for future events and for present probability/guesses.

Future perfect Futuro anteriore

avere/essere (simple future) + past participle; a future action completed before another future point, or past probability ('must have').

Conditional present Condizionale presente

Same future stem + conditional endings; polite requests, wishes, and the result clause of hypothetical sentences.

Conditional perfect Condizionale passato

avere/essere (conditional present) + past participle; 'would have done', and reported future-in-the-past.

Subjunctive present Congiuntivo presente

Stem + subjunctive endings (all three singular persons look alike, which is why subject pronouns are often kept for clarity); used after present-tense triggers.

Subjunctive past Congiuntivo passato

avere/essere (subjunctive present) + past participle; a completed action, still governed by a present-tense trigger.

Subjunctive imperfect Congiuntivo imperfetto

Used after a past-tense trigger, and in the 'if' clause of unreal hypotheses (se + imperfetto congiuntivo).

Subjunctive pluperfect Congiuntivo trapassato

avere/essere (subjunctive imperfect) + past participle; a completed action before a past trigger, and the 'if' clause of unreal past hypotheses.

Affirmative imperative Imperativo affermativo

No io form; tu takes the present-tense tu form for -are verbs but the present-subjunctive-like ending for -ere/-ire verbs' tu is actually identical to the indicative present except -are verbs use -a; Lei/loro forms borrow the present subjunctive.

Negative imperative Imperativo negativo

For tu, non + infinitive (never non + the affirmative tu form); all other persons simply add non before the same form as the affirmative.

Infinitive (present) Infinito presente

The dictionary form; used after modal verbs, prepositions, and as a verbal noun.

Infinitive (past) Infinito passato

avere/essere (infinitive) + past participle; an action completed before the main verb, often after 'dopo'.

Gerund (present) Gerundio presente

Used with stare for the progressive, and alone for 'by/while doing'; does not change for person or gender.

Gerund (past) Gerundio passato

avendo/essendo + past participle; a completed action linked to the main clause.

Participle (present) Participio presente

Mostly survives as an adjective or noun (parlante, credente) rather than in verbal use; agrees like a two-ending adjective.

Participle (past) Participio passato

Forms all compound tenses with avere/essere; agrees in gender/number with the subject when the auxiliary is essere, and with a preceding direct-object pronoun.

Examples

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