Indicativo (indicative)

Indicative is the group of tenses used more often, especially at an early stage. Since some of the tenses do not exactly match English ones, their literal meaning will be stated in this page, but in further pages they will be referred to with their Italian name.

simple tenses

PRESENTE (= literally present tense), translating English present tense: "I go", "you go", etc.; IMPERFETTO (= literally imperfect tense), translating English simple past tense "I went", "you went", etc., expressing an action which was still in progress by the time the sentence refers to, or was habitual (the use of this tense will be later explained more in detail). FUTURO (= literally future tense), translating English future tense, "I shall go"; PASSATO REMOTO (= literally remote past tense), translating English simple past tense "I went", expressing an action which happened quite a long time ago, and has already ended by the time the sentence refers to. This tense almost acts in opposition to imperfect tense, by which the past action has not ended by the time of the sentence (further details will be discussed later on).

compound tenses (made by an auxiliary verb + the main verb's past participle)

PASSATO PROSSIMO (= literally recent past tense), translating the English present perfect "I have gone", and often also English simple past tense "I went"; it expresses actions which have taken place a short time ago. TRAPASSATO PROSSIMO (= recent pluperfect tense), matching English past perfect "I had gone"; it expresses actions which have taken place a long time ago. TRAPASSATO REMOTO (= remote pluperfect tense), translating the same English past perfect "I had gone", but with a much more limited use: the action described is no longer in progress, and it is followed by another action expressed by simple past tense (i.e. "when he had gone, you came"); FUTURO ANTERIORE (= literally forward future), also known as future perfect, expressing an action which will have taken place in a future time: in English, this tense is not specific, but the matching form may be obtained all the same: "you will have gone", "they will have arrived", etc. In Italian, this same tense may also translate uncertainty, as if the action was not sure, or only had chance to be true: "it might have been him", "he might have arrived". In the following paragraphs, all these concept will be fully discussed again. Summarizing again these tenses in a chronological order:

FUTURE ACTIONS are translated by:

futuro = English future tense: the action will happen in the future futuro anteriore = English future perfect: in the future, the given action will have happened; but it can also express possibility: the action might have happened (now).

PRESENT ACTIONS are translated by:

presente = English present tense: the action happens now

PAST ACTIONS are translated by:

passato prossimo = English present perfect: the action has happened a short time ago and is now over imperfetto = English simple past: the action happened in the past, and was either habitual or was in progress passato remoto = English simple past: the action happened a long time ago, and is now over trapassato prossimo = English past pefect: the action had happened in a further past trapassato remoto = English past perfect: the action had happened, and then something else happened afterwards

Inflections of regular verbs follow a standard pattern, but there are many irregular verbs too, most of which are important ones, as the verb essere (to be) and avere (to have), which will be the first ones discussed in the following paragraphs, because they are also used as auxiliary verbs for all others. Nevertheless, when two irregular verbs have similar stems, they often have similar inflections too.

COMPOUND TENSES

These tenses (I have seen, you have heard, he had wrote, they had come, etc.) are very similar to the English ones, as they need an auxiliary verb in simple tense, followed by the main verb's past participle. Two auxiliary verbs are used in Italian: avere (to have), used for all transitive verbs and a few intransitive ones, and essere (to be), used for most intransitive verbs. The same auxiliary essere is also used for passive forms. English uses auxiliary verbs in a rather different way: the verb to have is always used for compound tenses, both for transitive and intransitive verbs ("I have gone", "it had rained", "we had returned", etc.); verb to be is always used for passive forms ("I am helped", "you were defeated", etc.). Interrogative and negative sentences, instead, use the auxiliary verbs to do and to have ("do you go...?", "have you gone...?", "I do not go"). To become confident with the construction of Italian compound tenses you should focus well the simple pattern mentioned above and summarized by the following lines:

transitive verbs form compound tenses by using avere + past participle of the main verb most intransitive verbs use essere + past participle of the main verb a few intransitive verbs use avere + past participle of the main verb, as transitive ones

.3 ESSERE (TO BE) PART I SIMPLE INDICATIVE TENSES

The Italian verb essere (= to be) is strongly irregular but also very important, because it is one of the two auxiliary verbs used in forming compound tenses with all other verbs. Furthermore, essere is also used to introduce a copula (i.e. when the verb to be expresses a condition, a quality, not an object, like "I am old"). Therefore, it is important to learn it before discussing regular verbs.