There are 21 tenses in Italian. But you ONLY need 3 to start speaking Italian confidently. In fact, Italians rely heavily on the same few tenses in everyday conversation.
So in this guide, I’ll show you the 3 Italian verb tenses you should focus on first AND how to use them, so you don’t waste years learning grammar you rarely need in everyday conversation.
Pronti? Cominciamo! (Ready? Let’s get started!)
TL;DR: The 3 Italian Verb Tenses You Should Learn First
Italian has 21 tenses, but you don’t need to master all of them before you start speaking confidently. In everyday conversation, a small number of Italian verb tenses and forms will give you the biggest return.
Start by focusing on these three:
- Presente — for what you do now, plans for the future, and even polite requests.
- Passato prossimo — for completed actions and events in the past.
- Imperativo — for commands, suggestions, encouragement, and common everyday expressions.
Once you’re comfortable with these, you can gradually add other Italian verb tenses such as the imperfetto, future, conditional, and congiuntivo.
1. Presente: The Most Useful Italian Verb Tense for Beginners
First, I’m going to show you the MOST versatile Italian tense. It can do the job of several others, which means you can save time learning unnecessary grammar and still express yourself in a huge range of situations.
You might think you need to use a completely different tense every time you want to talk about a different moment in time.
To talk about something happening today, you mentally load the present tense. To talk about next month, you scramble to remember how to conjugate the future tense. Then, if you want to politely ask for something, you fumble your way through the conditional tense.
Before you know it, you’ve got three different tenses and countless verb conjugations swirling around in your head. By the time you figure out what to say, the conversation has moved on or, worse, you freeze and don’t say anything.
But what most courses and textbooks don’t tell you is that Italian has one incredibly powerful tense that can do the job of all three of these things and more.
Think of a Swiss Army knife. One tool contains several smaller tools folded away, ready to use whenever you need them.
This Italian tense works in much the same way.
So, the first tense you need to know is the presente.
Use the Presente to Talk About What Is Happening Now
The first and most common way to use it is to talk about the present, the here and now:
- Vado a Roma. — I’m going to Rome.
- Mangio un gelato. — I’m eating an ice cream.
Use the Presente to Talk About the Future
Here’s where it gets interesting. The second way you can use the present tense is to talk about the future.
That’s right. In many everyday situations, you don’t need to use the future tense.
All you need to do is add a time marker such as tomorrow, next month, this weekend, etc.
Here’s the formula:
PRESENTE + TIME MARKER = WHAT WILL HAPPEN
- Stasera mangiamo fuori. — Tonight we will eat out. / Tonight we’re eating out.
- Dopodomani arriva mia sorella. — My sister will arrive the day after tomorrow. / My sister arrives the day after tomorrow.
- Sabato lavoro. — I will work on Saturday. / I’m working on Saturday.
- La prossima settimana parto per l’Italia. — Next week I will leave for Italy. / Next week I’m leaving for Italy.
Notice how the verbs remain in the present tense: mangiamo, arriva, lavoro, parto. The time marker tells us when the action is happening.
To be clear, this isn’t just a beginner’s shortcut that Italians will politely tolerate. Using the present tense for scheduled or planned future events is completely natural in everyday Italian.
Use the Presente to Make Polite Requests
Let’s move on to the third way you can use the present tense.
You’ve probably been told you need to use the conditional tense to make polite requests:
- Vorrei un caffè. — I’d like a coffee.
- Potresti passare il sale? — Could you pass the salt?
While this is an option, it’s not the only one.
What’s important to understand is that English speakers and Italians don’t always express politeness in exactly the same way. This was something I had to get used to myself.
In English, we tend to use the conditional a lot. We say things like Could I…?, May I…?, and Would I be able to…? all the time.
In Italian, you can often use the present tense together with an appropriate tone of voice and courtesy words.
Here is the formula:
PRESENTE + PER FAVORE/GRAZIE = POLITE REQUEST
- Mi passi il sale, per favore? — Can you pass the salt, please?
- Prendo un cornetto, grazie. — I’ll have a croissant, thanks.
- Posso avere il conto, per favore? — Can I have the bill, please?
Attenzione! Sometimes even saying per favore and grazie repeatedly can sound more formal or distant than you might expect.
I remember being told by a friend’s nonna not to say per favore and grazie to her every time she prepared a meal or served us food. She said it created a sense of distance between us because she was doing these things for us because she wanted to.
Use the Presente Instead of the Present Progressive
Before I reveal the next tense, there’s a fourth way you can use the present tense.
In English, when we are doing something right now, we say things like:
- I’m going to the supermarket.
- I’m having a shower.
- Are you eating?
There are a lot of -ing endings in English. This is called the present progressive. While an equivalent structure exists in Italian, Italian doesn’t use it in exactly the same way or as frequently as English.
As a beginner, you can often use the present tense and add a time marker to make it clear that something is happening now.
Here is the formula:
ADESSO/ORA + PRESENTE = HAPPENING RIGHT NOW
- Adesso/Ora mangio. — I’m eating now. Instead of: Sto mangiando.
- Adesso/Ora andiamo al bar. — We’re going to the bar now. Instead of: Stiamo andando al bar.
- Adesso/Ora faccio la doccia. — I’m having a shower now. Instead of: Sto facendo la doccia.
Are you enjoying this lesson? Don’t let the learning stop here. Make sure you download your free PDF cheat-sheet for this lesson, which includes all these tips and examples in one handy guide PLUS A BONUS QUIZ. To get your copy, just enter your email below.
2. Passato Prossimo: The Essential Italian Past Tense for Everyday Conversation
Now that we’ve got the present and future covered, I’m going to show you the main Italian tense you need to start talking about completed events in the past, so you can express yourself without getting bogged down learning every possible past tense at once.
Italian has several past tenses and past forms, including passato prossimo, imperfetto, passato remoto, trapassato prossimo and others. Each has its own uses and rules.
This can feel overwhelming. You might think you need a PhD just to tell someone what you had for dinner last night!
But as a beginner, you do not need to treat every past tense as equally important.
Think about an Italian bar. Behind the counter is a long list of different coffee options: ristretto, lungo, macchiato, corretto, marocchino, caffellatte, americano, decaffeinato… the choice can feel overwhelming.
But watch what happens when an Italian walks in. A classic go-to order is simply un caffè.
That’s what this next tense is like. It’s an essential option that lets you talk about a huge number of everyday past events.
So, the second tense you need to know is the passato prossimo.
How the Passato Prossimo Works in Italian
The first thing to understand is that one Italian structure can correspond to several different English past forms.
For example, Ho mangiato can correspond to:
- I ate.
- I have eaten.
- I did eat.
Where English can use several different structures, Italian uses the passato prossimo.
Here’s the basic formula:
AVERE or ESSERE + PAST PARTICIPLE
- Ho mangiato bene. — I ate well.
- Abbiamo visto il Colosseo. — We saw the Colosseum.
- Siamo andati al mare. — We went to the beach.
- Sono arrivata ieri. — I arrived yesterday.
Notice that you have two possible auxiliary verbs: avere or essere.
When to Use Avere or Essere With the Passato Prossimo
Which one do you use?
This is where many learners get confused and panic. A simple rule of thumb is that most Italian verbs use avere, while a smaller group use essere. Verbs that use essere include many verbs of movement and change of state, as well as reflexive verbs.
Some common examples include andare, venire, arrivare, partire, tornare, uscire, entrare, nascere and morire.
Attenzione! Don’t try to memorise a huge list of verbs that take essere all at once. Start by learning the most common ones you’ll actually use in daily conversation.
And if you get it wrong while you’re learning? Italians will usually still understand what you’re trying to say. Don’t let worrying about whether it’s ho andato or sono andato stop you from speaking.
Bonus: The Imperfetto Forms Beginners Should Learn
There’s one important gap. The passato prossimo is ideal for completed actions and events, but it isn’t the tense normally used to describe how things were or ongoing background situations in the past.
For that, Italians use another past tense called the imperfetto.
But you don’t necessarily need to master every possible form immediately. Learning a few high-frequency forms of essere and fare in the imperfetto gives you a useful starting point.
- Ero stanco. — I was tired.
- Era bellissimo. — It was beautiful.
- Quando ero giovane/piccolo… — When I was young/little…
- Faceva freddo/caldo. — It was cold/hot.
3. Imperativo: The Italian Verb Form You Need for Natural Conversation
Next, I’m going to show you one verb form that is incredibly useful if you want to express your personality and sound more natural in everyday Italian.
Most Italian textbooks and courses focus on teaching you how to say what you want, where you’re going, and what you did yesterday. But Italians do much more than this. They make suggestions, offer encouragement, react, and use exclamations you’ll hear constantly.
If you never learn how to do these things yourself, it becomes much harder to feel like you’re truly participating in the conversation and connecting with people.
Think about Italian hand gestures you’ve seen a thousand times. The fingers pinched together. The flick under the chin. The hand rolling from side to side.
One swift movement and the whole message lands. Encouragement, disbelief, joy: all delivered in a single gesture.
That’s what the imperativo can do. With just one word, you can say a lot.
Use the Imperativo for Commands and Instructions
The first and most common way to use the imperativo is to give a command or instruction to someone you address informally with tu.
For many regular verbs, take the verb stem and use -a for -are verbs or -i for -ere and -ire verbs in the informal singular imperative.
-ARE VERBS → -A / -ERE AND -IRE VERBS → -I
- Guardare → Guarda! — Look!
- Aspettare → Aspetta! — Wait!
- Bastare → Basta! — Enough!
- Prendere → Prendi! — Take!
- Sentire → Senti! — Listen!
And, of course, you’ll hear your nonna say Mangia! Mangia! — Eat! Eat!
Use the Imperativo for Common Italian Exclamations
Here’s where it gets interesting. The second way you can use the imperativo is for common exclamations.
IMPERATIVO ON ITS OWN = ITALIAN EXCLAMATION
- Dai! — Come on! / Go on!
- Prova! — Try! / Give it a try!
- Vai! — Go on! / Nice one! / You’ve got this!
Use the Noi Form to Say “Let’s” in Italian
The third way you can use this form is to make suggestions or invitations to a group you’re part of.
In English, we say “let’s go” or “let’s eat.” In Italian, that idea is expressed using the noi form of the verb.
NOI FORM = LET’S DO SOMETHING
- Andiamo! — Let’s go!
- Mangiamo! — Let’s eat!
- Prendiamo un caffè. — Let’s get a coffee.
- Aspettiamo un attimo. — Let’s wait a moment.
Which Italian Verb Tenses Should Beginners Learn Next?
Does this mean you should never learn any of the other Italian verb tenses?
Of course not. As you progress, the imperfetto, future, conditional and, yes, even the congiuntivo will all become useful in their own way.
But you do not need to invite the entire Italian tense family into your house on day one.
Start with what gives you the biggest return. That’s my 80/20 Method at work: focus first on the essential Italian tenses and verb forms that allow you to communicate in the widest range of everyday situations.
Even though you now know the 3 Italian verb forms I recommend prioritising to start speaking Italian, none of it matters if you don’t know the most useful Italian verbs to conjugate with them.
So read this guide next, where I’ll reveal the top 16 Italian verbs you should learn first, so you don’t waste time learning verbs you’ll rarely use.
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