Tutorial Transcript

Hello everyone! In today's video I would like to talk about grammar, specifically about verb tenses you need to study to start speaking Italian. So this is video is mainly for A1 - A2 - B1 students. Italian language has 7 modes and 21 tenses, it's a lot! So it's important to understand how to optimize your study and what tenses prioritize. Italian modes are indicative, condizionale, congiuntivo, imperativo, infinito, participio, gerundio. Each of these modes has from 1 to 8 tenses, so there's a lot to learn! If you want to know more about this topic, I've filmed a dedicated video on how the verbal system in Italian works. You'll find the link in the description below. It goes without saying that you do not need to know and use all of these modes. Even if you reach a point where you are able to recognize them in a text, that's great for now. At the beginning, I think you should dive into verb tenses that allow you to communicate efficiently. First of all, present tense of indicativo, this is useful to talk about the present, about ourselves, about things that concern our lives, but also about the future. For example: It's sunny today. It will rain tomorrow. In contemporary Italian it is accepted to use the presente tense to talk about a future action in informal conversation. Studying the future tense is a plus for now, you will need to study it sooner or later because it will be useful for less relaxed contexts. To talk about past actions passato prossimo of indicativo is definitely needed. This tense is used to express past and unique actions that have come to an end. For example: Marco left early this morning. Stefania has already finished studying. We also need imperfetto of indicativo to talk about descriptive past actions, to describe people, things, situations in the past (that are not valid in the present). We can't use passato prossimo describe things in the past. An example: It was cold last week. I had short hair three years ago. Condizionale mood needs to be studied entirely, because it is used to express possibility that an action might occur. At first, you can only study the present condizionale, which we can use to request things in a polite way. For example, "I'll have a coffee, please!" when you are at an Italian bar. We use present condizionale to express desires, for example: I would like to go on holiday. Subjunctive mood needs to be studied entirely, even if you can start with just the presente and imperfetto. Presente is used to express opinions, we all know how important it is to express opinions nowadays! An example: I think this book is very interesting. Imperfetto congiuntivo is used to express an hypothesis, something which might take place in real life, but also to daydream . For example: If I could leave right now! If I had more free time! Imperativo is also important to know (it only has one tense, present tense) to give orders, indications, encourage someone to do something. Present infinitive, past participle and present gerund are tenses to study as well. These three modes are called "implicit" because they do not have subject pronouns and are mainly used to form other tenses and grammar structures. For example, past participle is used to form passato prossimo and all other compound tenses. For example: eaten, gone. Present gerund is used to form the structure "stare gerundio" to talk about present actions, the so-called present progressive. Example: I'm talking and you are listening. A recap. Verb tenses to start you off with Italian language are: presente (indicativo), passato prossimo (indicativo), imperfetto (indicativo), presente (condizionale), passato (condizionale), presente (congiuntivo), imperfetto (congiuntivo). imperativo, presente (infinito), passato (participio), presente (gerundio). These are the verb tenses to know if you're starting with Italian. As you keep on studying and improving, you'll realize that you'll need more tenses to express new concepts and to express more advanced sentences. I hope this was useful! If you have questions, do not hesitate to leave them in the comment section below. Good luck with your work and I'll see you soon! Ciao! If you have some more time, please watch these lessons as well!