For many learning Italian it's confusing as to when to use the passato prossimo (present perfect) rather than the past (passato). Things get even more complicated when you add geography into the equation. In the South of Italy you will find many people who use the passato when speaking, which while common is not correct. In the North, however, the majority of people will use the correct passato prossimo, which expresses the past.
Modal verbs are words used to give additional information about the main verb in a sentence, a verb being a word that expresses existence, action, or occurrence. In Italian the following words are modal verbs:
The reflexive pronouns (i pronomi reflessivi), mi, ti, si, ci, vi, si, are identical in form to direct object pronouns, except for the third-person form si (which is the same in the singular and in the plural). The following table includes the reflexive pronouns in Italian.
Il Gerundio nella lingua italiana esprime l'idea del verbo in funzione di complemento (di tempo, di modo, di mezzo, di causa ecc); es. Lavorando ( = col lavoro) mi guadagno la vita; Avendo sbagliato ( = A causa dello sbaglio) sono stati puniti. Il gerundio ha solo 2 tempi: presente e passato. Il presente ha il valore di ogni altro presente; la parte che cambia è la parte finale che si aggiunge alla radice del verbo: -ando per i verbi in -are; -endo per i verbi in -ere/-ire/- isc. Il gerundio passao è composto dall'ausiliare di avere/essere al presente del gerundio + participio passato del verbo. Quindi il gerundio si forma dalla radice del presente indicativo +
Il verbo può indicare un'azione che passa direttamente su un complemento detto oggetto o diretto come: Mangio il pane; Guardo la campagna, Rompo la noce, in cui l'idea di mangiare, del guardare, del rompere, non si può concepire senza quella dell'oggetto su cui ricadono queste azioni. Tali verbi si dicono TRANSITIVI perchè appunto l'azione passa dal soggetto sul complemento oggetto.
Se il verbo indica una azione che, compiuta dal soggetto, resta in esso, come: io rido, tu dormi, si dice INTRANSITIVO.
Certi verbi come incominciare, aumentare, rovinare, terminare,ardere, annegare, ecc, possono essere usati sia in modo transitivo che in modo intransitivo.
Verbs can be active or passive voice. This means that when the subject of the verb does the action of the verb, we can say the verb is active, alternatively a verb is in the passive voice if the subject has the action of the verb made.
The passive voice (la forma passiva) is a construction in which the direct object becomes the subject and the subject becomes the agent.
Only transitive verbs have passive form.
The Italian passive voice is form exactly the same way as in English: the verb of the active sentence is turned into to be with the same tense) + the verb's past participle:
The conditional perfect is a tense that is used to express the idea of "would have." Some examples of sentences in the conditional perfect in English are:
1. I would have bought a house, but I didn't have the money.
2. She woud have come but she was ill.
Here is how you do it:
1. You need the conditional tense of the verb Avere
Avrei = I would have Avresti = You (singular) would have Avrebbe = he/she would have Avremmo = We would have Avreste = you (plural) would have Avrebbero = They would have
2. You need the past participle of the verb you are using.
In Italian language subjunctive mood is expanding and it's active, however in modern English it's disappearing. The subjunctive mood expresses doubt, (I doubt they'll come = io dubito che loro vengano), possibility, emotion or an uncertain event (I hope that you'll come = spero che tu venga).
The imperative tense in Italian expresses a command (sit down - siediti, come here - vieni qui, bring me the ticket - prendimi il biglietto, etc...), but it can also express an invitation to do or to have something: have some cake, feel fre to ask, etc).
In English, commands can be interpreted as rude and insensitive, but we can hear often them in informal Italian, but the most important thing is don't use this informal imperative with strangers, because it could be considered quite rude or primitive.
In Italian grammar, we use the conditional tense when it refers to an action that is possible or likely, but dependent upon a condition.
Example: I would go on holiday, but I haven't enough time.
Vorrei andare in vacanza ma non ho abbastanza tempo
It can be used in two tenses, the present, by conjugation of the appropriate noun, or the past, using the auxiliary conjugated in the conditional, with the past participle of the appropriate noun:
Verbs can be used in different ways, active, passive and reflexive forms.
When the subject of the sentence is doing the action we use the active form:
Es.
Tu meriti un premio. = You deserve a prize.
In the passive voice the verb is changed so its object becomes the grammatical subject. When the "agent"of the action is specified, the passive voice is expressed by the following sentence:
Subject + essere + past participle + da + agent
Es. Questa barca è stata costruita da Carlo. = This boat was built by Charles.
The future tense is used in order to express events that will happen in the future. Any Italian verb that is conjugated in the future tense is translated back into English with the word "will"
In order to conjugate a verb in the future tense, you always start with your infinitive. Remember that infinitives end in "are" "ere" and "ire".
The next thing I have to do is to drop the final "e" from the infinitive.
The third thing I do is to add the appropriate ending depending on what the subject of the sentence is.
Most of the time the past tense in Italian is formed by taking the verb "avere" + the past participle. There are however some cases where instead of using "avere" we must use essere + the past particple
The imperfect tense is probably one of the easiest tenses to form in Italian since it has very few irregular verbs. We use the imperfect tense to describe past tense events that are ongoing or have no definite end. This tense many times corresponds to the English expressions "was" "were" and "used to". When we use these expressions we are talking about an event in the past that never really stopped. Here are some examples:
When I was young I used to go to the movies all the time.
They were listening to the radio when...
My mother always used to make frittata for me as a child.
Verbs in Italian are called reflexive when the subject is carrying out the action with respect to himself or herself, for example when a man combs his hair. As you might expect, not all verbs can be reflexive: only the ones that the subject can do himself, such as falling asleep. To create a reflexive verb, you add the ending -si, etiher at the end of the verb in its infinitive state (addomentarsi) or before the verb when it is conjugated (si e' addormentato).
