italian sequence of tenses

“Dov’è Laura?” la concordanza dei tempi: il modo indicativo – Quiz & Webcast

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concordanza-dei-tempi

The “concordanza dei tempi”, will help you to say what comes before, after or during another action. In Italiano!

Ciao a tutti.

The characters of the following very short story, made of two sentences, are you and your friend Laura. She comes to see you and you know that. We just have two actions: the fact that you know (your main clause) and the fact she’s coming (subordinate clause).

The relative position in time of these two actions can change the meaning of the story. You knew it in the past, you know it now or you will know it later (main clause); she comes before, at the same time or after you know it (subordinate clause).

Today you will learn the Italian sequence of tenses of the indicativo mood. Free quiz for everyone and premium podcast for members.

Let’s have a look.

concordanza-dei-tempi

These are all simple and valid examples. You have other options of course.

It depends on the sequence of the events you want to describe. Mind, the sequence must be logical. I can’t say for example Seppi che Laura è arrivata. The passato remoto (remote past) can’t happen after a passato prossimo (near past). In this case, the trapassato prossimo, “the past of the past” is the correct option. Seppi che Laura era arrivata. In the same spirit, If I knew that Laura would come later, I must use the condizionale composto “the future in the past”. Ho saputo che Laura sarebbe arrivata. The past progressive form is also possible (Laura stava arrivando)

  • In other cases, for example, instead of saying sapevo for representing the passato, you can say ho saputo (passato prossimo) seppi (passato remoto) avevo saputo (trapassato prossimo). Same with arrivare.
  • For the presente, you can also use the progressive form (Laura sta arrivando).
  • The scenarios of the futuro are interesting too. You can go with the presente indicativo as a future tense and the futuro anteriore (a perfect tense) to represent a complete action in the future.

I’m sure that some examples will help you to understand the Italian sequence of tenses, la concordanza dei tempi dell’indicativo. Please try the quiz and listen to the podcast.

In this exercise, I will write the most common and logical verbs and tenses but, in some cases, not all the possible ones. If you have different solutions for the sentences or have doubts, feel free to ask. info@dante-learning.com

Alla prossima!

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Il discorso indiretto, Italian indirect speech: a simple guide.

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Italian indirect speech

If you want to report what someone says or thinks, you have two options: the direct or indirect speech.

  • Mario ha detto: “voglio andare a Roma”. – Mario said: “I want to go to Rome”.

  • Mario ha detto che voleva andare a Roma – Mario said he wanted to go to Rome.

In the first case – discorso diretto – the speaker quotes exactly what Mario said, without filters.

In the second case – discorso indiretto – the speaker reports what Mario said, changing all the references of time and context according to his point of view. “Mario ha detto…” places the action in the past. Therefore, the presente indicativo, becomes imperfetto in the indirect speech and the subjects moves from IO to LUI. Let’s see how the sequence of tenses changes,

The sequence of tenses

If we quote an event happening in the present, we can use the presente indicativo, “Mario dice”, and keep everything in the presente: “Mario dice che vuole andare a Roma”.

In most cases however, we quote what people said in the past. Mario ha detto…

Let’s see how the sequence of tenses change.

Italian indirect speech

Again, the subject changes from the discorso diretto to the indiretto according to the point of view of the speaker. In this case, IO -> LUI, except for the last example TU -> IMPERSONALE because of the imperativo. In the first case, we can describe different scenarios depending on the action “voglio andare a Roma”. If Mario still wants to do that, we can say that “Mario ha detto che vuole andare a Roma”.

You can play around with different tenses and see how they change in the Italian indirect speech.

The point of view can  also modify the place in space from which the action is observed, the ownership of objects and so on. Let’s take for example the sentences:

  • Mario ha detto: “vengo lì a Roma, a casa tua domani”.

Assuming that Mario said that to me, I can report what he said as follows:

  • Mario ha detto che veniva (or sarebbe venuto) qui a Roma, a casa mia il giorno dopo.

My perspective changes whatever Mario said. Even the time reference domani changes into il giorno dopo, the day after. Remember to change all the relevant elements in the new context of the Italian indirect speech.

Grazie per avere letto questo post, se ci sono domande fatemi sapere. Ciao.

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The Italian sequence of tenses – La concordanza dei tempi – Indicativo

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la-concordanza-dei-tempi-all'indicativo

Learn how to match correctly all the tenses of the Indicativo.

The sequence of tenses in Italian follows a rather precise set of rules. This set of rules, goes under the name of Concordanza dei tempi.

In order to have a sequence, we obviously need two more sentences, one of which is the main clause.

The main clause is our point of view, all the other verbs (subordinate) should be seen in perspective.

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The Italian sequence of tenses

La concordanza dei tempi – Indicativo

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Painting: Giovanni Boldini – La signora in rosa – 1916

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