The Verb “Essere” in Italian
Essere: Meaning
“Essere, o non essere, questo è il dilemma.”
Do you recognize this phrase? It’s the translation of Hamlet’s “To be or not to be, that is the question”. So you are guessing right: essere is the verb “to be” in Italian.
Essere: Grammar
Learning the verbessere is essential if you want to learn Italian because it is one of the most common verbs, together with avere and fare.
Essere is an auxiliary verb, also called helping verbs because they help create compound verbs, that is, those verbs that are composed of more than one verb. An example of an English compound verb is the present perfect “I have done”.
Auxiliary verbs convey grammatical information like tense, aspect, and modality, therefore it is crucial that every language learner properly learns how to use them in their target language.
Essere is the Italian most irregular verb, which means that you’ll have to memorize all of its forms in al verb tenses. But don’t worry—once you understand how compound tenses are made, you’ll be halfway there.
To be in Italian: Conjugation
Italian Verbs
Let me first start with a quick overview of Italian verbal system. Italian has four moods: indicative, subjunctive, conditional, and imperative. Each of these moods has different tenses, like present, past, or future.
What is relevant for this grammar lesson is the indicative mood. In Italian, it is composed of eight tenses: four simple tenses, and four compound tenses. The indicative mood in Italian is used to express certainty that an action happened or that it will happen.
Essere: Conjugation
As mentioned before, essere is an irregular verb, this means that you can’t apply the rules of regular verbs when conjugating it, but you have to learn it by heart.
Let me first show you how you can conjugate the irregular verb essere in the present tense:
| Io sono | I am |
| Tu sei | You are |
| Lui/lei è | He/she is |
| Noi siamo | We are |
| Voi siete | You are |
| Loro sono | They are |
In Italian, unlike in English, it is not mandatory that we explicitly use personal pronouns (io, tu, etc.) when conjugating a verb. This is because, as you might have noticed already, Italian has a specific conjugation for each person, so there is no need to specify further information as to who the subject is.
Examples:
A: Sei inglese?
B: Are you English?
A: No, sono scozzese.
B: No, I’m Scottish.
Learn more about Italian verb conjugation.
When to use “Essere”?
The verb essere in Italian is used in three main contexts:
- To describe someone/something
- To talk about someone’s origin/nationality
- To indicate possession
This makes essere the most used verb in Italian. Let me now give you some context to use essere in Italian.
General Descriptions
We use essere to describe people, objects, and places. When we describe something or someone we usually talk about their characteristics, like color, personality, age, shape, size, etc.
This is why, in this case, the verb essere is usually followed by an adjective, like in the examples below:
Mia sorella è simpatica.
My sister is fun.
Quel fiore è rosa.
That flower is pink.
Origin
When we want to say where a person is from or what an object belongs to, we use the following structure essere + di. For example:
Io sono di Milano.
I am from Milan.
Il dottore è di Bologna.
The doctor is from Bologna.
Questa chiave è della mia auto.
This key is my car’s.
Nationality
A nice mix of the two previous uses, is when we want to talk about the country of origin of someone or something. In this case we are saying where a person is from, but we are using an adjective to describe their origin, therefore we use essere + nationality.
Luca è francese.
Luca is French.
A: Di dove sei?
B: Sono tedesco.
A: Where are you from?
B: I’m German.
Possession
Also very similar to the contextual use of “origin” related to objects. In fact, we can use the verb essere to talk about possessions.
Questo cane è di Lucia.
This dog is Lucia’s.
Questa borsa è mia.
This bag is mine.
Sei Pronto/a!
You are ready! Now it’s you turn to study, practice, and learn Italian. Check out the free preview of the first 10 lessons of the course and get ready to speak Italian with us. Now, your next step it to learn the difference between Essere and Stare.
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