How to say as long as in Italian
In today’s short post, you’re going to learn how to say “as long as” in Italian.
There are different ways of saying so, but we’re going to focus on the more colloquial style.
Have a look at the example below:
- You can have a dog as long as you promise to take care of it.
We could also say:
You can have a dog only if you promise to take care of it.
So, as you can see, we’re talking about an expression that introduces a condition. If that condition is not met, then something won’t happen.
It’s the same in Italian.
Let’s find out how to say as long as in Italian!
Sempre che + subjunctive
As we said, we’re going to focus on how to say as long as in Italian in a colloquial way.
So, basically, this is what you’ll hear more often among Italian speakers.
Here’s the structure:
- sempre che + present subjunctive
Don’t try to translate it literally because it doesn’t make sense.
Let’s rather have a look at an example:
Puoi venire anche tu, sempre che ti comporti bene.
You can come too, as long as you behave well.
As you can see, we’re talking about a condition.
If we want to say a negative sentence, we can simply add the word non:
- sempre che + non + present subjunctive
Puoi venire anche tu, sempre che non ti comporti male.
You can come too, as long as you don’t behave badly.
If you don’t know or don’t remember how to form the present subjunctive, read the following section. If you do, then skip to the following section.
The present subjunctive
In order to form the present of the subjunctive of regular verbs in Italian, you basically have to keep the root of the verb in the present of the indicative (parl-, ved-, part- if we take the roots of the verbs below) and add the correct endings, which are in bold in the table below:
| parlare | vedere | partire | |
| io | parli | veda | parta |
| tu | parli | veda | parta |
| lui/lei | parli | veda | parta |
| noi | parliamo | vediamo | partiamo |
| voi | parliate | vediate | partiate |
| loro | parlino | vedano | partano |
Here’s the present subjunctive of five of the most common irregular verbs:
- essere (to be): io sia, tu sia, lui/lei sia, noi siamo, voi siate, loro siano
- avere (to have): io abbia, tu abbia, lui/lei abbia, noi abbiamo, voi abbiate, loro abbiano
- venire (to come): io venga, tu venga, lui/lei venga, noi veniamo, voi veniate, loro vengano
- andare (to go): io vada, tu vada, lui/lei vada, noi andiamo, voi andiate, loro vadano
- volere (to want): io voglia, tu voglia, lui/lei voglia, noi vogliamo, voi vogliate, loro vogliano
Examples with sempre che
Let’s now have a look at some more examples:
Partiremo domani, sempre che non piova.
We’ll leave tomorrow as long as it doesn’t rain.
Sempre che tu sia d’accordo, potremmo rimanere un po’ di più.
As long as you agree, we could stay a little more.
Parleremo con loro sempre che vengano.
We’ll speak to them as long as they come.
Verrò a trovarvi, sempre che voi siate a casa.
I’ll come to see you as long as you’re home.
Va bene sempre che sia vero.
It’s ok as long as it’s true.
Rimedieremo, sempre che voglia parlare.
We’ll make up as long as you want to talk.
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