Essere and avere: the two verbs Italian is built on

Essere (to be) and avere (to have) hold up most of Italian. Both are irregular, both are unavoidable, and every compound tense is built from one or the other. Learn the two present tenses first; everything else on this page hangs off them.

Learn these two tables and stop negotiating

There is no pattern to derive: these two have been worn smooth by constant use. The regular verbs can be conjugated on sight; these must be memorised.

Both in a sentence

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1. 1lei
2. 2ha un cane
3. 3ha una macchina
4. 4ha un ombrello

Lei ha un cane, una macchina e un ombrello: she has a dog, a car and an umbrella. The h of ha is never said.

Sono twice

Sono is both I am and they are. Context sorts it out, and so does a pronoun when needed:

• Io sono qui. - I'm here.
• Loro sono qui. - They're here.

The silent h

Every h in avere is silent. It is there only to tell words apart on the page:

So Ho un'ora. (I have an hour) is said exactly like o un'ora. The Italian alphabet has the rest of the silent-h story.

Where Italian says have and English says be

Avere does jobs English gives to be. Learn these as fixed phrases, because the literal English will not get you there:

• Ho fameI’m hungry
• Ho seteI’m thirsty
• Ho freddoI’m cold
• Ho caldoI’m hot
• Ho pauraI’m afraid

They work in every person: Hai ragione (you're right), Abbiamo fame (we're hungry). Age is the one learners get wrong longest. To ask it, say Quanti anni hai?, how old are you? Never use essere for it: sono vent'anni is wrong.

Essere has a fixed phrase in return, c'è and ci sono, there is and there are: C'è tempo is there's time. C'è and ci sono covers it.