Why this next
You can already greet someone and say your name (Lesson 1). The next gap is saying what you are and what you need — "I'm here for...", "I have an appointment", "I need...". Both run through just two verbs: essere (to be) and avere (to have). Learn io, tu and Lei forms of each and you can build most of the sentences a bureaucracy visit or a shop errand actually requires.
Essere — to be (present tense, full paradigm)
| Person | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| io (I) | sono | Sono Andrea. — I'm Andrea. |
| tu (you, informal) | sei | Sei di qui? — Are you from here? |
| lui/lei/Lei (he/she/you-formal) | è | È il direttore? — Are you the director? |
| noi (we) | siamo | Siamo qui da poco. — We've been here only a short while. |
| voi (you, plural) | siete | Siete pronti? — Are you (all) ready? |
| loro (they) | sono | Sono i miei vicini. — They're my neighbours. |
Note the curiosity: io sono and loro sono are identical — "I am" and "they are" share the same verb form. Context and the pronoun (usually dropped, see below) disambiguate.
Avere — to have (present tense, full paradigm)
| Person | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| io (I) | ho | Ho un appuntamento. — I have an appointment. |
| tu (you, informal) | hai | Hai tempo? — Do you have time? |
| lui/lei/Lei (he/she/you-formal) | ha | Ha un documento? — Do you have an ID? |
| noi (we) | abbiamo | Abbiamo due valigie. — We have two suitcases. |
| voi (you, plural) | avete | Avete domande? — Do you (all) have questions? |
| loro (they) | hanno | Hanno un appartamento vicino. — They have an apartment nearby. |
Exception: both are irregular
Neither verb follows the regular -are/-ere/-ire conjugation patterns you'll meet later — their forms (sono, sei, è… and ho, hai, ha…) simply have to be memorized as-is. That's normal: "to be" and "to have" are irregular in almost every language, because they're used so constantly that they resist getting smoothed into a regular pattern over the centuries.
Avere shows up in idioms where English uses "to be"
A named exception worth knowing early: Italian uses avere (to have) for physical/mental states that English expresses with "to be." Get caught out by this once and you won't forget it.
| avere fame / sete | to be hungry / thirsty (lit. "to have hunger/thirst") |
| avere caldo / freddo | to be hot / cold |
| avere paura | to be afraid |
| avere fretta | to be in a hurry |
| avere ragione / torto | to be right / wrong |
| avere ... anni | to be ... years old (e.g. Ho 30 anni — I'm 30) |
| avere bisogno di | to need (lit. "to have need of") — from Lesson 2's phrases below |
Put them to work: bureaucracy-ready phrases
| Sono qui per il permesso di soggiorno. | I'm here for the residence permit. |
| Ho un appuntamento alle dieci. | I have an appointment at ten. |
| Ho bisogno di aiuto. | I need help. (lit. "I have need of help") |
Why you keep seeing sentences with no "I" or "you"
Italian is a pro-drop language: the verb ending already encodes who's doing the action (-o for io, -i for tu, and so on), so the subject pronoun is usually just dropped. "Sono qui per il permesso di soggiorno" doesn't need io in front — the -o ending on sono already says "I." You only add the pronoun back in for emphasis or contrast: "Io sono italiano, lei è francese" ("I'm Italian, she's French" — the pronouns highlight the contrast). This is also why learning the full paradigm above matters more than it might seem: often the verb ending is the only clue to who's being talked about.
Lucrezia walks through both verbs with pronunciation and example sentences.
Practice
At the comune desk: "___ un appuntamento alle 10." Which word goes in the blank?
Fill in the blank: "___ qui per il permesso di soggiorno." (I'm here for the residence permit.)
The official asks you: "___ un documento?" (Do you have an ID?) — which form of avere are they using, given they'd address you formally?
Fill in the blank (noi-form of avere): "___ due valigie." (We have two suitcases.)
You're hungry. How do you say so in Italian?
→ Open the reference cheat sheet for this lesson.