Most Italian learners waste months, if not years, trying to master all 21 Italian tenses. The truth is, you only need a handful to actually speak Italian confidently in everyday conversations. So in this guide, I’m ranking every Italian tense from essential to almost useless, so you only learn what Italians actually use 80% of the time.

Before we start, why is this ranking so important? There’s no point wasting time learning tenses that you don’t actually need, especially if you’re just starting out. By focusing first on the top 20% of tenses that you actually need to speak in 80% of real-world conversations, you’ll progress faster than most learners who try to learn everything.

And these rankings aren’t just my opinion. They’re based on how often Italians actually use these tenses in real speech, backed by linguistic frequency studies. So, with that said, let’s start with the first tense.

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TL;DR: Italian Tenses Ranked from Most Useful to Least Useful

You do not need to master every Italian tense to start speaking confidently. The fastest way to learn Italian tenses is to focus first on the ones Italians use most in everyday conversation.

S Tier: Essential Italian Tenses You Need First

• Presente — I speak / I am speaking / I do speak — Parlo italiano
• Passato prossimo — I ate / I have eaten — Ho mangiato la pizza

These two tenses cover a huge amount of spoken Italian and should be your first priority.

A Tier: Important Italian Tenses to Learn Next

• Imperativo — commands and instructions — Mangia! = Eat!
• Imperfetto — descriptions, habits, and “used to” actions — Da bambino giocavo a calcio = As a child, I used to play football
• Condizionale presente — polite requests and “would” sentences — Vorrei un caffè = I’d like a coffee

These help you sound more natural, polite, and flexible in everyday Italian.

B Tier: Useful but Not Urgent Italian Tenses

• Futuro semplice — I will go — Andrò al cinema sabato = I’ll go to the cinema on Saturday

It’s useful, but Italians often use the present tense for near-future plans, so beginners can safely learn this later.

C Tier: Common Italian Tenses You Can Recognise First

• Congiuntivo presente — opinions, doubts, wishes — Penso che sia stanco = I think he is tired
• Congiuntivo passato — completed subjunctive actions — Che io abbia mangiato = That I have eaten
• Congiuntivo imperfetto — hypotheticals — Se fossi ricco = If I were rich
• Condizionale passato — would have — Avrei mangiato = I would have eaten

These are important for advanced Italian, but not urgent for everyday survival conversations.

D and E Tier: Italian Tenses to Leave Until Later

• Trapassato prossimo — I had eaten — Avevo già mangiato
• Futuro anteriore — I will have eaten — Avrò mangiato
• Passato remoto — historical/literary past — Dante scrisse la Divina Commedia
• Trapassato remoto — very rare literary past tense

These are useful for reading, storytelling, or advanced study, but most beginners do not need to produce them.

To learn Italian tenses faster, don’t try to learn all of them at once. Master the presente and passato prossimo first, then add the imperativo, imperfetto, and condizionale presente.

That small group gives you the biggest return and helps you speak real Italian much sooner.

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The Most Essential Italian Tense: Il Presente

This first tense does the job of four English tenses, which is why you’ll hear Italians use it constantly. This tense is used to talk about what’s happening now, but also habits, ongoing states, and even the future. It’s the most overworked tense in the language.

The tense is il presente, the Italian present tense.

Here’s what il presente is used to say:

• Vado a Roma. (I go to Rome, happening now or planned for tomorrow.)
• Lavoro in banca. (I work at a bank, a habit, a job, an ongoing state.)
• L’Italia è bellissima. (Italy is beautiful, an eternal truth.)
• Domani parto. (Tomorrow I leave, Italians use the present for the near future all the time.)

One tense, four different jobs. English needs several separate tenses to cover the same ground.

So where does this tense rank?

On a scale from S for Super-useful to F for Forget-it-for-now, il presente goes in the S tier for Super-useful.

It’s so powerful you can have a full conversation in Italian using only this one tense.

The Italian Past Tense You Need First: Il Passato Prossimo

This next tense is an essential companion to the present tense. Italians use it to talk about something that happened, completed actions, and completed events. Whether it happened five minutes ago or five years ago, this is the tense they use. The tense is il passato prossimo, the recent past.

Here’s il passato prossimo in action:

• Ho mangiato la pizza. (I ate the pizza.)
• Siamo andati al mare. (We went to the beach.)
• Cosa hai fatto ieri? (What did you do yesterday?)
• Ho visto un film bellissimo. (I saw a beautiful film.)

It looks like English’s “I have eaten,” but Italians use it where English speakers would say “I ate.”

So where does this tense rank? It goes in the S tier for Super-useful.

Combined with il presente, these two tenses cover upwards of 70% of spoken Italian. Learn these two, and you can already say most of what you’d ever want to say.

The Italian Command Form: L’Imperativo

This next tense technically isn’t a tense at all, but Italians use it a lot in all sorts of everyday situations. Technically, it’s called a mood, and it’s used to give orders and commands. It’s called l’imperativo, the command form.

Grammar books call it a separate mood, which means it tells you the purpose of a sentence, whether you’re stating something, ordering it, wishing for it, or imagining it. L’imperativo is the “ordering” mood.

Here’s l’imperativo in action:

• Mangia! (Eat!)
• Aspetta! (Wait!)
• Vai! (Go!)
• Senti… (Listen…)
• Dimmi. (Tell me.)

So where does this tense rank? It goes in the A tier for Awesome, add it next.

You’ll need it in all kinds of situations. Every order in an Italian restaurant, every direction from a local, and every interjection from a friend uses l’imperativo.

The Italian Tense for Stories and Descriptions: L’Imperfetto

This next tense is one of the most used past tenses in spoken Italian. It’s used for setting the scene, describing what something was like, how things used to be, and habitual events. The tense is l’imperfetto, the descriptive past. 

Here’s l’imperfetto in action:

• Faceva freddo. (It was cold.)
• Era una bella giornata. (It was a beautiful day.)
• Da bambino, giocavo a calcio. (As a kid, I used to play football.)
• Mentre cucinavo, suonava la radio. (While I was cooking, the radio was playing.)

If you’re painting a picture of a scene or describing a state, you need l’imperfetto. If you’re talking about a completed action in the past, we use il passato prossimo. Italians switch between these two tenses in every story they tell.

So where does this tense rank? It goes in the A tier for Awesome, add it next.

Just behind the top two. You’ll need this constantly to talk about the past in any depth.

Are you enjoying this guide? Don’t let the learning stop here. Make sure you download your free PDF cheat-sheet. It includes a bonus quiz PLUS the full tier chart you can save and review anytime. To get your copy, just enter your details below. 

The Italian Tense for Polite Requests: Il Condizionale Presente

This next tense is essential if you want to be polite in Italian. You’ll hear it in every café, every shop, and every interaction. Italians use it to soften requests and sound polite. The tense is il condizionale presente, the conditional.

Here’s il condizionale in action:

• Vorrei un caffè. (I’d like a coffee.)
• Potresti aiutarmi? (Could you help me?)
• Sarebbe meglio andare. (It would be better to go.)
• Mi piacerebbe visitare Roma. (I’d like to visit Rome.)

So where does this tense rank? It goes in the A tier for Awesome, add it next.

You don’t need it to be understood, but saying voglio (I want) instead of vorrei (I’d like) sounds blunt to Italian ears. So by learning this, you’ll earn a few brownie points.

There’s also a related tense called il condizionale passato, the past conditional, which is used for things that would have happened: Avrei mangiato (I would have eaten). It’s how Italians talk about regrets and missed possibilities.

While you’ll hear it often, you can survive without producing it, so for that reason il condizionale passato goes in the C tier for Common-but-skippable.

The Italian Future Tense: Il Futuro Semplice

This next tense is used a lot more in English than in Italian, which surprised me when I started learning Italian. Every language teacher will tell you to learn it early on. But here’s what’s interesting: Italians often skip it entirely and use the present tense instead. The tense is il futuro semplice, the simple future.

Here’s il futuro in action:

• Tra cinque anni vivrò in Italia. (In five years, I’ll live in Italy.)
• Pioverà domani. (It’ll rain tomorrow.)
• Saranno le tre. (It must be around three o’clock, used for probability.)
• Andrò al cinema sabato. (I’ll go to the cinema on Saturday.)

For near-future plans, Italians almost always use the present tense instead. Domani vado a Roma (Tomorrow I go to Rome) is far more common than Domani andrò a Roma (Tomorrow I will go to Rome).

So where does this tense rank? It goes in the B tier for Beneficial but not essential.

It’s worth learning eventually. But if you’re a beginner with limited time, master your S- and A-tier tenses first. You can survive without this one for months.

The Italian Subjunctive: Il Congiuntivo Presente

This next tense is one of the hardest for learners to grasp, but it’s important to learn if you want to sound polished and educated. This tense falls under another type of mood, the one for wishes, doubts, and imagined situations.  The mood is il congiuntivo, the Italian subjunctive. And we’re focusing on its most common form, il congiuntivo presente, the present subjunctive.

Here’s the thing most learners don’t realise: English has this same mood. We just barely use it. When you say “I wish I were taller” instead of “I wish I was taller,” that “were” is the English subjunctive. When you say “If I were rich,” same thing. When someone says “It’s important that she be on time” instead of “is on time,” same thing again.

Here’s il congiuntivo in action:

• Penso che lui sia stanco. (I think he is tired.)
• Voglio che tu venga. (I want you to come.)
• È importante che noi parliamo. (It’s important that we speak.)
• Spero che piova. (I hope it rains.)

Notice the che (that) before each verb. That’s often the trigger word. And notice the verb forms: sia instead of è, venga instead of vieni, piova instead of piove.

In English, the subjunctive is mostly optional. Most people say “I wish I was” and nobody notices. In Italian, that same flexibility is now happening in real time. Grammar books treat il congiuntivo as essential, while Italians themselves are quietly dropping it from casual speech, exactly the way English speakers dropped it generations ago.

So in casual conversation, especially among younger Italians, you’ll hear Penso che lui è stanco with the indicative è instead of the subjunctive sia. Both versions work, but only one will pass a grammar exam.

So where does this tense rank? It goes in the C tier for Common-but-skippable.

If your goal is to sound native, polished, and educated, then learn it. If your goal is to be understood in a café or with family and friends, you can postpone it. It’s important, but it’s not urgent. At a beginner level, it’s enough to recognise it.

And while we’re here, il congiuntivo has two close relatives that all rank similarly:

• Il congiuntivo passato — che io abbia mangiato (that I have eaten), used for completed actions. Goes in C tier.
• Il congiuntivo imperfetto — se fossi… (if I were…), used in hypotheticals. Goes in C tier. You’ll hear this constantly paired with vorrei.

The Italian Past-of-the-Past: Il Trapassato Prossimo

This next tense shows up in every Italian story or news report, but you can speak Italian for years without ever really needing it. This tense does one specific job: it shows that one past action happened before another past action. English does this with phrases like “I had eaten” or “I had gone.” Italian does the same with a special construction. The tense is il trapassato prossimo, the pluperfect, or past-of-the-past.

Here’s il trapassato prossimo in action:

• Quando sono arrivato, lei aveva già mangiato. (When I arrived, she had already eaten.)
• Avevo studiato tutto, ma ho dimenticato. (I had studied everything, but I forgot.)
• Erano usciti prima dell’arrivo dei poliziotti. (They had left before the police arrived.)

To create it, we take the imperfetto of avere or essere, then add the past participle. You’ll hear Italians use it whenever they’re telling stories that involve “before that…” or “by then…”

So where does this tense rank? It goes in the D tier for Down-the-line.

You’ll recognise it constantly in stories, but you won’t need to produce it often as a beginner unless you reach a B2 level.

And while we’re here, there are two more tenses that work the same way, that is, when an action is completed before another moment in time:

• Il futuro anteriore — avrò mangiato (I will have eaten), used for actions that will be complete before a future point. This also goes in the D tier.
• Il congiuntivo trapassato — che io avessi mangiato (that I had eaten), for subjunctive hypotheticals about the past, like se avessi saputo (if I had known). Also goes in the D tier.

The Italian Historical Past: Il Passato Remoto

This next tense is the one I promised you at the start of this guide, a tense so unique it divides the country. This tense exists in Italian grammar. Textbooks teach it. Conjugation tables include it. And you’ll definitely see it in novels, fairy tales, historical writing, and biographies. But in everyday spoken Italian, its use depends a lot on where you are.

In Northern Italy, most people rarely use it in conversation. Instead, they usually use il passato prossimo. The tense is il passato remoto, the historical past.

In Central and Southern Italy, especially in regions like Tuscany, Lazio, Campania, Calabria, Sicily, and Puglia, you may still hear il passato remoto in everyday speech if the speaker sees the action as finished and disconnected from the present.

For example, in Sicily, someone might say:

• Ieri andai al mercato. (Yesterday I went to the market.)

Where in Northern Italy, you’d be much more likely to hear:

• Ieri sono andato al mercato. (Yesterday I went to the market.)

Here are examples of il passato remoto in a historical past context:

• Quando Pinocchio disse una bugia, il suo naso crebbe. (When Pinocchio told a lie, his nose grew.)
• Dante scrisse la Divina Commedia. (Dante wrote The Divine Comedy.)
• Giulio Cesare attraversò il Rubicone. (Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon.)
• Leonardo da Vinci dipinse la Gioconda. (Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa.)

So where does this tense rank? It goes in the E tier for Eh, don’t bother. It’s effectively useless.

If you’re learning Italian to talk to Italians, you can ignore it for years. Learn to recognise it when reading. Don’t waste time learning how to conjugate it.

And while we’re here, there’s an even more obscure relative: il trapassato remoto, the past-of-the-past in the literary register. It’s only used after very specific time conjunctions like quando, appena, dopo che, and non appena, and only in already-literary past narratives.

This one tense is used in one very specific situation, one you will almost certainly never encounter unless you’re reading 19th-century Italian novels. For this reason, it goes at the bottom of the E tier, the effectively useless pile.

Final Italian Tenses Tier Chart

So here’s the complete ranking of all 15 Italian tenses:

• S tier (Super-useful): Presente, Passato prossimo
• A tier (Awesome, add it next): Imperativo, Imperfetto, Condizionale presente
• B tier (Beneficial but not essential): Futuro semplice
• C tier (Common-but-skippable): Congiuntivo presente, Congiuntivo passato, Congiuntivo imperfetto, Condizionale passato
• D tier (Down-the-line): Trapassato prossimo, Futuro anteriore, Congiuntivo trapassato
• E tier (Eh, don’t bother, effectively useless): Passato remoto, Trapassato remoto

Master the S and A tiers first. Add B and C as you grow. D can wait until you’re confident. E can wait forever, or until you decide to read Italian literature.

What to Learn Next After Italian Tenses

Now that you know which Italian tenses to focus on, the next step is actually learning how to conjugate them without losing your mind. Get my guide to the 7 pattern shortcuts to conjugate any Italian verb in any tense.

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