In this lesson, we're going to look at two of the most common verbs in the Italian language: essere (to be) and avere (to have). They are both irregular verbs so they merit some special attention.
Here's how we conjugate essere (to be):
Io sono (I am)
Tu sei (you are)
Lei è (you are - polite form)
Lui è (he/it is)
Lei è (she/it is)
Noi siamo (we are)
Voi siete (you are plural)
Loro sono (they are)
And here is how to conjugate avere (to have):
Ho (I have)
Hai (you have)
Ha (he, she, it has)
Abbiamo (we have)
Avete (you [plural] have)
Hanno (they have)
And here's an example of how they sound, in the first person singular:
Ciao, io sono Anna e ho quasi trent'anni. -Ciao, io sono Marika e ho trentasei anni.
Hi, I'm Anna and I am almost thirty years old. -Hi, I'm Marika and I am thirty-six years old.
Captions 1-2, Amiche Anna e Marika raccontano...
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There are some things to notice right away. If we look at the translation, we see that when we talk about age, the Italian verb is avere (to have) but in English the verb is "to be." That's a quirk. In Italian, you have an age and in English, you are an age.
The second thing we might notice is that we see an h in the word ho, but we don't hear it. Yup, most of the time, the H is silent in Italian. It has an effect on other letters when following them, but at the beginning of a word, it's silent.
The third thing we notice is that Anna doesn't say io ho quasi trent' anni. Neither does Marika. That's because it's common and correct to leave out the personal pronoun because the conjugation of the verb already indicates who we're talking about. It's not always the case, but it is something to get used to and it happens with all verbs!
As you watch this video, you'll see that sometimes the personal pronoun is present, but it's often absent! Here's an example. Anna is clearly talking about Thomas, so she doesn't have to say lui è italiano. She can say è italiano.
Il mio fidanzato si chiama Thomas, ma è italiano.
My boyfriend's name is Thomas, but he's Italian.
Caption 20, Amiche Anna e Marika raccontano...
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They are still talking about Thomas, so Marika doesn't need the personal pronoun lui.
Ah, è proprio di Roma, alla fine.
Oh, he's really from Rome, in the end.
Caption 23, Amiche Anna e Marika raccontano...
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Here, Marika doesn't say the equivalent of "it." It's implied from the third-person singular conjugation of the verb essere (to be).
E quindi non è proprio la vacanza scelta da me,
And so, it's not a real holiday chosen by me,
Caption 12, Amiche Anna e Marika raccontano...
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Here's an example of the second person singular of essere (to be):
Mamma mia quanto sei bella.
Wow, you're so beautiful.
Caption 45, Volare - La grande storia di Domenico Modugno Ep. 1 - Part 27
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Here's an example of the second-person singular of avere (to have):
Quanti anni hai? -Ventuno.
How old are you? -Twenty-one.
Caption 8, Amiche sulla spiaggia
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Here's an example of the second-person plural of essere:
Voi siete davvero un gruppo molto bello.
You are, really, a very nice group.
Caption 17, Anna e Marika Il verbo essere - Part 1
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And here's an example of the second-person plural of the verb avere:
...per riciclare al meglio la frutta che avete in casa
...to best recycle the fruit you have at home
Caption 92, Andromeda Marmellata anti spreco - Part 2
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Here's an example of the first-person plural of essere:
Non riesco ancora a crederci, siamo i primi al mondo!
I still can't believe it. We're the first in the world!
Caption 6, Adriano Olivetti La forza di un sogno Ep.2 - Part 23
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And here's an example of the first person plural of avere:
Noi abbiamo amici da tutto il mondo.
We have friends from all over the world.
Caption 9, Adriano Matrimonio con Anita - Part 3
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And to finish, here's an example of the third-person plural of essere and avere:
Il flauto, il violino spesso... sono talmente acuti che vanno al di sopra del pentagramma.
The flute, the violin, often... are so high that they go above the staff.
Caption 33, A scuola di musica con Alessio - Part 3
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Molti di loro dormono con gli animali accanto al letto per riscaldarsi e non hanno neanche le scarpe per andare a lavorare, ma sorridono.
Many of them sleep with the animals next to the bed to warm up and they don't even have shoes to go to work, but they smile.
Captions 36-38, Adriano Olivetti La forza di un sogno Ep.2 - Part 12
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Both essere and avere are used as helping verbs, so it's pretty important to learn them. Hope this lesson has helped!
Write to us with your questions. We answer!
When you’re feeling things in such a way that they seem to be “on top of you,” they’re addosso, like in this Lorenzo Jovanotti song.
L'estate addosso
Summer [is] upon us
Un anno è già passato
A year has already gone by
He’s talking about the summer season, but also the weight (and heat) of summer. We might even say he feels it on his shoulders or back. Addosso can mean on top, right nearby, but definitely close (in time or space), close enough to be breathing down your neck. It can even be so close as to be inside you.
This somewhat peculiar word has a little history. Dosso is a rather archaic way of saying dorso (back, spine). Remembering this will help in assimilating addosso and di dosso (off of). As a noun, dosso by itself is used when talking about geological formations (bumps or hills), or in la segnaletica stradale (road signs) to indicate a bump or a rise.
Dosso usually gets together with a preposition to be transformed into a compound preposition/adverb: addosso. If there’s an indirect object in the form of a noun, as in the following example, we need the preposition a (to).
Il ramo è caduto addosso ad un bambino.
The branch fell onto a child.
If we use an object pronoun, we have:
Il ramo è caduto addosso a lui.
The branch fell onto him.
To make the sentence flow better, we can turn it around, employing the famous combination: indirect object pronoun + preposition (if this is unfamiliar to you, see Ci Gets Around - Part 1 and Ricordare: Remembering and Reminding). A lui (to him) becomes gli (to him):
Gli [a lui] è caduto il ramo addosso.
The branch fell on top of him.
In this case, we generally find addosso at the end of the sentence or clause, and the object pronoun will be elsewhere.
Eh sì. Infatti, lui ci ha rovesciato tutto il vassoio addosso.
Oh yes. In fact, he even spilled the contents of the tray on top of us.
Caption 36, Anna e Marika - Il verbo essere
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Related words:
Di dosso (from your back, off your back), usually used with a word meaning “to remove” such as togliere or levare:
Me lo sono levato di dosso.
I got it off my back [I got rid of it].
Toglimi le mani di dosso.
Take your hands off me.
Addossare isn’t very common in normal conversation, but means something along the lines of “to lean.” It’s used when talking about blame or responsibility:
addossare la colpa
to lay the blame
addossarsi la responsabilità
to take responsibility
Indossare (to wear, to put on, literally “to put on one’s back”):
Indossava una sciarpa rossa.
She was wearing a red scarf.
In a nutshell:
When referring to “on,” we use addosso
When referring to “off,” we use di dosso
Addosso will need the preposition a (to), which may be hidden in the object pronoun.
Di dosso, on the other hand, already has its (detached) preposition: di (of).
The most common related verb form is indossare (to wear).
A Yabla video search of addosso will give you some good examples of how it’s used.
Just for fun:
Stavo facendo un giro in bicicletta. Indossavo una maglia colorata, e quindi ero ben visibile, ma nonostante ciò, una macchina mi è venuta proprio addosso e sono cascato. Poi la bici stessa mi è cascata addosso. Non sono riuscito subito a togliermela di dosso. L’autista non mi ha aiutato e neanche voleva addossarsi la responsabilità. Ogni tanto, questa cattiva esperienza me la sento ancora addosso.
I was taking a bike ride. I was wearing a bright jersey, and so I was quite visible, but in spite of that, a car bumped right into me and I fell off. Then the bike itself fell onto me. I wasn’t able to get it off me right away. The driver didn’t help me, nor did he want to take responsibility. Every now and then, I still feel this bad experience inside of me.
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