GUIDE深度 · Deep dive
Using Four Italian Tenses
Present covers habits/current; imperfect covers background/ongoing; future covers plans/predictions; conditional covers hypotheses/politeness. Read the timeline first, then choose the tense.
Timeline
Ongoing yesterday -> imperfect.
Tomorrow/prediction -> future.
Hypothesis/politeness -> conditional.
Contrast
Ieri parlavo (background).
Domani parlerò (future).
Vorrei... (polite).
Say the sentence with a time marker first; the marker usually makes the correct tense obvious before you conjugate.
FAQ
Imperfect vs present?
Use time markers; imperfect often sets a past scene.
Is conditional only for hypotheses?
Also for polite requests, e.g. Vorrei un caffè.