Italian Language Lessons
Grammar, spelling, and usage
Italian Conditional Perfect Tense
Workbook Exercises About This Topic
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The conditional perfect (condizionale passato), like all compound tenses in Italian, is formed with the condizionale presente of the auxiliary verb avere or essere and the past participle of the acting verb. Conjugated forms of avere and essere appear in the following table.
| CONDIZIONALE PRESENTE OF THE VERBS AVERE AND ESSERE |
|---|
| PERSON | SINGULAR | PLURAL |
|---|
| I | (io) avrei, sarei | (noi) avremmo, saremmo |
| II | (tu) avresti, saresti | (tu) avresti, saresti (voi) avreste, sareste |
| III | (lui, lei, Lei) avrebbe, sarebbe | (loro, Loro) avrebbero, sarebbero |
Here are a few examples of the condizionale passato in action. Remember that verbs conjugated with essere must change their endings to agree in number and gender with the subject:
Avremme potuto ballare tutta la notte. (I could have danced all night.)
Avreste dovuto invitarlo. (You ought to have invited him.)
Saremmo andati volentieri alla Scala, ma non abbiamo potuto. (We would gladly have gone to La Scala, but we weren't able to.)
Mirella sarebbe andata volentieri al cinema. (Mirella would have been happy to go to the cinema.)
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