Essere and Avere: The Two Essential Italian Verbs

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By Rossana Pazzaglia, native Italian teacher with a CEDILS certification in teaching Italian to foreigners (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice) · Updated 19 October 2026

Essere (to be) and avere (to have) are the first verbs you learn in Italian, and not by chance: they are irregular, you use them in every conversation, and they are also the auxiliary verbs of compound tenses such as the passato prossimo. They look very easy, but they deserve a little time: if you know them well from the start (A1 level), everything else comes much more easily.

Essere in the present tense

Person	Essere	English
io	sono	I am
tu	sei	you are
lui / lei / Lei	è	he / she is, you are (formal)
noi	siamo	we are
voi	siete	you are (plural)
loro	sono	they are

Watch the accent: è (is) has an accent, e (and) doesn’t. Marco è alto e simpatico – Marco is tall and nice.

When to use essere

• identity and name: Sono Rossana.
• nationality and origin: Sei tedesco? Siamo di Lugano.
• profession: Lei è medico.
• characteristics and states: Il caffè è caldo. Sono stanca.
• location: Dove sei? Sono a casa.

With esserci you say that something exists or is somewhere: c’è (there is) + singular, ci sono (there are) + plural. C’è un bar qui vicino? Ci sono due studenti nuovi.

Avere in the present tense

Person	Avere	English
io	ho	I have
tu	hai	you have
lui / lei / Lei	ha	he / she has, you have (formal)
noi	abbiamo	we have
voi	avete	you have (plural)
loro	hanno	they have

The h is never pronounced: it only distinguishes ho from o (or), hai from ai, ha from a and hanno from anno (year).

When to use avere

• possession: Ho una macchina rossa.
• family and relationships: Hai fratelli?
• age: Ho trent’anni.
• physical sensations: ho fame (I’m hungry), ho sete (thirsty), ho caldo (hot), ho freddo (cold), ho sonno (sleepy), ho paura (afraid).
• useful expressions: ho ragione (I’m right), ho bisogno di (I need), ho voglia di (I feel like), ho fretta (I’m in a hurry).

The most common mistake: age and sensations

English and German speakers often translate “I am 30” or “Ich bin 30” word for word and say “sono 30 anni”. In Italian, age takes avere: ho 30 anni. The same goes for hunger, thirst, heat and cold: ho freddo, not “sono freddo” (which means “I am a cold person”!). I see this often in lessons with German speakers: you think in your own language and translate, so the Italian sentence keeps the German structure. Mistakes are welcome, though: they show us exactly where to work.

Tu or Lei?

With people you don’t know, in shops or at work, Italians use the formal Lei, which takes the same verb form as he/she: Lei è di Zurigo? Ha un momento?

Essere and avere as auxiliaries: a first look at the passato prossimo

Essere and avere are not only main verbs: they also help to build compound tenses. The passato prossimo, the most common past tense in everyday conversation, is made of the present of an auxiliary plus a past participle: ho mangiato (I ate), sono andata (I went). So which auxiliary do you need? At A1 level, three simple guidelines are enough to get started ^[3][4]:

• Avere with transitive verbs in the active voice, that is, verbs that can take a direct object: ho letto un libro, abbiamo comprato il pane. Many intransitive verbs that describe an action done by the subject also take avere: ho dormito, ho parlato.
• Essere with reflexive verbs: mi sono lavato, ci siamo svegliati presto.
• Essere with many verbs of movement and change: sono andato, sono partita, sono nato. Be careful, though: some movement verbs take avere (ho camminato, ho viaggiato).

With essere, the participle agrees with the subject in gender and number: Marco è andato, Marta è andata, Marco e Marta sono andati. With avere, the participle stays the same in simple sentences like Marta ha mangiato la pizza. The grammar pages I consulted stress that for intransitive verbs there is no single rule that always works ^[3][4], so at this stage it is better to learn the most frequent verbs as small chunks (sono andato a casa, ho dormito bene) and to meet the exceptions little by little.

Practice: which auxiliary?

Complete with the present of essere or avere:

1. Ieri io ___ mangiato una pizza.
2. Lucia ___ andata a Lugano.
3. Noi ___ dormito molto bene.
4. Loro ___ partiti alle otto.
5. Stamattina mi ___ svegliato presto.

Answers: 1. ho – 2. è – 3. abbiamo – 4. sono – 5. sono.

Tip: before choosing the auxiliary, ask yourself two questions. Is the verb reflexive (mi, ti, si, ci, vi)? Is it a verb of going, coming or changing? If the answer is yes, try essere; otherwise avere is usually the safer guess.

Common mistake: many learners say ho andato or sono mangiato. Remember: andare takes essere (sono andato), mangiare takes avere (ho mangiato). Try saying five sentences about yesterday out loud, changing the verb each time, and check each auxiliary.

First exercise: essere or avere?

Complete with the right form of essere or avere:

1. Io ___ fame, andiamo a mangiare?
2. Noi ___ svizzeri, di Bellinzona.
3. Quanti anni ___ tu?
4. Loro ___ molto simpatici.
5. Signora, Lei ___ ragione.
6. Voi ___ a casa stasera?

Answers: 1. ho – 2. siamo – 3. hai – 4. sono – 5. ha – 6. siete.

Mini-dialogue: introducing ourselves

Marta: Ciao, sono Marta. E tu, come ti chiami?
Jonas: Sono Jonas, sono di Zurigo. Ho 28 anni e ho una sorella a Lugano.
Marta: Che bello! Ci sono molti svizzeri tedeschi in questo corso. Hai fame? C’è un bar qui vicino.
Jonas: Sì, ho molta fame e anche un po’ di sete!

Useful phrases to remember

• Come stai? – Sto bene, grazie. (here you use stare, not essere)
• Che ore sono? – Sono le tre. (essere is used for the time)
• C’è posto? – No, mi dispiace, non ci sono posti. (Is there room? – Sorry, there are no seats.)
• Hai tempo? – Non ho tempo, ho fretta. (Do you have time? – I have no time, I’m in a hurry.)

How to remember which verb to use

1. To say who you are or what you are like (name, origin, job, character): essere.
2. To say what you own, how old you are or what you feel (hunger, thirst, cold): avere.
3. To say that something exists somewhere: c’è / ci sono.

According to the Treccani dictionary, essere works both as a copula (la neve è bianca, “snow is white”) and as an auxiliary in compound tenses, and with esserci it expresses existence or presence ^[1]. The verb avere, besides possession, expresses sensations and states (avere caldo, fame, sonno) and family relations (ha tre figli) ^[2].

Second exercise: find the mistake

Correct the wrong sentences:

1. Sono 25 anni.
2. Ho stanco.
3. Maria ha italiana.
4. Noi abbiamo a Milano.
5. C’è molte persone in piazza.

Answers: 1. Ho 25 anni. – 2. Sono stanco/a. – 3. Maria è italiana. – 4. Noi siamo a Milano. – 5. Ci sono molte persone in piazza.

Think about it: which expressions with avere use a different verb in your language? Write down three and compare them with Italian.

Negative sentences and questions with essere and avere

To make a sentence negative, put non right before the verb: Non sono stanca. Non ho fame. Non ho fratelli. Non c’è nessun problema. There is no helper verb like the English “do”, so you never need an extra word.

Questions have the same word order as statements. In speech only the melody changes (the voice goes up at the end), and in writing you add a question mark: Sei italiano? Hai un momento? Siete a casa? Here are the question words you will use most often with these two verbs:

• Chi sei? Chi è? (Who are you? Who is it?)
• Dov’è la stazione? Dove sei? (Where is the station? Where are you?)
• Come sei? Com’è il tuo professore? (What are you like? What is your teacher like?)
• Quanti anni hai? Quanti fratelli hai? (How old are you? How many siblings do you have?)
• Perché hai fretta? (Why are you in a hurry?)

Essere or stare? A quick clarification

Many learners wonder why Come stai? uses stare and not essere. As a first rule of thumb, use essere to say who or what someone is (name, origin, profession, description), and stare for how you feel and for staying in a place or situation: Sto bene, sto a casa, stiamo attenti. Both can appear with places (sono a casa and sto a casa are both possible), but at A1 level it is enough to remember the fixed question Come stai? and its answers Sto bene / Sto male / Sto così così. You will study stare in more depth later.

Mini-dialogue 2: at the hotel

Receptionist: Buonasera, signora. Ha una prenotazione?
Guest: Sì, sono Anna Keller. Ho una camera per due notti.
Receptionist: Perfetto. Siete in due?
Guest: No, sono sola, ma ho molte valigie. C’è un ascensore?
Receptionist: Sì, c’è. E la colazione è alle sette, nella sala a destra.

Can you find every form of essere and avere in the dialogue? Count them and compare with a friend or your teacher.

Third exercise: build the sentence

Write a sentence with the words given, adding the right form of essere or avere and, where necessary, non:

1. noi / stanchi / oggi (negative)
2. tu / sete?
3. Marco e Luca / 20 anni
4. io / a Lugano / in vacanza
5. in questa classe / molti studenti
6. voi / fretta? (question)

Possible answers: 1. Oggi non siamo stanchi. – 2. Hai sete? – 3. Marco e Luca hanno vent’anni. – 4. Sono a Lugano in vacanza. – 5. In questa classe ci sono molti studenti. – 6. Avete fretta?

How to learn essere and avere

• Learn the verbs in chunks, not in lists. Instead of memorising a table, memorise short sentences you can really say: Sono di Lugano. Ho due fratelli. Ho fame.
• Say your own profile aloud. Name, origin, job, age, family, one thing you have, one thing you are not. In five sentences you will use every person of both verbs.
• Do not translate word for word. English says “I am hungry”, German “Ich habe Hunger” (which is like Italian!), French “J’ai faim”. If your language uses “to have” for sensations, you already have an advantage.
• Mind the pronouns. In Italian the subject pronoun (io, tu, noi…) is usually dropped, because the verb ending already shows the person: Sono stanca, not Io sono stanca (the second one is correct only if you want to stress it: Io sono stanca, tu no!).

Questions to reflect on

• Which sensations do you express with “to be” in your language but with avere in Italian?
• Which forms of essere and avere do you confuse most often (sono / hanno? sei / hai)? Write a sentence for each one.
• Look at a short Italian text, such as a hotel page or a menu. How many forms of essere and avere can you highlight?

Keep learning

• The Italian alphabet and pronunciation
• Gender and number of Italian nouns
• The free Italian grammar course A1

Would you like to introduce yourself in Italian to someone who corrects you patiently? Book a free trial lesson, join the course waiting list or take the free level test.

Sources

• [1] “Essere”, Vocabolario Treccani online (accessed 6 October 2026)
• [2] “Avere”, Vocabolario Treccani online (accessed 6 October 2026)
• [3] “Avere o essere?”, La grammatica italiana, Enciclopedia Treccani online (accessed 6 October 2026)
• [4] “Ausiliari, verbi”, Enciclopedia dell’Italiano, Treccani online (accessed 6 October 2026)

Examples, dialogue and exercises come from my experience teaching Italian to foreign learners.