Today I would like to go over ‘la concordanza dei tempi’ of the indicative mood. I receive questions very often about this, so I think it’s a good idea to review these agreements together.

• When we can have two actions that happen at the same time, we call this relationship contemporaneità:

So (adesso) che Maria lavora (adesso)in banca. [I know (at the present time) that Maria works (now) in a bank.]

Sapevo (allora) che Maria lavorava (allora) in banca. [I knew (at that time) that Maria worked (then) in a bank.]

• When we have a dependent action that takes place before

the principal action (it has already taken place), we call this relationship anteriorità:

Sai (adesso) che io ho mangiato (prima di adesso) molto.  [You know (at the present time) that I…

• “Un attimo, arrivo!” The Italian expression un attimo

  corresponds to the English ‘a moment, an instant’:

Faccio in un attimo. (I will be done in a moment.)

Aspetta un attimo! (Wait a second!)

Scusa un attimo… (Excuse me for a moment.)

Preparo il caffè in un attimo. (I’ll prepare the coffee in an instant—It will only take me an instant to prepare coffee.)

• Sono stufo! This idiomatic expression corresponds to the English ‘I am fed up; I’m sick and tired’:

Sono stufa!

Sono stufo di te!

Sono stufa di aspettare. (With an infinitive we use the preposition di after sono stufo/a.)

• Non fa niente corresponds to the English ‘it’s nothing; don’t worry; it doesn’t matter’:

Ho lasciato il libro a casa di Maria. Non fa niente,…