If-clauses in Italian

Italian
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Ciao! 😀 A very important grammar aspect when learning a language is learning how to use "if" (se). If-clauses are very useful to express a wide variety of sentences and the dependance between a main and subsentence.

All languages have it and they are very similar to each other because they all often have the two of three types of it depending on the kind of sentence you are constructing.

• Type one: If you come, I'll tell you.
• Type two: If you came, I would tell you.
• Type three: If you had come, I would have told you.

In Italian it works in a similar way but different verbs are used.

Type one: Se vieni, te lo dico. If you come, I'll tell you.

Here everything is kept in the present tense.

Type two: Se venivi, te lo dicevo. If you came, I would tell you.

Here you need to know the imperfect verb that I covered in a previous article.

Type three: Se fossi venuto, te l'avrei detto. If you had come, I would have told you.

Here is when things get tough. "Fossi" is the "imperfetto" and "avrei detto" is the "condizionale passato". which are quite difficult, aren't they?

Here are other examples:

• Se scaldi il ghiaccio, si scioglie. If you heat ice, it melts.

• Se avessi studiato, avrei passato l'esame. If I had studied, I would have passed the exam.

• Se fossi ricca, comprerei una ferrari If I were rich, I would buy a ferrari

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