It’s Professor Dave, let’s learn how to be.
We’ve learned about a few different parts of speech, and now it’s time to dive into
those dreaded verbs.
We already learned about avere, so now let’s learn about essere, which is another irregular verb.
Don’t worry, the regular verbs will seem easy after this, but essere is so widely used
that it’s important to learn right away.
First let’s learn all the forms of essere.
Don’t worry about the fact that first person singular and third person plural look the
same, we will always know which is which from context.
Same goes for second person singular and the number six.
Context will always tell us which is which, since the number sei will usually be followed
by a plural noun.
Similarly, second person plural, siete, looks kind of like sete, which means thirsty, and
sette, the number seven.
Try not to confuse these three words with one another.
Now that we know the forms of essere, let’s see how they are used in a variety of ways.
First, it can take on a meaning of “to exist”, or “to be there”.
We can use essere with come to indicate quality.
We can use essere with chi or che cosa when forming interrogatives.
It can indicate possession if used with di chi.
Or it can indicate origin if used with di dove.
More simply, essere is used as a linking verb, to make a connection between the subject and
a predicate, whether this is a noun or an adjective.
Now that we know the forms of essere and how to use them, let's check comprehension.