Concordanza dei Tempi (Sequence of Tenses)

The concordanza dei tempi — sequence of tenses — is the system Italian uses to align the tense of a subordinate clause with the tense of its main clause. Once you understand its logic, half of "is it che venga or che venisse?" disappears, and reported speech, conditional sentences, and subjunctive triggers all fall into place.

The system rests on a single intuition: the subordinate clause expresses an event that is before, at the same time as, or after the time established by the main clause. Italian then chooses the tense that signals exactly that temporal relation, and it adjusts the choice depending on whether the main verb is in the present or in the past. This page lays out the full picture for both indicative and subjunctive subordinates.

The three temporal relations

Every subordinate clause expresses one of three relations to the main clause:

• Anteriority — the subordinate event happened before the main event
• Simultaneity — the subordinate event happens at the same time as the main event
• Posteriority — the subordinate event happens after the main event

Italian has a different tense for each, and it has two complete sets — one for when the main verb is present-anchored, one for when it's past-anchored.

Indicative sequence — present main clause

When the main verb is in the present, future, or imperative, the subordinate uses present-anchored tenses.

The same pattern holds for credo che, è chiaro che, mi dice che, è certo che and other indicative-triggering main verbs.

Indicative sequence — past main clause

When the main verb is in the imperfetto, passato prossimo, passato remoto, or trapassato, the subordinate shifts back into past-anchored tenses.

The most distinctive Italian feature here is the future-in-the-past = condizionale passato. Where English uses would + base form (he said he would come), Italian uses avrebbe / sarebbe + past participle: avrebbe detto, sarebbe venuto. This is non-negotiable in standard Italian — disse che verrebbe and disse che verrà are both wrong; only disse che sarebbe venuto is correct.

Subjunctive sequence — present main clause

The same three temporal relations apply, but the subordinate uses subjunctive tenses. When the main clause is present-anchored, Italian uses congiuntivo presente for simultaneity/posteriority and congiuntivo passato for anteriority.

For posteriority with a strong future reading, Italian also accepts the futuro semplice in some indicative-leaning contexts (credo che verrà domani) — but the safest standard form remains the congiuntivo presente.

Subjunctive sequence — past main clause

When the main verb is past, the subjunctive shifts to congiuntivo imperfetto (simultaneity), congiuntivo trapassato (anteriority), and the condizionale passato (posteriority).

Notice the symmetry: in past contexts both the indicative and the subjunctive use condizionale passato for posteriority. The condizionale composto is the one tense that crosses moods to express future-in-the-past.

The master table

Here is the full picture of the four sequences in one place:

The two diagonals worth memorizing:

• Posteriority in past contexts → condizionale passato (both moods).
• Anteriority always uses a "perfect" tense — passato prossimo, congiuntivo passato, trapassato prossimo, congiuntivo trapassato.

Mood agreement is parallel

The sequence rules apply inside each mood. The mood itself is set by the main verb (or by the conjunction): so che triggers indicative, penso che triggers subjunctive. Once the mood is fixed, the sequence rules pick the tense.

The temporal logic stays the same; the morphology adapts to the mood the main verb requires.

Mixed examples and tricky cases

Some constructions involve both subordinate types in the same sentence. Treat each subordinate independently against its own main clause.

Here ho saputo (past) → pensavi (imperfect indicative, simultaneity in past). Then pensavi (past) → fossi (congiuntivo imperfetto, simultaneity in past, because pensare triggers subjunctive).

Disse → credeva (imperfect indicative, simultaneity); credeva → sarei tornato (condizionale passato, posteriority in past).

A single main verb (è strano) can govern two subordinates with different temporal relations: abbia chiamato (anterior) and chiami (simultaneous).

"Loosenings" you'll hear in everyday speech

Spoken Italian — especially the central-northern variety — tolerates some simplifications:

• Pensavo che è arrivato (indicative instead of fosse arrivato) is widespread in casual speech, but considered substandard in writing.
• Disse che verrà / verrebbe (instead of sarebbe venuto) is colloquially heard but technically wrong.
• Volevo che venivi (imperfect indicative instead of venissi) is occasionally heard in regional speech but is solidly non-standard.

For exams, formal writing, and any context where you want to sound educated, use the full sequence rules. They are not optional in standard written Italian. The Accademia della Crusca, RAI's prescriptive style guides, and high-level certifications (CILS, CELI, PLIDA) all enforce the full system.

Comparison with English

English has a much weaker sequence-of-tenses system, sometimes called backshifting. After a past reporting verb, English shifts simple present → simple past (I think → I thought), present perfect → past perfect (I have seen → I had seen), simple future → conditional (I will see → I would see). But many English speakers skip the shift entirely (she said she's coming) and the meaning is preserved.

Italian, by contrast, treats the shift as obligatory in standard writing and as deeply meaningful: disse che viene and disse che sarebbe venuto are not interchangeable — the first is wrong, the second is right. There is no "casual register" in which you can simply ignore concordanza in formal Italian.

Common Mistakes

Sequence in conditional sentences

The sequence rules also govern conditional sentences, where the protasis (se-clause) and apodosis (main clause) form a fixed pair:

Mixed conditionals are also licensed by the sequence logic — for example Se fosse partito ieri, sarebbe già qui adesso (counterfactual past protasis with present-time apodosis), where the condizionale presente expresses simultaneity with "now."

Sequence with reported speech

Reported speech is the canonical use case for the past-anchored sequence. When you shift a direct utterance into the past, every tense in the original "moves back" along the table.

The reported-speech shift is the same set of rules in disguise: vengo (simultaneous with "now") shifts to veniva (simultaneous in past), verrò (posterior to "now") shifts to sarebbe venuto (posterior in past), and so on. Once you see this, reported speech stops being a separate topic.

Key takeaways

• The system has two halves: present-anchored (when the main verb is present/future) and past-anchored (when it's any past tense).
• Within each half, three slots: anteriority (perfect tense), simultaneity (matching base tense), posteriority (future or future-in-past).
• The condizionale passato is Italian's posterior-in-past form for both indicative and subjunctive — avrebbe detto, sarebbe partito.
• Mood is set by the main verb; sequence rules then pick the tense within that mood.
• These rules are obligatory in formal writing; loosen only deliberately, not by accident.
• Reported speech and conditional sentences are special cases of the same logic, not separate systems.