The Italian venire conjugation is widely used to express movement. Venire is an irregular verb and is the equivalent of the English “to come”. It means to come from, to arrive, to occur, and is sometimes used in a welcoming tone too (e.g. Vieni! – Come on in!)
Venire is an intransitive verb – therefore it lacks a direct object, and its compound tenses are conjugated with the auxiliary essere. Let’s learn how to conjugate this important verb in all the tenses.
Venire Conjugation in the Indicative Present Tense
Let’s first see how the Present tense looks like:
| Presente | Present tense |
| io vengo | I come |
| tu vieni | you come |
| lui/lei viene | he/she comes |
| noi veniamo | we come |
| voi venite | you come |
| loro vengono | they come |
- Veniamo tutti da Napoli.
We all come from Naples.
The verb venire is similar to the English “to come”, with a few differences. You can use venire to say where you’re from, or to ask somebody to come somewhere. Unlike English, you also use the Present Simple of venire to mean that something “turns out” in a certain way, or even to ask for the price.
Let’s clarify it with some examples:
- Le lasagne sono il piatto che mi viene meglio.
I can make great lasagne (they turn out very good). - Quanto viene un kg di mele?
How much is a kg of apples?
Venire Conjugation in the Indicative Past Tense
There are five past tenses in the indicative mood, including two simple and three compound tenses. We will first see the simple past tenses of venire: imperfetto and passato remoto.
If you’ve been studying Italian for a while you might know that the first one is used to express regular activities that happened in the past, while the second is used for situations that happened a long time ago.
| Imperfetto | Imperfect |
| io venivo | I came |
| tu venivi | you came |
| lui/lei veniva | he/she came |
| noi venivamo | we came |
| voi venivate | you came |
| loro venivano | they came |
- Ti ricordi? Da piccoli, venivamo a giocare in questo parco tutti i giorni
Do you remember? When we were children, we used to come in this park every day.
The other tense is the passato remoto (Remote Past tense), which indicates an action that happened – you guessed it – in the remote past. It looks like this:
| Passato remote | Remote Past tense |
| io venni | I came |
| tu venisti | you came |
| lui/lei venne | he/she came |
| noi venimmo | we came |
| voi veniste | you came |
| loro vennero | they came |
- Aveva promesso di venirmi a trovare, ma non venne mai.
He promised to come visit me, but he never came. - I nostri nonni vennero in America in cerca di fortuna.
Our grandparents came to America to seek their fortune.
You will hardly hear passato remoto in Italian – it is not very common as native speakers prefer to use other tenses instead (such as passato prossimo).
Venire Conjugation to Talk about the Future
Italian has two Future tenses: simple and compound. Let’s take a look at the Future Simple first. This corresponds to the “will come” or “going to come” structures.
| Futuro Semplice | Future Simple |
| io verrò | I will come |
| tu verrai | you will come |
| lui/lei verrà | he/she will come |
| noi verremo | we will come |
| voi verrete | you will come |
| loro verranno | they will come |
- Quando verrà il momento, dovremo essere pronti.
When the time comes (will come), we must be ready. - È piuttosto tardi, non credo che verranno più.
It’s quite late, I don’t think they will come anymore. - Verrai al mio matrimonio?
Will you come to my wedding?
Compound Tenses of Venire Conjugation
So far, we’ve seen all the simple tenses of the venire conjugation in the Indicative mood, the most common and used mood in Italian.
However, the Indicative also has four compound tenses. Those are: passato prossimo (Present Perfect tense), trapassato prossimo (Past Perfect tense), trapassato remoto (Preterite Perfect tense) and futuro anteriore (Future Perfect tense).
The compound tenses of venire are formed with the auxiliary verb essere (to be). As always, you need to add the past participle of venire, which is venuto.
Let’s now take a look at how to form each compound tense and when to use them.
Venire Conjugation: Present Perfect Tense
This is perhaps the most used past tense in Italian and it’s similar to the English “have come” structure.
It is used to indicate that something occurred in the recent past and can be translated in English both with the Simple Past and with Present Perfect.
The Present Perfect tense of venire is formed by the Present simple of the auxiliary verb essere (to be) + its past participle: venuto.
| Passato prossimo | Present Perfect tense |
| io sono venuto/a | I have come |
| tu sei venuto/a | you have come |
| lui/lei è venuto/a | he/she has come |
| noi siamo venuti/e | we have come |
| voi siete venuti/e | you have come |
| loro sono venuti/e | they have come |
If the subject of venire is feminine it requires to change the ending with “a” (singular) or with “e” (for plural nouns).
- Sono venuta a casa tua ieri, ma non ti ho trovato.
I’ve come to your house yesterday, but I didn’t find you. - Luca non è venuto a lavoro oggi, che sia malato?
Luca didn’t come to work today, is he ill?
Venire Conjugation: Past Perfect Tense
There are two more compound past tenses standing in our path to knowledge: trapassato prossimo and trapassato remoto.
The trapassato prossimo (Pluperfect) is used to describe a past situation that happened before another one (both actions already happened in the past). It indicates that a past action ended before another one could start.
It is similar to the English “had come” and is formed with the imperfetto (Indicative Imperfect) of the auxiliary verb essere and its past participle venuto.
| Trapassato prossimo | Pluperfect |
| io ero venuto/a | I had come |
| tu eri venuto/a | you had come |
| lui/lei era venuto/a | he/she had come |
| noi eravamo venuti/e | we had come |
| voi eravate venuti/e | you had come |
| loro erano venuti/e | they had come |
- Ero venuto per fare pace, ma lui ha continuato ad accusarmi.
I had come to make peace, but then he started to blame me. - Non ero mai venuto in questo bar, prima d’ora.
I’ve never been to this bar before.
The other compound past tense is trapassato remoto (Preterite Perfect tense), which does not exist in English. You can translate it with the “had came” structure.
It is used mostly in books and literature to indicate an action that happened a very long time ago, so don’t worry too much about using it in real life conversations.
| Trapassato remoto | Preterite Perfect tense |
| io fui venuto/a | I had came |
| tu fosti venuto/a | you had came |
| lui/lei fu venuto/a | he/she had came |
| noi fummo venuti/e | we had came |
| voi foste venuti/e | you had came |
| loro furono venuti/e | they had came |
- Dopo che il loro figlio fu venuto al mondo, i bisnonni si trasferirono in città.
After their son was born (came to the world), my great-grandparents moved to the city.
Venire Conjugation: Future Perfect tense
The Italian futuro anteriore is a compound tense that belongs to the Indicative mood. It is normally used for the so called “future in the past”, which refers to an action which will be already finished before another action occurs in the future.
It is formed with the Future Simple of essere and the past participle of venire.
| Futuro anteriore | Future Perfect tense |
| io sarò venuto/a | I will have come |
| tu sarai venuto/a | you will have come |
| lui/lei sarà venuto/a | he/she will have come |
| noi saremo venuti/e | we will have come |
| voi sarete venuti/e | you will have come |
| loro saranno venuti/e | they will have come |
- Ti darò il tuo regalo di compleanno solo dopo che sarai venuto a trovarmi.
I’ll give you your birthday present only after you come (will have come) visit me. - Se la torta sarà venuta bene, la porterò in ufficio.
If the cake turns (will have turned) out well, I’ll bring it to the office.
The Future Perfect tense is an advanced tense so don’t worry about it too much, as even native speakers often replace it with futuro semplice.
Subjunctive Tense of Venire
While the Indicative is the mood of reality, the congiuntivo (Subjunctive) is the mood of uncertainty and is used to express doubt, wish or desire.
It only has four tenses: two simple and two compound tenses, and is often used in subordinate sentences introduced by the word “che” (that).
Present Subjunctive
Let’s take a look at the Present Subjunctive of venire:
| Congiuntivo presente |
| che io venga |
| che tu venga |
| che lui/lei venga |
| che noi veniamo |
| che voi veniate |
| che loro vengano |
- Spero che Marco venga alla mia festa.
I hope that Marco comes to my party. - Spero che veniate con me, ma io andrò in ogni caso.
I hope you’ll come with me, but I’ll go anyways.
Perfect Subjunctive
The Subjunctive Perfect has the same function of the present tense: it is still used to express a hope, wish or a hypothesis, but about something that occurred in the past.
| Congiuntivo passato |
| che io sia venuto/a |
| che tu sia venuto/a |
| che lui/lei sia venuto/a |
| che noi siamo venuti/e |
| che voi siate venuti/e |
| che loro siano venuti/e |
- Ho il sospetto che Marco sia venuto alla festa solo per vedere Laura.
I suspect that Marco came to the party only to see Laura.
Subjunctive Imperfect
The subjunctive imperfect is a simple tense that you can mostly find in conditional clauses. It is often introduced by the particle “se” (if).
| Congiuntivo imperfetto |
| che io venissi |
| che tu venissi |
| che lui/lei venisse |
| che noi venissimo |
| che voi veniste |
| che loro venissero |
- Se tu venissi, io sarei felice.
If you’ll come, I would be happy. - Non avevo idea che venisse anche lui.
I had no idea that he would come too.
Pluperfect Subjunctive
The Pluperfect Subjunctive is an advanced tense which is used in third type conditional clauses to talk about “impossibile” conditions.
In this case, the condition or the action is impossible because it belongs to the past, so we already know that something didn’t happen. You can learn more about the use of conditional sentences in Italian here.
| Congiuntivo trapassato |
| che io fossi venuto |
| che tu fossi venuto |
| che lui/lei fosse venuto |
| che noi fossimo venuti |
| che voi foste venuti |
| che loro fossero venuti |
- Anche se fossi venuto a giocare la partita, non avrebbe fatto differenza sul risultato finale.
Even if I came to join the match, it wouldn’t make any difference to the final result.
Conditional Tense of Venire
If you didn’t give up with the Subjunctive, we’re happy to tell you that the Conditional mood only has two tenses: present and past.
It is quite a simple mood to understand: it is the equivalent of the English structure with would + verb. Let’s see how to form it.
| Condizionale presente | Conditional present |
| io verrei | I would come |
| tu verresti | you would come |
| lui/lei verrebbe | he/she would come |
| noi verremmo | we would come |
| voi verreste | you would come |
| loro verrebbero | they would come |
- Non verrei per nulla al mondo.
I wouldn’t come for anything in the world.
| Condizionale passato | Conditional past |
| io sarei venuto/a | I would have come |
| tu saresti venuto/a | you would have come |
| lui/lei sarebbe venuto/a | he/she would have come |
| noi saremmo venuti/e | we would have come |
| voi sareste venuti/e | you would have come |
| loro sarebbero venuti/e | they would have come |
- Sarei venuto con grande piacere, se avessi avuto tempo.
I would have come with great pleasure, if I had time.
Imperative Mood of Venire
The imperative mood of venire is used to suggest (or to order) someone to come somewhere. It only has one tense.
- Vieni avanti.
Come forward. - Non venite!
Don’t come!
| Imperative Present |
| tu vieni |
| lui/lei venga |
| noi veniamo |
| voi venite |
| loro vengano |
Indefinite Moods of Venire
Let’s finish with the indefinite moods of venire:
| Infinito – Infinitive | |
| Present tense | Past tense |
| Venire (to come) | essere venuto (to have come) |
| Participio – Participle | |
| Present tense | Past tense |
| veniente or venente | venuto (came) |
| Gerundio – Gerundive | |
| Present tense | Past tense |
| Venendo (coming) | essendo venuto (having come) |
Conclusions
We’ve come a long way, but finally you know everything about the verb venire. Now that we’ve seen all the different tenses, let’s practice!
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