“Uscire” Conjugation: A Comprehensive Guide

If you are studying Italian and are planning to visit lo Stivale (the Boot) for vacation, work or study, you will certainly need to learn the conjugation of uscire, which literally means ‘to exit’, but can also be used in a wide variety of different contexts, such as ‘to go/come out’, ‘to be published’, ‘to emerge or come from’ and many more.

In this post, we will learn how to conjugate uscire faultlessly, so that you can feel confident in using it on every day conversation.

Be careful, though! Uscire conjugation can be a tricky one, as it is slightly irregular.

However, before getting started on the conjugation itself, and all its secrets, let’s have a look at its meaning and usage in Italian.

Here are some introductory examples:

• Non voglio uscire stasera.
  I don’t want to go out tonight.
• Di lì non si può uscire.
  You cannot exit that way.

Do not worry, we will explain it all in this article so that you will never make a mistake in the uscire conjugation again! Are you ready?

Let’s look at how to use the Italian verb uscire, how to conjugate it, and when to use it in context with examples and dialogues.

Uscire: What Kind of Verb Is It?

Uscire is a verb of the third conjugation (-IRE), but it is slightly irregular. This means that in some tenses, when the stress falls on the first syllable, the conjugation changes.

These tenses are the present indicative, the present subjunctive and the imperative.

The persons that will see a change are the first, second and third singular (io, tu, lui/lei) and the third plural (loro).

The change implies a different root, which changes from U- to E-.

• Io esco spesso durante la settimana.
  I often go out during the week.
• Voglio che escano subito di lì.
  I want them to get out of there right now.
• Esci dalla piscina, per favore.
  Come out of the pool, please.

Verb of movement

Uscire is also a verb of movement and is therefore always intransitive, which means it can only take indirect objects.

As it is intransitive, in compound tenses uscire always takes the verb essere, followed by the past participle uscito. Remember, when you use the verb essere as an auxiliary, the past participle must agree with feminine and/or plural subjects and will become uscita, usciti or uscite.

• Sabato scorso sono uscita con Annamaria.
  I went out with Annamaria last Saturday.
• Saremmo usciti ieri, ma pioveva.
  We would have gone out last night, but it rained.
• Se foste uscite ci saremmo viste!
  If you had come out, we would have seen each other.

Uscire: When and How to Use

As we already mentioned, uscire can be used in a wide variety of contexts, let’s have a look at some of them here!

To exit

One of the main uses of uscire is equivalent to the English ‘to exit / come out from’. You can exit a room, an unpleasant situation or a problem. With this meaning, we often use the preposition da (from). Uscire da Can also mean ‘to exit through’. Have a look at the examples below.

Uscire da + noun

• Siamo usciti dalla finestra.
  We exited through the window.
• È appena uscito da una sittuazione difficile.
  He just came out of a difficult situation.

TIP: Be careful, with means of transportation, we use scendere da and not uscire da.

To go out / come out

If you are planning a night out with your friends, you can say stasera esco con i miei amici (I am going out with my friends tonight).

Uscire is also used to with the meaning “to come out”:

• Dai, esci stasera. Io esco di sicuro.
  Come out tonight. I’ll go out for sure.

To date someone

As we’ve just seen, uscire doesn’t have a romantic connotation. You can uscire con le amiche (go out with your friends), or uscire a bere un caffè con la zia (go out for a coffee with your aunt).

However, when used in the progressive form (i.e. sto uscendo con…), uscire con can mean “to be dating someone”.

• Sto uscendo con Manuela, non lo sapevi?
  I am dating Manuela, didn’t you know?

‘Uscire alla prossima’ (driving)

If you want someone to “take the next exit” while driving, you’ll say: Esci alla prossima. (Take the next.), which is the short for la prossima uscita (the next exit).

Other interesting uses

• Ero così sorpresa che mi è uscito un urlo.
  I was so surprised that a scream escaped me.
  (You can use uscire with a reflexive pronoun to talk about “something that escaped”, such as a sound.)
• Giovanna ha fatto una torta ma non è uscita bene.
  Giovanna made a cake, but it didn’t come out well.
• Ma sei uscito di testa?
  Have you lost your mind?

Uscire: Conjugations

Now that we’ve explained the basic rules of the uscire conjugation, and that we know how and when to use it, let’s look at all its forms.

We will look at the conjugation of the different tenses divided into levels: which are thought for all learners, from beginners to advanced (including those forms that even native speakers can never get right!).

As we just mentioned, we will use the verb essere (to be) as the auxiliary to build compound tenses. In the following tables, we will only use the masculine form of the participle (uscito and usciti), but remember, the participle will always agree with the gender of the subject performing the action.

Uscire Conjugation for Beginners

First, let’s see the easiest and most frequently used conjugations in the indicative mood: the present tense (presente), future simple (futuro semplice), past imperfect (imperfetto), and present perfect (passato prossimo).

We use the indicative mood to make statements, ask questions and express facts and opinions. If you are a beginner learner of Italian, these are the first verb tenses you will need, no doubt!

	Presente	Imperfetto	Passato Prossimo	Futuro
Io	esco	uscivo	sono uscito	uscirò
Tu	esci	uscivi	sei uscito	uscirai
Lui / Lei	esce	usciva	è uscito	uscirà
Noi	usciamo	uscivamo	siamo usciti	usciremo
Voi	uscite	uscivate	siete usciti	uscirete
Loro	escono	uscivano	sono usciti	usciranno

Examples for Beginners

• Uscivamo sempre tardi d’estate.
  We always used to go out late during the summer.
• Scusa il ritardo, sono uscita dal lavoro alle 7 passate.
  Sorry I am late, I left work after 7.
• Non so esattamente dove usciremo dall’autostrada.
  I don’t exactly know where we will exit the motorway.

Conjugations for Intermediate Learners

Let’s continue with the indicative mood in this section. The tenses you will find here are less used, but still very common, especially when reading, writing, watching films, etc.

Here we’ll learn the past perfect (trapassato prossimo), the preterite (passato remoto), the past preterite (trapassato remoto) and the future perfect (futuro anteriore).

If you notice, these are compound tenses, which means they are formed by two (or more) words. The only exception is the passato remoto.

TIP: Compound tenses are great! Why? Well, they allow you to just learn the conjugations for essere and then simply add the past participle uscito, uscita, usciti or uscite.

	Trapassato prossimo	Passato remoto	Trapassato Remoto	Futuro anteriore
Io	ero uscito	uscii	fui uscito	sarò uscito
Tu	eri uscito	uscisti	fosti uscito	sarai uscito
Lui / Lei	era uscito	uscì	fu uscito	sarà uscito
Noi	eravamo usciti	uscimmo	fummo usciti	saremo usciti
Voi	eravate usciti	usciste	foste usciti	sarete usciti
Loro	erano usciti	uscirono	furono usciti	saranno usciti

Examples for Intermediate Learners

• Eravate già usciti quando siamo arrivati.
  You had already gone out when we arrived.
• Pensi che sarai già uscito domani verso le 9?
  Do you think you will have already gone out tomorrow around 9?
• Uscimmo dalla porta sul reatro perché la porta principale era bloccata.
  We left through the backdoor because the main door was blocked.

Uscire Conjugation for Advanced Learners

In this section, we’ll look at the conditional mood of the verb uscire. In Italian, this mood is used to talk about events that depend on a certain condition.

You will also find the subjunctive mood here, which is often used in combination with the conditional and can express demands and suggestions, hypothetical situations or wishes.

The Conditional Mood

	Condizionale presente	Condizionale passato
Io	uscirei	sarei uscito
Tu	usciresti	saresti uscito
Lui / Lei	uscirebbe	sarebbe uscito
Noi	usciremmo	saremmo usciti
Voi	uscireste	sareste usciti
Loro	uscirebbero	sarebbero usciti

Examples

• Stasera uscirei volentieri.
  I would like to go out tonight.
• Non sarebbe mai uscito prima se avesse saputo che arrivavi tu.
  He would never have gone out before if knew you were coming.

The Subjunctive Mood

	Congiuntivo presente	Congiuntivo passato	Congiuntivo Imperfetto	Congiuntivo  trapassato
Che io	esca	sia uscito	uscissi	fossi uscito
Che tu	esca	sia uscito	uscissi	fossi uscito
Che lui / lei	esca	sia uscito	uscisse	fosse uscito
Che noi	usciamo	siamo usciti	uscissimo	fossimo usciti
Che voi	usciate	siate usciti	usciste	foste usciti
Che loro	escano	siano usciti	uscissero	fossero usciti

Examples

• Chiudi la porta, non voglio che il gatto esca in giardino.
  Close the door, I don’t want the cat to go out in the garden.
• Ero convinta che i miei genitori fossero usciti, invece erano a casa.
  I was convinced my parents had gone out, but they were home.
• Se io uscissi, usciresti anche tu?
  If I went out, would you come out too?

Uscire Conjugation: Infinitive, Participle and Gerund

Here are the verbals of uscire:

	Infinito	Participio	Gerundio
Presente (present)	uscire	uscente	uscendo
Passato (past)	essere uscito	uscito	essendo uscito

The feminine form of the past participle, uscita, can be used as a noun. You will often see it printed on doors or gated to signal the ‘exit’.

• Scusa, dov’è l’uscita?
  Excuse me, where is the exit?

Another useful expression is uscita di sicurezza, which means ‘emergency exit’.

• Ci sono tre uscite di sicurezza in questo laboratorio.
  There are three emergency exits in this lab.

Uscire Conjugation in Context

I hope this guide on the conjugation of uscire was useful!

Before you go, let’s see a short dialogue with some uscire conjugations in context.

Dialogue

Santiago	Siete uscite tu e Greta ieri sera?	Did you and Greta go out last night?
Marianna	Io volevo, ma alla fine non sono uscita, faceva troppo freddo. Penso che Greta sia uscita con Gianluca.	I wanted to, but in the end I did not go out, it was too cold. I think Greta went out with Gianluca.
Santiago	Con Gianluca? Ma scusa, stanno insieme?	With Gianluca? Are they together or what?
Marianna	Mah, non lo so. Penso che stiano solo uscendo. Poi si vedrà!	I don’t know. I think they are just dating. We’ll see what happens!
Santiago	Ah, non lo sapevo!	Ha. I did not know.