I would say, for starters: Indicativo: presente, futuro, passato prossimo, imperfetto (trapassato prossimo and futuro anteriore will come for free once you master imperfetto, futuro and participio passato). Gerundio: presente. Participio: passato (required by passato prossimo, trapassato prossimo and futuro anteriore). I would not study indicativo passato remoto and trapassato remoto (unless you want to read novels). I would leave out the subjunctive mood and the conditional mood and study those later together with the complex phrase (coordination and subordination). Even though they're commonly used in the spoken language (hypothetical sentences, etc...).

If you really want to save time, I suggest to learn only: 1) Presente indicativo (io vado, tu vai, egli va,....) (io mangio, tu mangi, egli mangia....) 2) Passato prossimo (io sono andato, tu sei andato, ...) (io ho mangiato, tu hai mangiato,....) The first one can replace even the future and imperative. The second one is the only really used past tense in the spoken language (very similar to your present-perfect but the difference is that you can adopt it always, whenever you need a past tense). Even the conditional tense can be replaced by these ones...it will not sound perfect but everybody will understand you for sure! Bye

I would say: 1) Presente 2) Passato Prossimo 3) Futuro semplice Another tense that is widely used is imperfetto for the past. As long as you know these 3/4 ones you should be able to communicate freely. If you also manage to master the combination Condizionale+Congiuntivo you will really sound like a pro^^

I have lived in Italy for many years, so I would say that concentrating on learning the basics of Presente, Passato Prossimo & Futuro Semplice would be the best way to go. You can make yourself fully understood with these 3 tenses and everything else will just make it all seem very complicated. I still do not understand the all of the tenses, nor how to form them correctly.

1. presente indicativo 2. passato prossimo (quindi participio passato) e i due verbi ausiliari, avere e essere: io sono andato, io ho visto. 3. imperfetto indicativo. 4. futuro semplice 5. la forma -ing: stare + -ando -endo 6. gli schemi (patterns) del tipo: se <congiuntivo presente> <condizionale presente> Esempi di (6): 6a. se avessi tempo ti aiuterei volentieri nel trasloco. 6b. se non piovesse cosi` forte usciremo tutti per andare in bicicletta 6c. se lui chiamasse sarebbe un brutto segno, meglio il silenzio. Final note: when your homework is more or less done, please ask again, we'll surely find something else for you to work on, hoping your interest with the subject still holds. Quando questi fossero consolidati