Lably
Skip to content

Italian conjugation

How verbs are conjugated in Italian

  • 25 min read
  • 8 chapters

Related on Lably

Through Grammatical tense and Future

The three classes of verbs (patterns of conjugation) are distinguished by the endings of the infinitive form of the verb:

  • 1st conjugation: -are (amare "to love", parlare "to talk, to speak");
  • 2nd conjugation: -ere (crédere "to believe", ricévere "to receive", vedére "to see");
    • -arre, -orre and -urre are considered part of the 2nd conjugation, as they are derived from Latin -ere but had lost their internal e after the suffix fused to the stem's vowel (a, o and u);
  • 3rd conjugation: -ire (dormìre "to sleep");
    • 3rd conjugation -ire with infixed -isc- (finìre "to end, to finish").

Additionally, Italian has a number of verbs that do not follow predictable patterns in all conjugation classes, most markedly the present and the absolute past. Often classified together as irregular verbs, their irregularities occur to different degrees, with forms of èssere "to be", and somewhat less extremely, avére "to have", the least predictable. Others, such as andàre "to go", stare "to stay, to stand", dare "to give", fare "to do, to make", and numerous others, follow various degrees of regularity within paradigms, largely due to suppletion, historical sound change or analogical developments.

The suffixes that form the infinitive are always stressed, except for -ere, which is stressed in some verbs (e.g. vedere "to see") and unstressed in others (e.g. prendere "to take"). A few verbs have a contracted infinitive, but use their uncontracted stem in most conjugations. Fare comes from Latin facere, which can be seen in many of its forms. Similarly, dire ("to say") comes from dīcere, bere ("to drink") comes from bibere and porre ("to put") comes from pōnere.

Together with the traditional patterns of conjugation, new classes and patterns have been suggested, in order to include common verbs such as avviare, which exhibit a quite different form and stress pattern.

Present

The present is used for:

  • events happening in the present
  • habitual actions
  • current states of being and conditions
  • actions planned to occur in the future
  • io credo "I believe"
  • lei dorme "she sleeps"

Subject pronouns are not obligatory in Italian, and they are normally only used when they are stressed. The conjugation of the verb is normally used to show the subject.

  • credo "I believe"
  • credi "you believe" (2nd pers. sing.)
  • crede "he/she believes"

The pronoun tu (and corresponding verb forms) is used in the singular towards children, family members and close friends (cf. "thou"), whereas voi is used in the same manner in the plural (cf. "ye"). The pronouns Lei and Loro (though much more commonly just voi) are used towards older people, strangers and very important or respectable people. Note that lei and loro can also mean "she" and "they", respectively.

  • Lei va "you are going" (formal)
  • tu vai "you are going" (informal)
  • vai "you are going" (informal)
  • va "you are going" (formal)

The irregular verb essere has the same form in the first person singular and third person plural.

  • sono "I am"/"they are"

The forms vado and faccio are the standard Italian first person singular forms of the verbs andare and fare, but vo and fo are used in the Tuscan dialect.

The infix -isc- varies in pronunciation between and , depending on the following vowel. Similar alternations are found in other verbs:

  • leggo "I read" vs. leggi "you read"
  • dico "I say" vs. dici "you say"
  • etc.

Sign in to keep reading

7 more chapters are free with a Lably account.

More in Language