1.1. Present

Italian verbs

Italian verbs are conventionally organized into three types (three conjugations) according to the vowel characterizing the ending of the infinitive.

• First conjugation: infinitive ends in –are (abitare-to live, parlare-to talk, etc…);

• Second conjugation: infinitive ends in –ere (leggere-to read, prendere-to take, etc…). Note that several -ere verbs have additional irregularities not  illustrated in the sample conjugations below;

• Third conjugation: infinitive ends in –ire (dormire-to sleep, finire-to finish, sentire-to feel/to listen, etc…).

Present tense – Presente indicativo

Regular verbs

Following are examples of regular verbs across all three conjugations, including a sub-category of

-ire verbs—the last column to the right is an example of such an “-isc” verb.

* The third person singular Lei (often capitalized) is used as a formal address, e.g.,  “Signora, dove abita?”. Its English equivalent could be, “You, madam,” or “You, sir.” See Section 15 for more details on formal versus informal forms of address.

Note on slight spelling and pronunciation variations with some regular verb conjugations:

• Verbs ending in –care/–gare

Verbs ending in –care like giocare (to play),  and verbs ending in –gare like pagare (to pay), place an –h before the –i of the tu form, e.g., tu giochi, and before the –i of the noi form, e.g., noi giochiamo, this is done to keep pronunciation consistent.

Verbs of frequent use that require this spelling change are : giocare (to play) , cercare (to look for, to search, to try), pagare (to pay), litigare (to argue), pregare (to pray).

• Verbs ending in –ciare/-giare

For verbs ending in –ciare like cominciare (to start),  and –giare like mangiare (to eat), the forms of tu and noi have only one –i. That is, you will not double the “i” when you conjugate the tu and noi forms, e.g., tu cominci, noi cominciamo.

Verbs of frequent use: cominciare,  mangiare.

• Verbs ending in –scere/-gere

Verbs ending in –scere like conoscere (to know),  and –gere like leggere (to read) have a ‘hard’ pronunciation in the ending of the io and loro forms, e.g., io conosco, loro conoscono, io leggo, loro leggono. For verbs like conoscere,there is a ‘soft’ pronunciation of the –sci or -sce in all the other forms, e.g., tu conosci, lui conosce, noi conosciamo, voi conoscete.

Summary table of regular verbs with slight spelling and pronunciation variations