-arre,-orre and-urre are considered part of the 2nd conjugation, as they are derived from Latin-ere but had lost their internale after the suffix fused to the stem's vowel (a,o andu);
3rd conjugation-ire with infixed-isc- (finìre "to end, to finish").[1]
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 ofèssere "to be", and somewhat less extremely,avére "to have", the least predictable. Others, such asandàre "to go",stare "to stay, to stand",dare "to give",fare "to do, to make", andnumerous others, follow various degrees of regularity within paradigms, largely due tosuppletion, historical sound change or analogical developments.[2]
The suffixes that form the infinitive are always stressed, except for-ere, which is stressed in some verbs (e.g.vedere/veˈdeːre/ "to see") and unstressed in others (e.g.prendere/ˈprɛndere/ "to take"). A few verbs have a contracted infinitive, but use their uncontracted stem in most conjugations.Fare comes from Latinfacere, which can be seen in many of its forms. Similarly,dire ("to say") comes fromdīcere,bere ("to drink") comes frombibere andporre ("to put") comes frompōnere.
Together with the traditional patterns of conjugation, new classes and patterns have been suggested, in order to include common verbs such asavviare, which exhibit a quite different form and stress pattern.[3]
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 pronountu (and corresponding verb forms) is used in the singular towards children, family members and close friends (cf. "thou"), whereasvoi is used in the same manner in the plural (cf. "ye"). The pronounsLei andLoro (though much more commonly justvoi) are used towards older people, strangers and very important or respectable people. Note thatlei andloro 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 verbessere has the same form in the first person singular and third person plural.
The present perfect is used for single actions or events (stamattina sono andato a scuola "I went to school this morning"), or change in state (si è arrabbiato quando gliel’ho detto "he got angry when I told him that"), contrasting with the imperfect which is used for habits (andavo in bicicletta a scuola ogni mattina "I used to go to school by bike every morning"), or repeated actions, not happening at a specific time (si arrabbiava ogni volta che qualcuno glielo diceva "he got angry every time someone told him that").
The past participle is used to form the compound pasts (e.g.ho lavorato, avevo lavorato, ebbi lavorato, avrò lavorato). Regular verbs follow a predictable pattern, but there are many verbs with an irregular past participle.
verbs in-are add-ato to the stem:parlato,amato;
some verbs in-ere add-uto to the stem:creduto;
verbs in-ire add-ito to the stem:partito,finito;
other verbs in-ere are irregular, they mutate the stem and add-o,-so,-sto or-tto to the stem:preso/ˈpreːzo,ˈpreːso/ (fromprendere),letto/ˈlɛtto/ (fromleggere),rimasto (fromrimanere);
fare anddire do exactly the same thing:fatto (fromfare),detto/ˈdetto/ (fromdire). Compounds from the root-durre similarly have-dotto/ˈdotto/;
Alltransitive verbs and mostintransitive verbs form the present perfect by combining the auxiliary verbavere "to have" in the present tense with the past participle of the transitive verb.
amare
io
hoamato
tu
haiamato
lui / lei / Lei
haamato
noi
abbiamoamato
voi
aveteamato
loro / Loro
hannoamato
Except with an immediately preceding third person pronominal direct object, the participle always ends in-o.
A small number ofintransitive verbs, namelyessere itself and verbs indicating motion (venire "to come",andare "to go",arrivare "to arrive", etc.) use the auxiliary verbessere instead ofavere. The past participle in this agrees with gender and number of the subject.
arrivare
io
sonoarrivato/-a
tu
seiarrivato/-a
lui / lei / Lei
èarrivato/-a
noi
siamoarrivati/-e
voi
sietearrivati/-e
loro / Loro
sonoarrivati/-e
When usingessere, the past participle agrees in gender and number with preceding third person direct object clitic pronouns, following the same pattern of nouns and adjectives:
-o masculine singular
-a feminine singular
-i masculine plural
-e feminine plural
Reflexive verbs always useessere, and their past participle agrees with the subject or with third person object pronouns, if these precede the verb.
mi sono lavato/-a "I washed myself"
ci siamo visti/-e "we saw each other"
si è lavato le gambe "he washed his legs"
se le è lavate, le gambe "he washed them, his legs"
ongoing actions in the past and ongoing actions in the past that are eventually interrupted;
states of being and conditions in the past, including weather, time, age.
The difference between imperfective andperfective aspects can be illustrated clearly with the verbsapere 'to know'. The Italian imperfect expresses being in possession of knowledge in the past, while the perfective expresses the moment of acquiring the knowledge.
Imperfective:Sapevo la verità. 'I knew the truth.' Perfective:Ho saputo la verità. 'I found out the truth.'
The Imperfect is, in most cases, formed by taking the stem along with the thematic vowel and addingv + the ending of the '-are' verbs in the present tense (with-amo instead of-iamo). There are no irregular conjugations in the Imperfect except foressere, which uses the stemer- andv appears only in 1st and 2nd person plurals. Verbs with contracted infinitive forms use their full stems, e.g.dicevo (infinitivedire),facevo (infinitivefare),bevevo (infinitivebere),ponevo (infinitiveporre).
The Absolute Past has a function distinct from the Present Perfect. It is used for events which are distant from the present and no longer directly affect it (e.g. telling a story), whereas the Present Perfect is used for more recent events which may have a direct impact on the present. The Absolute Past may at all times be replaced with the Present Perfect (but not vice versa). In many areas of Southern Italy, it is still used commonly in spoken language, whereas in Northern-Central Italy and Sardinia it is restricted to written language.
Like the past participle, regular verbs are very predictable, but many verbs (mainly of the second conjugation) are irregular.
Regular verbs are formed by taking the stem and the stressed thematic vowel and adding-i,-sti, main stress,-mmo,-ste, and-rono. Verbs in-are have-ò in the third person singular instead of the expected-à:
Irregular verbs, which are almost exclusively of the second conjugation, have irregular stems to which the endings-i,-e, and-ero are added to form the first-person singular and third-person singular and plural forms, respectively, and, with the exception ofvenire, which takes the normal third conjugation endings, the second conjugation endings-esti,-emmo, and-este are added to the normal stem to form the second-person singular and first- and second-person plural forms, respectively (dire,bere,fare, andporre use their long stems here, as usual):
Used for activities done prior to another activity (translates to constructions such as "had eaten", "had seen").
The Past Perfect is formed the same as the Present Perfect, but with the auxiliary verb in the Imperfect.
amare:avevo amato
arrivare:ero arrivato/-a
In literary language, an Absolute Perfect exists which uses the Absolute Past of the auxiliaries, and which is used for activities done prior to another activity which is described with the Absolutive Past. This form is known astrapassato remoto.
The future tense is used for events that will happen in thefuture. It is formed by adding the forms ofavere to the Infinitive (withabbiamo andavete contracted to-emo and-ete respectively). Sometimes the Infinitive undergoes some changes:
it always loses its finale;
verbs in-are end in-er, not in-ar;
stare,dare,fare however retainstar-,dar-,far-;
most irregular verbs lose the vowel before the lastr altogether (e.g.avr- foravere andandr- forandare). Clusters-nr- and-lr- are simplified to-rr (e.g.verr- forvenire);
contracted infinitives are retained (e.g.porr- forporre);
essere hassar-.
To these, the respective suffixes-ò,-ai,-à,-emo,-ete,-anno are added. Historically speaking, these are derived from the present forms of the verbavere.
events that are dependent upon another event occurring;
politely asking for something (like in English, "Could I please have a glass of water?").
The Conditional is formed by taking the root of the Future (i.e. an adapted form of the infinitive) and adding the Absolutive Past forms ofavere (withebbi,avesti,avemmo,aveste contracted to-ei,-esti,-emmo,-este resp.).
Used for subordinate clauses of the present (il presente) to express possibility, opinion, desire, or doubt.
The Subjunctive is formed:
for regular verbs in-are, by taking the root and adding-i,-ino for all the singular forms and the third plural respectively;
for most other regular and semi-regular verbs, by taking the first person singular of the Present Indicative and replacing the final-o with-a,-ano for all the singular forms and the third plural respectively;
for a few irregular verbs, by taking the first person plural of the Present Indicative and replacing stressed-amo with unstressed-a,-ano for all the singular forms and the third plural respectively;
for all verbs, the first person plural is identical to the Present Indicative.
for all verbs, the second person plural is the first person plural with-te instead of-mo;
The Subjunctive is almost always preceded by the conjunctive wordche (or compounds such asperché,affinché, etc.).
Used for the subordinate clauses of the Imperfect Indicative or the Conditional.
The Imperfect Subjunctive is formed:
for regular verbs, by taking the Infinitive and replacing-re with-ssi,-ssi,-sse,-ssimo,-ste,-ssero;
for contracted verbs, by taking, instead of the Infinitive, the stem plus the thematic vowel;
the only verbs that form this tense irregularly areessere,fare,stare,dare (these two follow the pattern of verbs in-ere rather than the one of verbs in-are).
for regular verbs in-are, by taking the third person singular of the Present (e.g.parla)
for other regular verbs, by taking the second person singular of the Present (e.g.prendi,parti,finisci)
forandare,dare,fare, andstare*, by taking the second person singular of the Present, either shortened to the vowel beforei or not (e.g.va’/vai forandare)
fordire*, by shortening the stem todi’
for a few irregular verbs, by taking the singular form of the Subjunctive and replacing final-a with-i (e.g.vogli forvolere)
*For the verbsandare,dare,fare,stare the conjugation actually follows the natural ending of the conjugation, but the apostrophe is needed to distinguish them from the third personal singular of the Indicative Present. The same is true fordire, where the apostrophe is used for distinguish it from the preposition "di" (of).
The polite form of the singular is identical to the Present Subjunctive. Objective personal pronouns are placed before the verb, unlike other forms of the imperative which have these after the verb (e.g.Mi aiuti, per favore! "Please help me!" vs.Aiutami! "Help me!",Se ne vada via. "Please go away." vs.Vattene via! (vattene =va’ +te +ne), etc.).
The first-person plural (used for suggestion, e.g.andiamo "let's go!") is identical to the Present Indicative, but allows for pronominal suffixes (e.g.andiamocene "let's go away" vs.ce ne andiamo "we are going away").
The second-person plural is usually identical to the Present Indicative, but in a few irregular cases to the Present Subjunctive.
The polite plural is identical to the Present Subjunctive. As with the polite singular, objective personal pronouns come before the verb as opposed to after it.
Italian verbs have three additional forms, known as nominal forms, because they can be used as nouns or adjectives, rather than as verbs.
thepast participle (participio passato) has been discussed above
thepresent participle (participio presente) is used as an adjective or a noun describing someone who is busy doing something. For example,parlante means "talking" or "someone who is talking":
verbs in-are form the present participle by adding-ante to the stem
verbs in-ere and-ire form the present participle by adding-ente/ˈɛnte/ to the stem
fare,dire,bere,porre use their long stems to form resp.facente,dicente,bevente,ponente
essere hasessente (though very rare)
thegerund (gerundio) is the adverbial form of the present participle, and has a very broad use. For example:parlando can translate to "talking / while talking / by talking / because of one's talking / through talking / …":
the gerund is identical to the present participle, but with final-te replaced by-do
The gerund can be used in combination with the verbstare to create continuous expressions. These are similar to English continuous expressions (e.g.I am talking) but they are used much less extensively than in English.
sto lavorando "I'm working"
stavo mangiando "I was eating"
Keep in mind that the gerund is an adverb, not an adjective, and so it does not agree in gender and number with anything. The ending is always-o:
la ragazza sta mangiando "The girl is eating"
Like the imperative, all nominal verb forms (including the infinitive) have their objective personal pronouns suffixed rather than placed before them.
mi parla >parlarmi; (parlatomi); (parlantemi);parlandomi;parlami!
si pone >porsi; (postosi); (ponentesi);ponendosi;poniti!
me lo dice >dirmelo; (dettomelo); (dicentemelo);dicendomelo;dimmelo!
se ne va via >andarsene via; (andatosene via); (andantesene via);andandosene via;vattene via!
The following list includes some example conjugations for a number of verbs commonly classified as irregular, not sorted by type or degree of irregularity. Verbs derived from others (e.g.apprèndere,comprèndere,sorprèndere, ... fromprèndere) and the ones which end in the same way (e.g.stèndere,rèndere,accèndere, ...; comparevéndere, which is regular) are formed according to the same conjugation. The list does not includeessere,avere,andare,stare,dare andfare, that have already been conjugated throughout the article.
^Such verbs with the-isc infix correspond to English Romance-origin verbs that end in "-ish", such as "finish", "punish", "accomplish", "extinguish", and so on.
^Aski, Janice M. 1995. Verbal Suppletion: An Analysis of Italian, French, and Spanishto go.Linguistics 33.403-32.
^The only verb that does not follow this pattern issparire "to disappear", which is regular with infixed-isc-.
^This conjugation is also followed bysuadere/su.aˈdeːre/ (poetical term for "persuade") and the verbs derived from it.
^The verbcedere "to yield, to surrender" and all the other ones derived from it are regular instead.
^abcThese verbs always use the auxiliary verbavere to form the perfect tenses when on their own; however, when used as modals, they takeessere oravere following the verb they refer to (if the auxiliary verb isessere, the past participle agrees with the subject):non sono potuto/-a venire "I wasn't able to come";ho voluto parlare "I wanted to speak".
^This conjugation is also followed byvincere/ˈvintʃere/ "to win" (with consonant change from-g- to-c-) and the verbs derived from it.
^This conjugation is also followed bytorcere/ˈtɔrtʃere/ "to twist, to wring" (with consonant change from-g- to-c-) and the verbs derived from it.
^The only two verbs that do not follow this pattern arefendere/ˈfɛndere/ "to cleave, to split" andpendere/ˈpɛndere/ "to hang", which are regular; note thatscendere/ˈʃɛndere,ˈʃendere/ "to go down" is irregular (along with the verbs derived from it), whilevendere/ˈvendere/ "to sell" follows the regular pattern (along with the verbs derived from it).
