Verbs

Italian verbs change their endings to show who is doing something and when. Learn one set of endings and you can use hundreds of regular verbs. This guide covers the four tenses the app teaches: present, imperfect, future, and present perfect (passato prossimo).

Three Groups of Verbs

The basic form of a verb, the infinitive, ends in -are, -ere or -ire. It is the form you find in the dictionary, and it means "to ...".

To conjugate a regular verb, take off the last three letters to get the stem (parl-, legg-, dorm-) and add the ending for the person and tense you need. The -are group is the biggest, and new verbs almost always join it.

Who Is Doing It

These are the six persons a verb changes for:

The ending already tells you who is acting, so Italians usually leave the pronoun out: Parlo italiano. - I speak Italian. Use the pronoun only for emphasis or contrast: Io lavoro, tu dormi! - I’m working, you’re sleeping!

To be polite to a stranger, use Lei (formal "you") with the same verb form as lui and lei: Lei parla inglese? - Do you speak English?

Present

The present is for things that happen now or usually. It covers both "I speak" and "I am speaking", and it often replaces the future for plans: Domani lavoro. - I’m working tomorrow.

The -ere and -ire groups differ only in the voi form (leggete, dormite). In the loro form the stress stays on the stem: PAR-la-no, not par-LA-no.

Present: -isc- Verbs

Many -ire verbs add -isc- between the stem and the ending in the present, except for noi and voi. Common ones are capire (to understand), finire (to finish) and preferire (to prefer).

• Non capisco. - I don’t understand.
• Finisco alle sei. - I finish at six.

You can’t tell from the infinitive whether a verb takes -isc-, so learn it with the verb. The other tenses use the normal -ire endings: capivo, capirò, ho capito.

Imperfect

The imperfect describes the past as a background or a habit: what was going on, what used to happen, how things were. In English it is often "was ...ing" or "used to ...".

• Da bambino giocavo sempre fuori. - As a child I always played outside.
• Dormivo quando hai chiamato. - I was sleeping when you called.

It is the most regular tense. Even avere is regular (avevo). Essere is the main exception: ero, eri, era, eravamo, eravate, erano. Fare and dire use a longer stem: facevo, dicevo.

Future

The future says what will happen. Add the endings to the whole infinitive minus its final -e. In -are verbs the a changes to e: parlare becomes parler-.

• Domani ti chiamerò. - I’ll call you tomorrow.

Don’t forget the accents on -ò and -à. Some common verbs shorten the stem: essere becomes sarò, avere becomes avrò, andare becomes andrò, potere becomes potrò, volere becomes vorrò, and venire becomes verrò.

Spelling Changes

A few regular verbs change their spelling to keep their sound.

-care and -gare

Verbs like cercare (to look for) and pagare (to pay) add an h before i or e to keep the hard c and g:

• cerchi, cerchiamo, cercherò
• paghi, paghiamo, pagherò

-ciare and -giare

Verbs like mangiare (to eat) and cominciare (to begin) drop the i before another i or an e, because it is no longer needed for the soft sound:

• mangi (not mangii), mangiamo, mangerò
• cominci, cominciamo, comincerò

Present Perfect With Avere

The present perfect (passato prossimo) is the everyday past tense for finished actions. It translates both "I ate" and "I have eaten".

It has two parts: the present of avere (some verbs use essere instead) plus the past participle. Regular participles are:

• Ieri ho lavorato tutto il giorno. - Yesterday I worked all day.

With avere, the participle does not change: Maria ha mangiato.

Present Perfect With Essere

Some verbs use essere instead of avere. Most of them describe movement or a change of state: andare, venire, arrivare, partire, tornare, entrare, uscire, restare, diventare, morire, and essere itself. Reflexive verbs also take essere: mi sono alzato - I got up. With essere, the participle agrees with the subject like an adjective.

• Marco è arrivato ieri. - Marco arrived yesterday.
• Anna è tornata a casa. - Anna went back home.
• Siamo stati a Roma. - We were in Rome.

A woman says sono andata, a man sono andato. A mixed group uses the masculine: siamo andati.

Irregular Past Participles

Many common verbs, especially in the -ere group, have an irregular participle. These are worth learning early:

Present Perfect or Imperfect?

Both tenses talk about the past, but they do different jobs.

• Use the present perfect for a finished event, something that happened once or a set number of times: Ieri ho visto Marco. - Yesterday I saw Marco.
• Use the imperfect for the background, a habit, or a description: Ogni estate andavamo al mare. - Every summer we went to the beach.

They often appear together. The imperfect sets the scene, and the present perfect tells what happened:

• Leggevo un libro quando è arrivata Anna. - I was reading a book when Anna arrived.

Key Irregular Verbs: Present

The most common verbs are irregular in the present. These four come up in almost every conversation.

The h in ho, hai, ha and hanno is silent. It only tells them apart from o (or), ai (to the), a (to) and anno (year). The accent matters too: è means "is", while e means "and".

Mi Piace: I Like

Italian has no verb that works like "to like". Instead, piacere means "to be pleasing", and the thing you like is the subject. Use piace for one thing and piacciono for more than one, with mi, ti, gli, le and so on for the person who likes it.

• Mi piace il caffè. - I like coffee.
• Mi piacciono i cani. - I like dogs.
• Ti piace la musica? - Do you like music?
• Gli piace leggere. - He likes to read.

In the present perfect, piacere takes essere, and the participle agrees with the thing liked: Mi è piaciuto il film. - I liked the movie. Mi è piaciuta la cena. - I liked the dinner.

Regular and Irregular Verbs

Regular verbs follow the patterns in this guide in every tense. Irregular verbs break them in at least one tense, often only in the present or the participle. The app marks every verb as regular or irregular, so you know when you can trust the pattern and when to learn the forms one by one.

You don’t need to memorize every table before you start. Open a verb deck and see how each verb looks across the four tenses: the patterns sink in with practice.