Faccio, vado, posso: the irregulars you need most

The irregulars are the ones you need

A few dozen verbs break the pattern, and the handful below are the ones you say most. They are irregular because they are frequent: a verb used constantly is learned whole by every child, so it never gets tidied into the pattern. English kept go / went for the same reason.

Four of them in their io form, with the infinitive beside it:

Essere and avere have a lesson of their own. Here are three more, with the endings that survive coloured:

• Cosa fai? - What are you doing?
• Vado a casa. - I'm going home.
• Dice la verità. - He's telling the truth.

Most of the endings are still the regular ones: faccio ends in -o, andiamo in -iamo. What breaks is the stem. Fare and dire are shortened Latin facere and dicere, and the long stems fac- and dic- come back in many forms:

• facciamo - we do
• dico - I say
• diciamo - we say

Potere, volere and dovere

The three modal verbs break in the same places, so learn them together:

Each is followed by a plain infinitive, with nothing in between. English puts to after want and have; Italian never adds anything:

• Posso fare questo. - I can do this.
• Voglio vedere la casa. - I want to see the house.
• Devo andare a casa. - I have to go home.

Mistakes English speakers make