Italian Verb Conjugation: -are, -ere, -ire and Irregulars

Italian verb conjugation is kinder than its reputation. The regular system is genuinely regular: drop the infinitive ending, add a person ending, and you can conjugate a verb you have never met. The difficulty is concentrated in the irregulars, and the commonest of them are the verbs you use most.

The whole system on one screen

The three regular families in the present, with parlare (to speak), credere (to believe) and dormire (to sleep):

Read it by row and you see how little varies:

• io ends in -o and tu in -i in every family.
• noi is -iamo in every family.
• voi keeps the infinitive's vowel: -ate, -ete, -ite.
• -ere and -ire differ only in voi.

The three families in use

Take the infinitive, drop -are, -ere or -ire, and add the ending:

1234

1. 1legge
2. 2cucina
3. 3corre
4. 4parla al telefono

Four people busy right now, each in the plain present: legge is both she reads and she is reading. -are verbs end in -a, -ere verbs in -e.

Because the ending already says who, the subject pronoun is usually left out: Parlo italiano, not io parlo italiano. Subject pronouns explains when it comes back.

The -isc- verbs

A large group of -ire verbs inserts -isc- between stem and ending in four persons, io, tu, lui / lei and loro. Capire (to understand) is the one you need first:

noi and voi go without it. The infinitive does not tell you which -ire verbs do this, so learn it per verb:

• Finisco alle otto. - I finish at eight. (finire takes -isc-)
• Preferisco questo. - I prefer this. (preferire takes -isc-)
• Dormo bene. - I sleep well. (dormire does not)

A spelling note: cerchi, paghi

Verbs ending in -care and -gare add an h before an ending that starts with i, to keep the hard sound:

• Cosa cerchi? - What are you looking for?
• Paghi tu? - Are you paying?

The sound stays regular; the spelling protects it.

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

What to do next

1. Write out parlare, credere and dormire once, saying each form aloud.
2. Learn capire as an -isc- verb, with Non capisco.
3. Learn the three modals as a block, each with an infinitive after it.