Italian Grammar

Introduction

 

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, as a second language in Malta, Slovenia and Croatia, by minorities in Eritrea, France, Libya, Monaco, Montenegro, and Somalia, and by expatriate communities in the Americas and Australia. Many speakers are native bilinguals of both standardized Italian and other regional languages.

According to the Bologna statistics of the European Union, Italian is spoken as a native language by 59 million people in the EU (13% of the EU population), mainly in Italy, and as a second language by 14 million (3%). Including the Italian speakers in non-EU European countries (such as Switzerland and Albania) and on other continents, the total number of speakers is around 85 million.

In Switzerland, Italian is one of four official languages; it is studied and learned in all the confederation schools and spoken, as a native language, in the Swiss cantons of Ticino and Grigioni and by the Italian immigrants that are present in large numbers in German- and French-speaking cantons. It is also the official language of San Marino, as well as the primary language of the Vatican City. It is co-official in Slovenian Istria and in Istria County in Croatia. The Italian language adopted by the state after the unification of Italy is based on Tuscan, which beforehand was a language spoken mostly by the upper class of Florentine society. Its development was also influenced by other Italian languages and by the Germanic languages of the post-Roman invaders.

Italian is descended from Latin. Unlike most other Romance languages, Italian retains Latin's contrast between short and long consonants. As in most Romance languages, stress is distinctive. Among the Romance languages, Italian is the closest to Latin in terms of vocabulary.

 

 

Articles

 

Definite article
Gender	Number	Article	Usage
Masculine	Singular	il / lo	Lo is used before: "esse impura" = s /s~z/ + consonant all self-geminating consonants (ie. consonants which are always long between vowels) = z (both /ts/ and /dz/); gn; gl[i], /ʃ/ (normally written sc[i], but also sh or ch in foreign words, eg. lo chef) complex consonant clusters (which are normally restricted to foreign words, usually of Greek origin) = ps /ps~ss/, pn /pn~nn/, x /ks~ss/, mn /mn~nn/, etc. /j/, written y in foreign words (e.g. lo yoghurt) and i in local words and scientific or geographical names (e.g. lo iodio) Before a vowel and uo /wɔ/, the contracted form l' is used, eg. l'amico, l'uomo. Il is used in every other case. Note that foreign words beginning with w /w, v/ take il and not lo: il West /'wɛst/ (referring to the American Old West), il whisky /'wiski/, il Watt /'vat/, etc.
	Plural	i / gli	gli corresponds to lo (cf. singular), while i corresponds to il. Gli is also used before vowels. Therefore: gli zii (← lo zio), i cani (← il cane), gli amici (← l'amico), etc. Il dio (the god) has the irregular plural gli dei /[ʎ]ʎi 'dɛi/ (the gods).
Feminine	Singular	la	Elided to l' before a vowel, but not /j/, eg. la iarda ("the yard")
	Plural	le	Normally never elided to l ('!)

 

Indefinite article
Gender	Article	Usage
Masculine	un	uno is used instead of un in the same way that lo is used instead of il: lo studente → uno studente Before a vowel un is retained.
Feminine	una	un' before a vowel

 

The forms l' and un' arise from mandatory elision of lo, la and una before vowels. In place of plural indefinite articles, preposition "di", compounded with the corresponding definite article, mai be used (e.g.: "Ci sono dei libri sul tavolo" = "There are some books on the table").

 

 

Inflection of nouns and adjectives

 

Nouns and adjectives generally inflect by gender (masculine and feminine, with only some instances of vestigial neuter) and number (singular and plural). Inflection patterns are similar for the two categories:

 

General noun and adjectival endings for number and gender
Gender	Singular	Plural	Example
Masculine	-o	-i	il capello nero, i capelli neri ("the black hair")
Feminine	-a	-e	la bella macchina, le belle macchine ("the beautiful car(s)")
Masculine and feminine	-e	-i	il/la comandante intelligente, i/le comandanti intelligenti ("the smart commander(s)")
Legacy of the old neuter (singular masculine, plural feminine)	-o	-a	il lenzuolo leggero, le lenzuola leggere ("the light bed sheet(s)")
Masculine	-a	-i	l'atleta entusiasta , gli atleti entusiasti ("the enthusiastic athlete(s)")
All nouns ending with a stressed vowel	singular = plural		la città, le città ("the town(s)")
Non-integrated loanwords			il/la manager trendy, i/le manager trendy ("the trendy manager(s)")

 

In the last two examples, only the article carries information about gender and number.

The Italian hard and soft C and G phenomenon leads to a few spelling/pronunciation peculiarities in certain cases:

• Words in -cio and -gio form plurals in -ci and -gi, e.g. bacio / baci ("kiss(es)")
• Words in -cia and -gia have been a point of contention; according to a commonly employed rule, they:
• form plurals in -cie and -gie if the final letter before the suffix is a vowel: camicia, camicie ("shirt(s)"); ciliegia, ciliegie ("cherry"/"cherries").
• form plurals in -ce and -ge if the final letter before the suffix is a consonant: frangia, frange ("fringe(s)"); faccia, facce ("face(s)").
• when the i is stressed, it always remains in plural: farmacia / farmacie ("chemist's shop(s)"), nevralgia / nevralgie ("neuralgia(s)").
• Words in -co and -go behave quite irregularly: "the grammarians are skeptical of any attempt at giving a ruling about this area". There are only partial, empirical rules of thumb:
• plurals are formed with -chi and -ghi if the last letter before the suffix is a consonant or a stressed vowel: fungo / funghi ("mushroom(s)"), stecco / stecchi ("stick(s)"), mago / maghi ("magician(s)"), fuoco / fuochi ("fire(s)")
• plurals are formed with -ci and -gi if the last letter before the suffix is an unstressed vowel: comico / comici ("comedian(s)"), medico / medici ("physician(s)")
• in words ending with -logo suffix, the plural is usually in -gi when -logo means "expert" or "student", corresponding to English -logist (e.g. archeologo / archeologi, "archaeologist(s)"), while it is in -ghi when it means "speech" or "reasoning", corresponding often to English -logue/-log (e.g. catalogo / cataloghi, "catalogue(s)").
• there are exceptions such as amico / amici ("friend(s)"), greco / greci ("Greek(s)"), valico / valichi ("mountain pass(es)"), carico / carichi ("cargo(s)").

 

 

Nouns

 

Most nouns derive from Latin, from Greek or from a Latinization of foreign words:

 

Derivation of noun inflections
Latin declension	Masculine	Feminine
1st (-a / -ae)	poeta / poeti "poet(s)"	rosa / rose "rose(s)"
2nd (-us / -i)	carro / carri "truck(s)"
3rd (-Ø,-is / -is)	cane / cani "dog(s)"	parete / pareti "wall(s)"
3rd (-as / -atis)		città / città "town(s)"
4th (-us / -us)	passo / passi "step(s)"	mano / mani "hand(s)"
5th (-ies / -iei)		specie / specie "species"
Greek words	problema / problemi "problem(s)"	crisi / crisi "crisis", "crises"

 

Any other noun, both those from Latin with an unusual ending and those derived from languages other than Latin or Greek, and not Latinized (cifra - meaning "digit" - and ragazzo/ragazza - meaning "boy/girl" - are from Hebrew and Arabic respectively, but they are Latinized), and nouns ending with a stressed vowel are not inflected, thus:

il re / i re ("the king(s)": rex / reges)

il caffè / i caffè ("the coffee(s)")

il film / i film ("the film(s)")

There are certain words (neuter in Latin) that are masculine in the singular and feminine or masculine in the plural:

il braccio / le braccia or i bracci ("the arm(s)")

l'uovo / le uova ("the egg(s)")

il ginocchio / le ginocchia or i ginocchi ("the knee(s)")

il sopracciglio / le sopracciglia or i sopraccigli ("the eyebrow(s)")

These nouns' endings derive regularly from the Latin neuter endings of the second declension (sg. -um / pl. -a), but there are some from the third declension: e.g. il gregge / le greggi (flock(s), but i greggi works, too); the tradition of calling them "irregular" or "mobile gender" (genere mobile) would come from the paradigm that there are so few nouns of this kind that the existence of neuter can be considered vestigial. The choice of plural is sometimes left to the user, while in some cases there are differences of meaning:

• sometimes, for body parts, the feminine/neuter plural denotes the literal meaning while the masculine one denotes a figurative meaning: il braccio ("the arm") / le braccia ("the arms") / i bracci ("the isthmuses", "the inlets"); il corno ("the horn") / le corna ("the horns" of an animal) / i corni ("the horns" as musical instruments)
• sometimes, especially in poetic and old-fashioned Italian, the masculine plural acts as a count noun, while the neuter/feminine plural acts as a mass noun: il cervello ("the brain") / due cervelli ("two brains") / le cervella ("the cerebral matter"); l'anello ("the ring") / due anelli ("two rings") / le anella ("ringlets"); furthermore, il dito ("the finger") / le dita ("the fingers") and also due dita ("two fingers") / but i diti indici ("the index fingers")

 

Irregular plurals

 

There are very few true irregular plurals in Italian (plurali irregolari). Some of these are:

l'uomo / gli uomini (man/men; lat. homo / homines )

il dio / gli dei (god/gods; note also the irregularity in the article: gli instead of i)

il bue / i buoi (ox/oxen)

il tempio / i templi (temple/temples)

il carcere / le carceri (prison (masculine) / prisons (feminine))

l'ala / le ali (wing/wings) (but "l'ale" is poetically admitted)

l'arma / le armi (weapon/weapons) (but "l'arme" is poetically admitted)

la mano / le mani (hand/hands)

l'eco / gli echi (echo (feminine) / echos (masculine))

la moglie / le mogli (wife/wives)

 

Alteration

 

In Italian, altered nouns are nouns with particular shades of meaning. They are divided into diminutives, "vezzeggiativi" (diminutives with kindness and sympathy nuance), augmentatives and pejoratives.

 

	Suffix	Example
diminutivi (diminutive)	-ino	tavolo (table)	tavolino (a small table)
	-etto	libro (book)	libretto
	-ello	bambino (child)	bambinello (a little child)
	-icello	monte (mountain)	monticello
	-icciolo	porto (port)	porticciolo
vezzeggiativi (terms of endearment)	-uccio	cavallo (horse)	cavalluccio
	-acchiotto	orso (bear)	orsacchiotto
	-iciattolo	fiume (river)	fiumiciattolo
	-olo	figlio (son)	figliolo (also figliuolo)
	-otto	cucciolo (puppy)	cucciolotto
accrescitivi (augmentative)	-one	libro (book)	librone (a big book)
	-accione	uomo (man)	omaccione
dispregiativi (pejorative)	-accio	libro (book)	libraccio (a bad book)
	-astro	medico (medic)	medicastro (quack doctor)
	-ucolo	poeta (poet)	poetucolo
	-onzolo	medico (medic)	mediconzolo
	-uncolo	uomo (man)	omuncolo (an insignificant man)

 

Many other alterations can be built, also through more than one suffix: for example, libro (book) can become libretto (diminutive), libricino (double diminutive), libercolo (diminutive + pejorative), libraccio (pejorative), libraccione (pejorative + augmentative). Uomo (man), coming from Latin homo, becomes om- in altered forms: omino (diminutive), omone (augmentative), omaccio (pejorative), omaccione (augmentative + pejorative).

 

 

Adjectives

 

In Italian, an adjective can be before or after the noun. Placing the adjective after the noun can alter its meaning or indicate restrictiveness of reference; the unmarked placement for most adjectives (e.g. colours, nationalities) is after the noun. If a noun has many adjectives, usually no more than one will be before the noun. When there is possibility to choose, the second word is the more important, so if the adjective is after the noun, it is more emphasized:

un buon uomo = a good man (nothing special, a good man)

un uomo buono = a good man, a man that is good (it is important that he is good, the adjective is emphasized)

 

Adjectives are inflected by gender and number:

 

Gender	Grammatical number	Case 1	Case 2
Masculine	Singular	-o	-e
	Plural	-i	-i
Feminine	Singular	-a	-e
	Plural	-e	-i

 

Degrees of comparison

 

Italian has three degrees of comparison: comparative, relative superlative and absolute superlative.

The comparative and relative superlative degrees are both formed around the word più (literally "plus", meaning "more" or "most"), for instance:

sono il più scemo fra gli uomini ("I am the dumbest of men")

sono più scemo di te ("I am dumber than you")

Viceversa, inverting the order of the words, it's required to substitute più with meno (literally 'minus', meaning "less" or "few"), for instance:

sono il meno forte del campionato ("I am the less strong of championship", in this particular case "più debole" sounds well)

tu sei meno scemo di me ("You are less dumb than me", exactly the same meaning)

The absolute superlative, derived from the Latin synthetic superlative in -issimus, is formed by adding -issimo to an adjective: intelligente ("intelligent"), intelligentissimo ("very intelligent"); sporco ("dirty") sporchissimo ("very dirty"). If the two letters before the last vowel are pr or br (aspro, Latin asper, celebre, Latin celeber), the r is removed and -errimo is the suffix used (asperrimo, celeberrimo) (English: very sour, very famous).

Some adjectives form their degrees of comparison irregularly (though with a regular variant also in common use), like

buono ("good"), migliore / più buono ("better" or "best"), migliore / ottimo / buonissimo ("very good")

cattivo ("bad"), peggiore / più cattivo ("worse" or "worst"), pessimo / cattivissimo ("very bad")

 

Possessive adjectives

 

Possessive adjectives, like articles, must agree with the gender and number of the noun they modify. Hence, mio zio (my uncle), but mia zia (my aunt). So depending on what is being modified, the possessive adjectives are:

 

Person	Masculine		Feminine
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
1st sing.	mio	miei	mia	mie
2nd sing.	tuo	tuoi	tua	tue
3rd sing.	suo	suoi	sua	sue
1st pl.	nostro	nostri	nostra	nostre
2nd pl.	vostro	vostri	vostra	vostre
3rd pl.	loro	loro	loro	loro

 

In most cases the possessive adjective is used with an article, usually the definite article:

Ho perso la mia penna.	("I have lost my pen.")
Mi piace il mio lavoro.	("I like my job.")
Hanno rubato la mia automobile!	("They have stolen my car!")

 

And with the indefinite article:

Un mio amico mi ha detto che...	("A friend of mine told me that...")
Ho visto una sua foto.	("I have seen a photograph of him/her.")
Luca è un mio amico.	("Luke is a friend of mine.")

 

The only exception is when the possessive refers to an individual family member, (unless the family member is described or characterized in some way):

Laura è mia sorella	("Laura is my sister.")
Ieri ho visto mia sorella Diana	("I saw my sister Diana yesterday.")
Questa penna è di mia zia.	("This pen is my aunt's.")

 

But mamma and papà (or babbo, in Central Italy) (mother and father) usually get the article.

For emphasis, however, possessive adjectives are sometimes placed after a noun. This is usually after words like 'colpa' (fault, sin); 'casa' (house, home); 'merito' (merit); 'piacere' (pleasure); or in vocative expressions.

 

È colpa sua	("It is his/her fault")
Oh dio mio!	("Oh, my god!")
Arrivederci, amico mio!	("Goodbye, my friend!")
Vorresti andare a casa mia?	("Would you like to come over to my house?")

 

If the antecedent of a third person possessive (being used as an object) is the subject of the sentence, proprio can be used instead of suo, though the usage of proprio is declining in the spoken language:

 

Marco e Maria hanno discusso di filosofia. Marco ha scelto il proprio punto di vista.	("Marco and Maria discussed about philosophy. Marco took his own point of view.")
Marco e Maria hanno discusso di filosofia. Marco ha scelto il suo punto di vista.	("Marco and Maria discussed about philosophy. Marco took his/her point of view.")

 

The first sentence is unambiguous and states that Marco took his own point of view, whereas the second sentence is ambiguous because it may mean that Marco took either his own or Maria's point of view.

 

Demonstrative adjectives

 

Italian originally had three degrees of demonstrative adjectives: questo (for items near or related to the first person speaker: English "this"), quello (for items near or related to an eventual third person: English "that"), and codesto (for items near or related to an eventual second person). The usage has undergone a simplification, including the meaning of codesto in quello. Only Tuscan speakers still use codesto. In modern Italian, its use is very rare, and the word has acquired a rather pejorative connotation.

 

 

Pronouns

 

Italian features a sizeable set of pronouns. Personal pronouns are inflected by person, number and, in the third person, gender. Literary subject pronouns also have a distinction between animate (egli, ella) and inanimate (esso, essa) antecedents, although this is lost in colloquial usage, where lui, lei and loro are used for animate subjects as well as objects, while no specific pronoun is employed for inanimate subjects (if needed, demonstrative pronouns such as "questo" or "quello" may be used).

There is also the uninflected pronoun ciò, which is only used with abstract antecedents.

Personal pronouns are normally dropped in the subject, as the conjugation is usually enough to determine the grammatical person. They are used when some emphasis is needed, e.g. sono italiano ("I am Italian") vs. io sono italiano ("I [specifically, as opposed to others] am Italian").

 

Personal pronouns
	First Person		Second Person		Third Person
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Reflexive	Masculine		Feminine
						Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Subject	io	noi	tu	voi	-	egli, esso (lui)	essi (loro)	ella, essa (lei)	esse (loro)
Stressed Object	me	noi	te	voi	sé	lui	loro	lei	loro
Clitic accusative	mi	ci	ti	vi	si	lo	li	la	le
Clitic dative	mi	ci	ti	vi	si	gli	gli, loro	le	gli, loro
Clitic dat. before acc.	me	ce	te	ve	se	glie-	glie-	glie-	glie-

 

Notes:

• 2nd person nominative pronoun is tu for informal. For formal use, the 3rd person form Lei has been used since the Renaissance: it is used like "Sie" in German, "Usted" in Spanish and "você" in Portuguese. Previously, and in some Italian regions today (e.g., Campania), voi is used as a formal singular, as in the French "vous". The pronouns lei (third-person singular) and Lei (second-person singular formal) are pronounced the same but written as shown. Formal Lei and Loro take third-person conjugations. The formal plural person is very rarely used in modern Italian; the unmarked form is widely used instead Lei was originally an object form of ella, which in turn referred to an honorific of the feminine gender such as la magnificenza tua / vostra ("Your Magnificence") orVossignoria ("Your Lordship"). Example: "Gino, Lei è un bravo ingegnere. Marco, Lei è un bravo architetto. Insieme, voi sarete una gran bella squadra" "Gino, you are a good engineer. Marco, you are a good architect. Together, you will be a great good team".
• Accusative lo and la elide to l' before a vowel or before h: l'avevo detto ("I had said it"), l'ho detto ("I have said it").
• When accusative pronouns are used in a compound tense, the final vowel of the past participle must agree in gender and number with the accusative pronoun. For example, hai comprato i cocomeri e le mele? ("Did you buy the watermelons and the apples?") - Li[i cocomeri] ho comprati ma non le [le mele] ho comprate ("I bought them [the former] but I did not buy them [the latter]"). This also happens when the underlying pronoun is made opaque by elision: l'ho svegliato ("I woke him up"), versus L'ho svegliata ("I woke herup").
• In modern Italian, dative gli (to him) is used commonly even as plural (to them) instead of classical loro. So: "Conosci Luca: gli ho sempre detto di stare lontano dalle cattive compagnie" (You know Luca: I have always told him to stay away from bad companies"). And: "Conosci Luca e Gino: gli ho sempre detto..." (...I have always told them...) instead of "... ho sempre detto loro di stare...". It works even in feminine: "Conosci Lucia e Gina: gli ho sempre detto..." instead of more classic "... ho detto loro...".

 

Clitic pronouns

 

Though objects come after the verb as a rule, this is not the case with a class of unstressed, clitic pro-forms.

Dative and accusative pronouns come before the verb. If an auxiliary verb is used, the pronouns come before the auxiliary. If both dative and accusative pronouns are used, the dative comes first. Pronominal particles ce/ci (to it) and ne (of it) are treated like accusative pronouns for word-order purposes.

Note that the clitic ci acts both as a first person plural accusative pronoun and a pro-form with a different meaning.

 

Examples:

Davide lascia la sua penna in ufficio.	(David leaves his pen at the office.)
Davide la lascia in ufficio.	(David leaves it at the office.)
Davide ce la lascia.	(David leaves it to us. (but also : David leaves it there.))
Davide ce ne lascia una.	(David leaves us one of them. (but also [rare]: David leaves one [of them] there.))
Davide potrebbe lasciarcene una.	(David might leave us one of them (but also [rare]: David might leave one [of them] there.))
or Davide ce ne potrebbe lasciare una.	(exactly the same as above)

(Compare with the similar use of objective pronouns and pro-forms in French and Catalan.)

 

Finally, in the imperative mood, the objective pronouns come once again after the verb, but this time as a suffix:

Davide lascia la sua penna in ufficio.	(David leaves his pen at the office.)
"Lasciala in ufficio!"	("Leave it at the office!")
"Lasciacela!"	("Leave it to us!" also [less common] "Leave it there!")
Davide potrebbe lasciarla in ufficio.	(David might leave it at the office.)
"Non lasciarcela!"	("Do not leave it to us!" also [less common] "Do not leave it there!")
Davide dovrebbe lasciarcela.	("David should leave it to us." also [less common] "David should leave it there")

 

• Dative mi, ti, ci, and vi become me, te, ce, and ve when preceding another pronoun ("dammelo" (give it to me)) or develop as a me, a te, a noi and a voi when emphasized ("dallo a me" (give it TO ME)).
• Accusative mi, ti, lo, la, ci, and vi become me, te, lui, lei, noi, and voi when emphasized ("uccidimi" (kill me) against "uccidi me, non lui" (kill me, not him)).
• Dative gli, le, loro (commonly gli) can be developed into a lui, a lei, a loro, when emphasized ("lo sai solo tu: a loro non l'ho detto" (only you know it: I have not told them))
• Dative gli combines with accusative lo, la, li, le and ne (partitive, meaning "of it" or "of them") to form glielo, gliela, glieli, gliele and gliene. These combinations are used for feminine and plural too ("Maria lo sa? Gliel'hai detto?" (Does Maria know it? Have you said it to her?)).

 

 

Verbs

 

Italian verbs have a high degree of inflection, the majority of which follow one of three common patterns of conjugation. Conjugation is affected by mood, person, tense, number and occasionally gender.

The three classes of verbs (patterns of conjugation) are distinguished by the endings of the infinitive form of the verb:

• 1st conjugation: -are (amare "to love")
• 2nd conjugation: -ere (credere "to believe")
• '-arre, -irre and -urre are considered part of the 2nd conjugation, as they are derived from Latin -ere but had lost their internal e after the suffix fused to the stem's vowel (a, i and u).
• 3rd conjugation: -ire (dormire "to sleep").
• 3rd conjugation -ire with infixed -isc- (finire "to finish")

Additionally, Italian has a number of irregular and semi-irregular verbs, of which selection will be displayed in this article:

• essere "to be" (identity, location, permanent qualities)
• avere "to have"
• andare "to go"
• stare "to be" (state, temporal qualities)
• dare "to give", shown only in forms differing from stare
• fare "to do/make"

The suffixes that form the infinitive are usually stressed, except for -ere, which is stressed in some verbs and unstressed in others (e.g. vedere /ve'deːre/ vs prendere /'prɛndere/). A few verbs have a misleading, retracted infinitive, but use their unretracted stem in most conjugations. Fare comes from Latin facere, which can be seen in many of its forms. Similarly, dire ("to say") comes from dicere, bere ("to drink") comes from bevere and porre ("to put") comes from ponere.

 

The Present

 

Present (Il presente)

Used for:

• events happening in the present
• habitual actions
• current states of being and conditions

 

	amare /am'aːre/	credere /'kreːdere/	dormire /dorˈmiːre/	finire /fi'niːre/	essere /'ɛssere/	avere /a'veːre/	andare /an'daːre/	stare /'staːre/	dare /'daːre/	fare /faːre/
io /'io/	amo /'aːmo/	credo /'kreːdo/	dormo /'dɔrmo/	finisco /fi'nisko/	sono /'soːno/	ho /'ɔ/	vado (vo) /'vaːdo/ (/'vɔ/)	sto /'stɔ/	do /'dɔ/	faccio (fo) /'fattʃo/ (/'fɔ/)
tu /'tu/	ami /'aːmi/	credi /'kreːdi/	dormi /'dɔrmi/	finisci /fi'niʃʃi/	sei /'sɛi/	hai /'ai/	vai /'vai/	stai /'stai/	dai /'dai/	fai /'fai/
lui / lei / Lei /'lui lɛi/	ama /'ːama/	crede /'kreːde/	dorme /'dɔrme/	finisce /fi'niʃʃe/	è /'ɛ/	ha /'a/	va /'va/	sta /'sta/	dà /'da/	fa /'fa/
noi /'noi/	amiamo /a'mjaːmo/	crediamo /kre'djaːmo/	dormiamo /dor'mjaːmo/	finiamo /fi'njaːmo/	siamo /'sjaːmo/	abbiamo /ab'bjaːmo/	andiamo /an'djaːmo/	stiamo /'stjaːmo/	diamo /'djaːmo/	facciamo /fat'tʃaːmo/
voi / Voi /'voi/	amate /a'maːte/	credete /kre'deːte/	dormite /dor'miːte/	finite /fi'niːte/	siete /'sjɛːte/	avete /a'veːte/	andate /an'daːte/	state /'staːte/	date /'daːte/	fate /'faːte/
loro /'loːro/	amano /'aːmano/	credono /'kreːdono/	dormono /'dɔrmono/	finiscono /fi'niskono/	sono /'soːno/	hanno /'anno/	vanno /'vanno/	stanno /'stanno/	danno /'danno/	fanno /'fanno/

 

Io credo "I believe"

Lei dorme "She sleeps"

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"

Dorme "He/she sleeps"

The pronoun tu (and corresponding verb forms) is used in the singular towards children, family members and close friends (cf. thou), whereas voi is used in the same manner in the plural (cf. ye). Capitalised pronouns Lei and Voi are used towards older people, strangers and very important or respectable people. Note that lei in lower case means "she". Lower case lei and upper case Lei both act as the third person plural, despite their meaning, allowing for a distinction between formal and informal "you" even when the pronoun is omitted.

Lei va "You are going (formal)"

Tu vai "You are going (informal)"

Vai "You are going (informal)"

Va "You are going (formal)"

The first person singular and third person plural are identical.

Sono "I am / They are"

Vado and faccio are the correct first person singular forms of the verbs andare and fare, but vo and fo are also heard in Tuscany.

As you can see, the infix -isc- varies in pronunciation between /isk/ and /ʃʃ/, depending on the following vowel. Similar alterations are found in other verbs:

• leggo /'lɛɡɡo/ "I read" vs. leggi /'lɛddʒi/ "you read"
• dico "I say" /'diːko/ vs. "dici" /'ditʃi/ "you say"

 

The Past

 

Present perfect (Il passato prossimo)

The present perfect is used for single actions or events (stamattina sono andato in scuola "I went to school this morning"), or change in state (s'è arrabbiato quando ho detto quello "he got angry when I told him that"), contrasting with the imperfect which is used for habits (andavo in bicicletta alla scuola ogni mattina "I went to school by bike every morning"), or repeated actions, not happening a specific time (s'arrabbiava ogni volta che qualcuno gli diceva quello "he got angry every time someone told him that").

 

The past participle

The past participle is needed to form the present perfect. Regular verbs follow a very easy pattern, but there are many verbs with an irregular past participle.

• Verbs in -are add -ato to the stem: parlato, stato
• Verbs in -ire add -ito to the stem: partito, finito
• Some verbs in -ere add -uto to the stem: creduto
• Other verbs in -ere are irregular, they mutate the stem and add -o, -so, -sto or -tto to the stem: preso (from prendere), letto (from leggere), rimasto (from rimanere)
• Fare and dire do exactly the same thing: fatto (from fare), detto (from dire)
• Venire has venuto and bere has bevuto
• Stare and essere both have stato.

 

Verbs with "avere"

All transitive verbs and most intransitive verbs form the present perfect by combining the auxiliary verb avere "to have" in the present tense with the past participle of the transitive verb.

 

	parlare
io	ho parlato
tu	hai parlato
lui / lei / Lei	ha parlato
noi	abbiamo parlato
voi / Voi	avete parlato
loro	hanno parlato

 

The past participle agrees in gender and number with third person object pronouns, if these precede the verb, following the same pattern of nouns and adjectives:

• -o masculine singular
• -a feminine singular
• -i masculine plural
• -e feminine plural

When not agreeing, the participle always ends in -o.

Il ragazzo che ho visto "The boy I saw'

L'ho visto "I saw him'

Ho visto il ragazzo "I saw the boy'

La ragazza che ho visto "The girl I saw'

L'ho vista "I saw her'

Ho visto (!) la ragazza "I saw the girl'

 

Verbs with "essere"

A small number of intransitive verbs, namely essere itself and verbs indicating motion (venire "to come", "andere to go, arrivare "to arrive", etc.) use the auxiliary verb essere "to be" instead of avere. The past participle in this agrees with gender and number of the subject.

 

	arrivare
io	sono arrivato/–a
tu	sei arrivato/–a
lui / lei / Lei	è arrivato/–a
noi	siamo arrivati/–e
voi / Voi	siete arrivati/–e
loro	sono arrivati/–e

 

Reflexive verbs always use essere, but 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 l'è lavate, le gambe "He washed them, his legs"

Ci siamo parlati "" "We talked to each other"

 

Imperfect (L'imperfetto)

The imperfect is used for:

• repeated or habitual actions in the past
• ongoing actions in the past and ongoing actions in the past that are eventually interrupted
• weather time and age in the past
• states of being and conditions in the past

The Imperfect is, in most cases, formed by taking the stem along with the thematic vowel and adding v + the ending of the -are verbs in the present tense (with -amo instead of -iamo). There are no irregular verbs in the Imperfect, with the exception of essere and the retracted verbs, which use their full stems (i.e. dicevo for dire, facevo for fare, bevevo for bere and ponevo for porre).

 

	parlare	vendere	capire	finire	essere	avere	andare	stare	fare
io	parlavo /par'laːvo/	vendevo /ven'deːvo/	capivo /ka'piːvo/	finivo /fi'niːvo/	ero /'ɛːro/	avevo /a'veːvo/	andavo /an'daːvo/	stavo /'staːvo/	facevo /fa'tʃeːvo/
tu	parlavi /par'laːvi/	vendevi /ven'deːvi/	capivi /ka'piːvi/	finivi /fi'niːvi/	eri /'ɛːri/	avevi /a'veːvi/	andavi /an'daːvi/	stavi /'staːvi/	facevi /fa'tʃeːvi/
lui / lei / Lei	parlava /par'laːva/	vendeva /ven'deːva/	capiva /ka'piːva/	finiva /fi'niːva/	era /'ɛːra/	aveva /a'veːva/	andava /an'daːva/	stava /'staːva/	faceva /fa'tʃeːva/
noi	parlavamo /parla'vaːmo/	vendevamo /vende'vaːmo/	capivamo /kapi'vaːmo/	finivamo /fini'vaːmo/	eravamo /era'vaːmo/	avevamo /ave'vaːmo/	andavamo /anda'vaːmo/	stavamo /sta'vaːmo/	facevamo /fatʃe'vaːmo/
voi / Voi	parlavate /parla'vaːte/	vendevate /vende'vaːte/	capivate /kapi'vaːte/	finivate /fini'vaːte/	eravate /era'vaːte/	avevate /ave'vaːte/	andavate /anda'vaːte/	stavate /sta'vaːte/	facevate /fatʃe'vaːte/
loro	parlavano /par'laːvano/	vendevano /ven'deːvano/	capivano /ka'piːvano/	finivano /fi'niːvano/	erano /'ɛːrano/	avevano /a'veːvano/	andavano /an'daːvano/	stavano /'staːvano/	facevano /fa'tʃeːvano/

Loro parlavano "They used to speak"

 

Past absolute (Il passato remoto)

The Absolute Past has almost exactly the same function as the Present Perfect. It is used for events which are distant from the present and no longer directly affect it, for example when 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 time be replaced with the Present Perfect (but not vice versa). In Southern Italy, it is still used commonly in spoken language, whereas in Northern Italy, it is restricted to written language.

Like the past participle, regular verbs are very predictable, but many verbs (mainly ending in -ere) are irregular.

• Regular verbs are formed by taking the stem and the stressed thematic vowel and adding -i, -sti, -, -mmo, -ste-, rono. Verb in -are have -ò in the third person singular instead of the expected -à.
• parlare: parlai, parlasti, parlò, parlammo, parlaste, parlarono
• credere: credei, credesti, credé, credemmo, credeste, crederono
• partire: partii, partisti, partì, partimmo, partiste, partirono
• Irregular verbs have an irregular stem to which the exits -i, -e, -ero are added to form the first singular, third singular and third plural forms respectively. The second singular, first plural and second plural forms follow the regular pattern (dire, fare, bere, porre use their long stems here, as usual).
• rompere: ruppi, rompesti, ruppe, rompemmo, rompeste, ruppero
• vedere: vidi, vedesti, vide, vedemmo, vedeste, videro
• dire: disse, dicesti, disse, dicemmo, diceste, dissero
• Some verbs in -ere that follow the regular pattern (-ei, -esti, etc.) have an alternative form in -etti which follows the irregular pattern.
• credere: credetti (=credei), credesti, credette (=credé), credemmo, credeste, credettero (=crederono)
• The majority of verbs follow one of the above patterns. Essere, stare and fare however are completely irregular.

 

	parlare	vendere	partire	finire	essere	avere	andare	stare	dare	fare
io	parlai /par'lai/	vendei or vendetti /ven'dei/ or /ven'dɛtti/	partii /par'tii/	finii /fi'nii/	fui /'fui/	ebbi /'ɛbbi/	andai /an'dai/	stetti /'stɛtti/	diedi or detti /'djɛːdi/ or /'dɛtti/	feci /'fɛːtʃi/
tu	parlasti /par'lasti/	vendesti /ven'desti/	partisti /par'tisti/	finisti /fi'nisti/	fosti /'fosti/	avesti /a'vesti/	andasti /an'dasti/	stesti /'stɛsti/	desti /'dɛsti/	facesti /fa'tʃesti/
lui / lei / Lei	parlò /par'lɔ/	vendé or vendette /ven'de/ or /ven'dɛtte/	partì /par'ti/	finì /fi'ni/	fu /'fu/	ebbe /'ɛbbe/	andò /an'dɔ/	stette /'stɛtte/	diede or dette /'djɛːde/ or /'dɛtte/	fece /'fɛːtʃe/
noi	parlammo /par'lammo/	vendemmo /ven'demmo/	partimmo /par'timmo/	finimmo /fi'nimmo/	fummo /'fummo/	avemmo /a'vemmo/	andammo /an'dammo/	stemmo /'stɛmmo/	demmo /'dɛmmo/	facemmo /fa'tʃemmo/
voi / Voi	parlaste /par'laste/	vendeste /ven'deste/	partiste /par'tiste/	finiste /fi'niste/	foste /'foste/	aveste /a'veste/	andaste /an'daste/	steste /'stɛste/	deste /'dɛste/	faceste /fa'tʃeste/
loro	parlarono /par'laːrono/	venderono or vendettero /ven'deːrono/ or /ven'dɛttero/	partirono /par'tiːrono/	finirono /fi'niːrono/	furono /'fuːrono/	ebbero /'ɛbbero/	andarono /an'daːrono/	stettero /'stɛttero/	diedero' or dettero /'djɛːdero/ or /'dɛttero/	fecero /'fɛːtʃero/

 

Past Perfect (Il trapassato prossimo)

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.

• parlare: avevo parlato
• 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

• parlare: ebbi parlato
• arrivare: fui arrivato/–a

 

The Future

 

Future (Il futuro semplice)

The future is used for events that will happen in the future. It is formed by adding the forms of avere to the infinitive (with abbiamo and avete retracted to -emo and -ete respectively). Sometimes the infinitive undergoes some changes.

• Firstly, the infinitive always loses its final e.
• Secondly, verbs in -are end in -er, not in -ar
• Stare, dare, fare however retain star-, dar-, far-.
• Most irregular verbs lose the letter before the last r altogether (e.g. avr- for avere and andr- for andare). Clusters -nr- and -lr- are simplified to -rr (e.g. verr- for venire).
• Retraced infinitives are retained (e.g. porr- for porre)
• Essere has sar-

 

	parlare	prendere	partire	finire	essere	avere	andare	stare	fare
io	parlerò /parle'rɔ/	prenderò /prende'rɔ/	partirò /parti'rɔ/	finirò /fini'rɔ/	sarò /sa'rɔ/	avrò /a'vrɔ/	andrò /an'drɔ/	starò /sta'rɔ/	farò /fa'rɔ/
tu	parlerai /parle'rai/	prenderai /prende'rai/	partirai /parti'rai/	finirai /fini'rai/	sarai /sa'rai/	avrai /a'vrai/	andrai /an'drai/	starai /sta'rai/	farai /fa'rai/
lui / lei / Lei	parlerà /parle'ra/	prenderà /prende'ra/	partirà /parti'ra/	finirà /fini'ra/	sarà /sa'ra/	avrà /a'vra/	andrà /an'dra/	starà /sta'ra/	farà /fa'ra/
noi	parleremo /parle'reːmo/	prenderemo /prende'reːmo/	partiremo /parti'reːmo/	finiremo /fini'reːmo/	saremo /sa'reːmo/	avremo /a'vreːmo/	andremo /an'dreːmo/	staremo /sta'reːmo/	faremo /fa'reːmo/
voi / Voi	parlerete /parle'reːte/	prenderete /prende'reːte/	partirete /parti'reːte/	finirete /fini'reːte/	sarete /sa'reːte/	avrete /a'vreːte/	andrete /an'dreːte/	starete /sta'reːte/	farete /fa'reːte/
loro	parleranno /parle'ranno/	prenderanno /prende'ranno/	partiranno /parti'ranno/	finiranno /fini'ranno/	saranno /sa'ranno/	avranno /a'vranno/	andranno /an'dranno/	staranno /sta'ranno/	faranno /fa'ranno/

 

Future perfect (Il futuro anteriore)

Used for events that will have happened when or after something else happens in the future.

The Future Perfect is formed the same as the Present Perfect, but with the auxiliary verb in the Future.

• parlare: avrò parlato
• arrivare: sarò arrivato/–a

 

The Conditional

 

Conditional (Il condizionale presente)

Used for:

• events that are dependent upon other 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 of avere (with ebbi, avesti, avemmo, aveste retracted to -ei, -esti, -emmo, -este resp.).

 

	-are	-ere	-ire
io	lavorerei /lavore'rɛi/	prenderei /prende'rɛi/	aprirei /apri'rɛi/
tu	lavoreresti /lavore'resti/	prenderesti /prende'resti/	apriresti /apri'resti/
lui / lei / Lei	lavorerebbe /lavore'rɛbbe/	prenderebbe /prende'rɛbbe/	aprirebbe /apri'rɛbbe/
noi	lavoreremmo /lavore'remmo/	prenderemmo /prende'remmo/	apriremmo /apri'remmo/
voi / Voi	lavorereste /lavore'reste/	prendereste /prende'reste/	aprireste /apri'reste/
loro	lavorerebbero /lavore'rɛbbero/	prenderebbero /prende'rɛbbero/	aprirebbero /apri'rɛbbero/

 

Past Conditional (Il condizionale passato)

Used for events that would, could or should have occurred.

The Conditional Perfect is formed the same as the Present Perfect, but with the auxiliary verb in the Conditional.

• parlare: avrei parlato
• arrivare: sarei arrivato/–a

 

The Subjunctive

 

Present Subjunctive (Il congiuntivo presente)

Used for subordinate clauses of the present indicative (il presente) to express opinion, possibility, 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 word che (or compounds such as perché, affinché, etc.)

 

	parlare	vedere	partire	finire	essere	avere	andare	stare	fare
io	che parli /'parli/	che veda /'veːda/	che parta /'parta/	che finisca /fi'niska/	che sia /'sia/	che abbia /'abbja/	che vada /'vaːda/	che stia /'stia/	che faccia /'fattʃa/
tu	che parli /'parli/	che veda /'veːda/	che parta /'parta/	che finisca /fi'niska/	che sia /'sia/	che abbia /'abbja/	che vada /'vaːda/	che stia /'stia/	che faccia /'fattʃa/
lui / lei / Lei	che parli /'parli/	che veda /'veːda/	che parta /'parta/	che finisca /fi'niska/	che sia /'sia/	che abbia /'abbja/	che vada /'vaːda/	che stia /'stia/	che faccia /'fattʃa/
noi	che parliamo /par'ljaːmo/	che vediamo /ve'djːamo/	che partiamo /par'tjaːmo/	che finiamo /fi'njaːmo/	che siamo /'sjaːmo/	che abbiamo /ab'bjaːmo/	che andiamo /an'djaːmo/	che stiamo /'stjaːmo/	che facciamo /fat'tʃaːmo/
voi/ Voi	che parliate /par'ljaːte/	che vediate /ve'djaːte/	che partiate /par'tjaːte/	che finiate /fi'njaːte/	che siate /'sjaːte/	che abbiate /ab'bjaːte/	che andiate /an'djaːte/	che stiate /'stjaːte/	che facciate /fat'tʃaːte/
loro	che parlino /'parlino/	che vedano /'veːdano/	che partano /'partano/	che finiscano /fi'niskano/	che siano /'siano/	che abbiano /'abbjano/	che vadano /'vaːdano/	che stiano /'stiano/	che facciano /'fattʃan/

 

Imperfect Subjunctive (Il congiuntivo imperfetto)

Used for subordinate clauses of the imperfect indicative (l'imperfetto) or the conditional.

The Imperfect Subjunctive is formed by taking the second person singular and replacing final -ti with -si, -si, -se, -simo, -te, -sero.

 

	-are	-ere	-ire
io	che parlassi /par'lassi/	che leggessi /led'dʒessi/	che capissi /ka'pissi/
tu	che parlassi /par'lassi/	che leggessi /led'dʒessi/	che capissi /ka'pissi/
lui / lei / Lei	che parlasse /par'lasse/	che leggesse /led'dʒesse/	che capisse /ka'pisse/
noi	che parlassimo /par'lassimo/	che leggessimo /led'dʒessimi/	che capissimo /ka'pissimo/
voi / Voi	che parlaste /par'laste/	che leggeste /led'dʒeste/	che capiste /ka'piste/
loro	che parlassero /par'lassero/	che leggessero /led'dʒessero/	che capissero /ka'pissero/

 

Past Subjunctive (Il congiuntivo passato)

Used for subordinate clauses of the imperfect indicative (l'imperfetto) or the conditional.

The Subjunctive Perfect is formed the same as the Present Perfect, but with the auxiliary verb in the Subjunctive Present.

• parlare: che abbia parlato
• arrivare: che sia arrivato/–a

 

Pluperfect Subjunctive (Il congiuntivo trapassato)

The Subjunctive Pluperfect is formed the same as the Present Perfect, but with the auxiliary verb in the Present.

• parlare: ch'avessi parlato
• arrivare: che fossi arrivato/–a

 

The Imperative

 

Imperative (imperativo)

Used for giving commands.

The second person singular Imperative is formed:

• 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!)
• For andare, dare and stare, by taking either of these. (e.g. va!/vai! for andare)
• For a few irregular verbs, by taking the singular form of the Subjunctive and replacing final -a with -i (e.g. vogli! for volere)
• Dire has dì!

The polite form of the singular is identical to the 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! "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 pronominal suffixes (e.g. andiamocene "Let's go away!" vs. ce ne andiamo "We are leaving").
The second person plural is usually identical to the Present Indicative, but in a few irregular cases to the Present Subjunctive.

 

	parlare	leggere	partire	finire	essere	avere	andare	stare	fare
(tu)	parla! /'parla/	leggi! /'lɛddʒi/	parti! /'parti/	finisci! /fi'niʃʃi/	sii! /'sii/	abbi! /'abbi/	vai! or va! /'vai/ or /'va/	stai! or sta! /'stai/ or /'sta/	fai! or fa! /'fai/ or /'fa/
(Lei)""	parli! /'parli/	legga! /'lɛɡɡa/	parta! /'parta/	finisca! /fi'niska/	sia! /'sia/	abbia! /'abbja/	vada! /'vaːda/	stia! /'stia/	faccia! /'fattʃa/
(noi)	parliamo! /par'ljaːmo/	leggiamo! /lɛd'dʒaːmo/	partiamo! /par'tjaːmo/	finiamo! /fi'njaːmo/	siamo! /'sjaːmo/	abbiamo! /ab'bjaːmo/	andiamo! /an'djaːmo/	stiamo! /'stjaːmo/	facciamo! /fat'tʃaːmo/
(voi)	parlate! /par'laːte/	leggete! /lɛd'dʒeːte/	partite! /par'tiːte/	finite! /fi'niːte/	siate! /'sjaːte/	abbiate! /ab'bjaːte/	andate! /an'daːte/	state! /'staːte/	fate! /'faːte/

Parti! "Leave!"

Partiamo "Let's leave"

 

Negative imperative

The second person singular uses the infinitive instead of its usual form in the negative, while other forms remain unchanged.

 

	-are	-ere	-ire
(tu)	non parlare	non leggere	non partire
(Lei)	non parli	non legga	non parta
(noi)	non parliamo	non leggiamo	non partiamo
(voi)	non parlate	non leggete	non partite

Non partire "Don't leave"

 

Nominal Verb forms

 

Italian verbs have three additional forms, known as nominal forms, because they can be used as nouns or adjectives, rather than as verbs.

• The past participle has been discussed above.
• The present participle 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 /'ɛnte/ to the stem.
• Fare, dire, bere, porre use their long stems to form resp. facente, dicente, bevente, ponente.
• Essere has ente.
• The gerund (gerundio) is the adverbial form of the present participle, and has a very broad use. For example: parlando can translate as 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.
• Essere by exception has essendo, not the expected endo.

The gerund can be used in combination with the verb stare to create continuous expressions. These are similar to English continuous expressions (eg. I am talking) but they are used much less extensively as 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!

 

Irregular verbs

 

dire: Pr. dico, dici, dice, diciamo, dite, dicono; Ps.P ho detto; Impf. dicevo; Ps.R dissi, diceste; f. dirò; Sg.Pr. dica, diciamo; Sg.Impf. dicessi; Imp. dì!, dica!, diciamo!, dite!; dicente

bere: Pr. bevo /'beːvo/, bevi, beve, beviamo, bevete, bevono; Ps.P ho bevuto; Impf. bevevo; Ps.R bevvi/bevetti, bevesti; f. berrò; Sg.Pr. che beva, che beviamo; Sg.Impf. che bevessi; Imp. bevi!, beva!, beviamo!, bevete!; bevente

volere: Pr. voglio /'vɔʎʎo/, vuoi /'vwɔi/, vuole, vogliamo, volete, vogliono; Ps.P ho voluto ° ; Impf. volevo; Ps.R volli/volsi /'vɔlsi 'volli/, volesti; f. vorrò; Sg.Pr. che voglia, che vogliamo; Sg.Impf. che volessi; Imp. vogli!, voglia!, vogliamo!, vogliate!; volente

sapere: Pr. so /'sɔ/, sai, sa, sappiamo, sapete, sanno; Ps.P ho saputo; Impf. sapevo; Ps.R seppi /'sɛppi/, sapesti; f. saprò; Sg.Pr. che sappia, che sappiamo; Sg.Impf. che sapessi; Imp. sappi!, sappia!, sappiamo!, sapete!; sapente

potere: Pr. posso /'pɔsso/, puoi /'pwɔi/, può, possiamo, potete, possono; Ps.P ho potuto ° ; Impf. potevo; Ps.R potei, potesti; f. potrò; Sg.Pr. che possa, che possiamo; Sg.Impf. che potessi; Imp. possi!, possa!, possiamo!, possiate!; potente

dovere: Pr. devo/debbo /'deːvo 'debbo/, devi, deve, dobbiamo, dovete, devono/debbono; Ps.P ho dovuto ° ; Impf. dovevo; Ps.R dovei/dovetti, dovesti; f. dobrò; Sg.Pr. che debba, che dobbiamo; Sg.Impf. che dovessi; Imp. devi!, debba!, dobbiamo!, dovete!; *dovente

porre: Pr. pongo /'poŋɡo/, poni /'poːni/, pone, poniamo, ponete, pongono; Ps.P ho posto /'posto/; Impf. ponevo; Ps.R posi /'poːsi/, ponesti; f. porrò; Sg.Pr. che ponga, che poniamo; Sg.Impf. che ponessi; Imp. poni!, ponga!, poniamo!, ponete!; ponente

venire: Pr. vengo /'vɛŋɡo/, vieni /'vjɛːni/, viene, veniamo, venite, vengono; Ps.P sono venuto/–a; Impf. venivo; Ps.R venni /'vɛnne/, venesti; f. verrò; Sg.Pr. che venga, che veniamo; Sg.Impf. che venisse; Imp. vieni!, venga!, veniamo!, venite!; venente

tenere: like venire (Ps.R tenni, tenesti)

rimanere: Pr. rimango, rimani, rimane, rimaniamo, rimanete, rimangono; Ps.P sono rimasto/–a; Impf. rimanevo; Ps.R rimasi, rimanesti; f. rimarrò; Sg.Pr. che rimanga, che rimaniamo; Sg.Impf. che rimanessi; Imp. rimani!, rimanga!, rimaniamo, rimanete!; rimanente

morire: Pr. muoio /'mwɔjo/, muori /'mwɔːri/, muore, moriamo, morite, muoiono; Ps.P sono morto/–a /'mɔrto/; Impf. morivo; Ps.R morii, moristi; f. morirò/morrò; Sg.Pr. che muoia, che moriamo; Sg.Impf. che morissi; Imp. mouri!, muoia!, moriamo!, morite!; morente

° = these verbs always use avere to form the Perfect tenses when on their own, however when used as modally, they either take avere or follow the verb they refer to (if this is essere, the past participle optionally agrees with the subject): non sono potuto(/–a) venire / non ho potuto venire "I wasn't able to come"; sono voluto(/–a) partire / ho voluto partire "I wanted to leave"

 

 

Adverbs

 

An adjective can be made into a modal adverb by adding -mente (from Latin "mente", ablative of "mens" (mind), feminine noun) to the ending of the feminine singular form of the adjective. E.g. lenta "slow (feminine)" becomes lentamente "slowly". Adjectives ending in -re or -le lose their e before adding -mente (facile "easy" becomes facilmente "easily", particolare "particular" becomes particolarmente "particularly").

These adverbs can also be derived from the absolute superlative form of adjectives, e.g. lentissimamente ("very slowly"), facilissimamente ("very easily").

There is also a plethora of temporal, local, modal and interrogative adverbs, mostly derived from Latin, e.g. quando ("when"), dove ("where"), come ("how"), perché ("why"/"because"), mai ("never"), sempre ("always"), etc.

 

 

Prepositions

 

Italian has a closed class of basic prepositions, to which a number of adverbs can be added that also double as prepositions, e.g.: sopra il tavolo ("upon the table"), prima di adesso ("before now").

In modern Italian the prepositions tra and fra are interchangeable, and often chosen on the basis of euphony: tra fratelli ("among brothers") vs. fra i tralicci ("between the power pylons").

All the basic prepositions except tra, fra, per and con have to be combined with an article placed next to them.

 

Italian	English	Preposition + article
di	of, from	del, dello, della, dell' / dei, degli, delle
a	to, at	al, allo, alla, all' / ai, agli, alle
da	from, by	dal, dallo, dalla, dall' / dai, dagli, dalle
in	in	nel, nello, nella, nell' / nei, negli, nelle
con	with	con il or col, con lo, con la, con l' / con i or coi, con gli, con le
su	on, about	sul, sullo, sulla, sull' / sui, sugli, sulle
per	for, through	per il, per lo, per la, per l' / per i, per gli, per le
tra / fra	between, among	tra il, tra lo, tra la, tra l' / tra i, tra gli, tra le

 

 

Sentences and word order

 

Italian is an SVO language. Nevertheless, the SVO sequence is sometimes replaced by one of the other arrangements (SOV, VSO, OVS, etc.), especially for reasons of emphasis and, in literature, for reasons of style and metre: Italian has a relatively free word order.

The subject is usually omitted when it is a pronoun – distinctive verb conjugations make it redundant. Subject pronouns are considered emphatic when used at all.

Questions are formed by a rising intonation at the end of the sentence (in written form, a question mark). There is usually no other special marker, although wh-movement does usually occur. In general, intonation and context are important to recognize questions from affirmative statements.

 

Davide è arrivato in ufficio.	(David has arrived at the office.)
Davide è arrivato in ufficio?	(Has David arrived at the office?)
Perché Davide è arrivato in ufficio?	(Why has David arrived at the office?)
Perché Davide è arrivato in ufficio.	(Because David has arrived at the office.)
È arrivato Davide in ufficio.	("It was David who arrived at the office" or "David arrived at the office" - depending on the intonation)
È arrivato Davide in ufficio?	(Has David, in particular, arrived at the office?)
È arrivato in ufficio.	(He has arrived at the office.)
(Egli) È arrivato in ufficio.	(He has arrived at the office.)
Chi è arrivato in ufficio?	(Who has arrived at the office?)

 

In general, adjectives come after the noun they modify, adverbs after the verb. But: as with French, adjectives coming before the noun indicate essential quality of the noun. Demonstratives (e.g. questo this, quello that) come before the noun, and a few particular adjectives (e.g. bello) may be inflected like demonstratives and placed before the noun.