Italian verbs

How do verbs in Italian work?

For any English speaker willing to get familiar with the verbs in the Italian language, it is paramount to learn two very important aspects:

1. in contrast with English, there is a different verb declension for each person, therefore making it possible for up to six different verbal forms occurring in a single tense;
2. consequently, it is not obligatory to write the personal pronoun before each verb.

If you are confused, please have a look at the following table for a more practical explanation:

As you may notice, whereas all declensed form of "run" are equal to the infinitive form of the verb (except for the 3rd person singular), in Italian it is different for each person.

Therefore, even if it is not wrong to say io corro, tu corri, lui corre (and so on), it is possible to omit the pronoun since the verb itself implies who is performing the action!

Characteristics of the Italian verbs

It is fundamental to be able to recognize the two main elements of an Italian verb - that is, the radice (lit. "root") and desinenza ("ending"). 

In the above mentioned verb corriamo ("we run"), the radice is corr- and the desinenza is -iamo. Now, for a bit of explanation:

• as radice we consider the portion of verb which stems directly from the infinite form and stays unchanged in every tense. It is thus the fixed part of the verb;
• as desinenza we consider the ending of the verb, which changes according to both the tense and the person. Therefore it is the variable part of the verb.

So essentially, learning how to conjugate verbs in Italian is a matter of learning how desinenze work with each different kind of tenses.

Italian moods and tenses

All the Italian verb conjugations may be subdivided in several different categories.

The main category is called modo ("mood"), expressing the way the action described by the verb is carried out.

Each modo has one or more tempo ("tense") which expresses the timeframe of the verb (be it present, past or future).

 There are over twenty different tenses in the Italian language, shared among several different moods. In the next few lessons, you shall have a look to each one of them singularly.

Italian verb conjugation

One last paragraph to introduce the verb conjugation in Italian.

 There are three different ways to conjugate verbs in Italian, with each verb belonging to one class according to the desinenza of their present infinitive form.

Therefore:

1. conjugation, verbs ending in -are: cantare, parlare, trovare;
2. conjugation, verbs ending in -ere: chiedere, ridere, scrivere;
3. conjugation, verbs ending in -ire: dormire, ​pulire, servire.

Each one of these classes of verbs conjugates in its own way.

Have a look at some examples of conjugations (present tense) for each one of those classes:

 All the desinenze marked in bold show the differences induced by each class of conjugation.

As you progress through more complex tenses, you will find out that these differences grow much bigger along the way.

 
Before you start learning the Italian verbs thoroughly, we suggest you try out the first (audio) exercise on the Italian verb conjugations!