VERBS: THE PRESENT TENSE - Il presente indicativo

In Italian, verbs are divided in different moods (MODI) and tenses (TEMPI).

The first mood we are going to see is called INDICATIVO, and we’ll see the present tense for now.

Verbs are divided in 3 groups, or rather in 3 conjugations, according to the ending of the verb in the infinitive form.

The three conjugations are:

1. Verbs ending in –ARE

2. Verbs ending in –ERE

3. Verbs ending in –IRE

For example:

• AMARE (to love) ends in –ARE, so it belongs to the 1st conjugation.

• CREDERE (to believe) ends in –ERE, so it belongs to the 2nd conjugation.

• DORMIRE (to sleep) ends in –IRE, so it belongs to the 3rd conjugation.

So, let’s see how to conjugate these verbs, according to their conjugation.

You have to take out –ARE, -ERE, -IRE and replace it with the following endings:

                   -ARE       -ERE       -IRE


Io                 -O         -O         -O
Tu                 -I         -I         -I
Lui/lei            -A         -E         -E
Noi                -IAMO      -IAMO      -IAMO
Voi                -ATE       -ETE       -ITE
Loro               -ANO       -ONO       -ONO

As you can see, the endings are quite similar: the endings underlined in blue are the ones that are the same for all conjugations.

The endings underlined in purple are the ones common to the 2nd and the 3rd conjugation.

So, if we take the verb AMARE, we take out –ARE and we add to the root of the verb the endings, we obtain:

io        AM-O
tu        AM-I
lui/lei   AM-A
noi       AM-IAMO
voi       AM-ATE
loro      AM-ANO


Same thing with the verb CREDERE:


io        CRED-O
tu        CRED-I
lui/lei   CRED-E
noi       CRED-IAMO
voi       CRED-ETE
loro      CRED-ONO


And with the verb DORMIRE:


io        DORM-O
tu        DORM-I
lui/lei   DORM-E
noi       DORM-IAMO
voi       DORM-ITE
loro      DORM-ONO

Remember that the stress on the verb at the 3rd person plural never falls on the ending of the verb, which means make sure to read it as AMANO and not *AMANO, and CREDONO and not *CREDONO, and DORMONO and not *DORMONO.

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