IRREGULAR VERBS 2 (Present tense) - Verbi irregolari al presente 2

Other frequent irregular verbs in the present tense:

CAPIRE (to understand)

IO CAPISCO

TU CAPISCI

LUI CAPISCE

NOI CAPIAMO

VOI CAPITE

LORO CAPISCONO

POTERE (can/to be able to)

IO POSSO

TU PUOI

LUI PUÒ

NOI POSSIAMO

VOI POTETE

LORO POSSONO

VENIRE (to come)

IO VENGO

TU VIENI

LUI VIENE

NOI VENIAMO

VOI VENITE

LORO VENGONO

VOLERE (to want)

IO VOGLIO

TU VUOI

LUI VUOLE

NOI VOGLIAMO

VOI VOLETE

LORO VOGLIONO

FINIRE (to finish)

IO FINISCO

TU FINISCI

LUI FINISCE

NOI FINIAMO

VOI FINITE

LORO FINISCONO

DARE (to give)

IO DO

TU DAI

LUI DÀ

NOI DIAMO

VOI DATE

LORO DANNO

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IRREGULAR VERBS (Present tense) - Verbi irregolari al presente

Here we have some very frequent irregular verbs in the present tense:

FARE (to do/to make)

IO FACCIO
TU FAI
LUI FA
NOI FACCIAMO
VOI FATE
LORO FANNO

ANDARE (to go)

IO VADO
TU VAI
LUI VA
NOI ANDIAMO
VOI ANDATE
LORO VANNO

USCIRE (to go out)

IO ESCO
TU ESCI
LUI ESCE
NOI USCIAMO
VOI USCITE
LORO ESCONO

AVERE (to have)

IO HO
TU HAI
LUI HA
NOI ABBIAMO
VOI AVETE
LORO HANNO

DIRE (to say/to tell)

IO DICO
TU DICI
LUI DICE
NOI DICIAMO
VOI DITE
LORO DICONO

SAPERE (to know)

IO SO
TU SAI
LUI SA
NOI SAPPIAMO
VOI SAPETE
LORO SANNO

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POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES - Aggettivi possessivi

The possessive adjectives in Italian have a masculine and a feminine form, in the singular and in the plural:

In the masculine singular:

MIO       MY

TUO       YOUR

SUO       HIS/HER

NOSTRO    OUR

VOSTRO    YOUR

LORO      THEIR

In the feminine singular:

MIA        MY

TUA        YOUR

SUA        HIS/HER

NOSTRA     OUR                      

VOSTRA     YOUR

LORO       THEIR                    

Before masculine nouns we use masculine adjectives and before feminine nouns we use feminine adjectives, so for example we say:

IL MIO LETTO (my bed)

IL TUO CELLULARE (your mobile phone)

LA MIA CAMERA (my room)

LA NOSTRA VALIGIA (our suitcase)

In the masculine plural:

MIEI      MY

TUOI      YOUR

SUOI      HIS/HER

NOSTRI    OUR

VOSTRI    YOUR

LORO      THEIR

In the feminine plural:

MIE       MY                        

TUE       YOUR

SUE       HIS/HER

NOSTRE    OUR

VOSTRE    YOUR

LORO      THEIR

For example:

I SUOI AMICI (his/her friends)

I VOSTRI VICINI (your neighbours)

LE VOSTRE CANZONI (your songs)

LE LORO SCARPE (their shoes)

Note that, unlike in English, in Italian the 3rd person pronoun doesn’t specify whether the owner is a male or a female, so that LA SUA AUTO can either be “his car” or “her car”, depending on the context.

The possessive adjective is generally preceeded by an article (definite or indefinite), for example:

LA MIA AMICA CLARA (my friend Clara)

UNA MIA AMICA (a friend of mine)   

PS. LORO is always invariabile

EXCEPTION:

An exception to this rule is with nouns referring to family members.

We don’t put the article before terms like padre, madre, zia, sorella, fratello, cugino…
So we never say *LA MIA SORELLA, but MIA SORELLA, and not *IL MIO ZIO, but MIO ZIO.

However, with MAMMA and PAPÀ you can either use the article or not, so it’s acceptable to say LA MIA MAMMA and IL MIO PAPÀ though it’s more common to hear them without article.

Before LORO you must always have an article at any time, so you have to say: LA LORO CUGINA, I LORO NONNI, LE LORO FIGLIE.

If there’s another adjective that specifies some further information about the family member, the article is always accepted, so for example you cannot say: *IL MIO MARITO, but you can say IL MIO EX MARITO.

Or you cannot say *IL MIO FRATELLO, but you can say IL MIO FRATELLO PIÚ GRANDE (my youngest brother).

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I LIKE - Mi piace

In Italian the verb “to like” is called PIACERE and its conjugation is slightly different from the other verbs.

If we want to say that we like doing something, we use the verb PIACERE followed by the infinitive of another verb, in this way:

MI PIACE               I like

TI PIACE               you like

GLI PIACE              he likes

LE PIACE               she likes  +  infinitive form

CI PIACE               we like       (LEGGERE, CANTARE...)

VI PIACE               you like       to read   to sing

A LORO PIACE           they like

If we want to say that we like something, as for example in “I like Italian food” we say MI PIACE IL CIBO ITALIANO, or MI PIACE IL TUO VESTITO (I like your dress),  TI PIACE QUESTO LIBRO? (Do you like this book?).

BUT if  the noun following the verb PIACERE is in the plural we have to say: MI PIACCIONO.

For example: “I like your trousers” becomes MI PIACCIONO I TUOI PANTALONI, “We like dogs” CI PIACCIONO I CANI, “We like parties” CI PIACCIONO LE FESTE, as all the nouns are in the plural form.

So the full conjugation of the verb, when followed by a plural noun is:

MI PIACCIONO                
TI PIACCIONO

GLI PIACCIONO     + plural noun (GLI ANIMALI, LE FESTE...)
LE PIACCIONO                      animals      parties

CI PIACCIONO                                             

VI PIACCIONO
A LORO PIACCIONO

If we want to say for example “Sara likes reading”, we say: A SARA PIACE LEGGERE, so instead of the pronoun, we put A followed by the name of the person:

A SARA         PIACE/PIACCIONO

A MARCO        PIACE/PIACCIONO

A SARA E MARCO PIACE /PIACCIONO

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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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THE INDEFINITE ARTICLES - Gli articoli indeterminativi

The indefinite articles corresponding to the English “a, an” are:

UN    UNO     for masculine words

UN’   UNA     for feminine words

Let’s see when to use UN or UNO before masculine words:

We use UN before words starting with a vowel, or starting with a consonant.

For example we say UN ALBERGO (a hotel), UN ARMADIO (a wardrobe) as they start with vowels, and UN LAVORO (a job), or UN BAMBINO (a child) as they begin with a consonant.

BUT:  With words beginning with S+another consonant, Z, GN and PS we use UNO.

For instance, we say UNO SPETTACOLO (a show) as it begins with S followed by another consonant, UNO ZAINO (a backpack), UNO PSICHIATRA (a psychiatrist) and so on…

For feminine words we use UN’ or UNA:

UNA before wirds starting with any consonant with no exceptions.

UN’ before words beginning with a vowel.

For example we say: UNA FINESTRA (a window), UNA PAROLA (a word), but we say UN’ARANCIA (an orange), UN’ANATRA (a duck), UN’ESTATE (a summer) as they start with a vowel and in this way they’re easier to pronounce.

It is important to remember the apostrophe of UN’ in the feminine, as in certain cases it may change the gender of the following word:

For example, the word INSEGNANTE can be both masculine or feminine, according to the context.

But if I write UN INSEGNANTE (without apostrophe), the noun is masculine, if we put the apostrophe (UN’INSEGNANTE), it becomes feminine and it refers to a female teacher.      

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THE VERB TO BE - Il verbo essere

The verb “to be” in Italian is called VERBO ESSERE.

Here we have the full conjugation in the present tense:

IO SONO

TU SEI

LUI È

LEI È

NOI SIAMO

VOI SIETE

LORO SONO

The 1st person singular and the 3rd person plural (IO SONO and LORO SONO) are the same.

Remember to put the accent on the È of the verb, to avoid confusion with the simple E without accent, which means “and”.

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THE DEFINITE ARTICLES - Gli articoli determinativi

In italian we use different articles according to the gender (masculine or feminine) and the number (singular or plural).

The  two main articles used in the singular are:

IL        and        LA

We use IL before masculine singular words, as IL CANE (the dog) and we use LA before feminine singular words, as LA MELA (the apple).

However, sometimes we can also find the articles LO for the masculine singular and L’ before masculine and feminine words in the singular.

So now, let’s see when to use each of them:

For singular masculine words:

we use IL before words starting with consonants, but we use LO if the word starts with S+another consonant, Z, PS and GN.

We use L’ every time a word begins with a vowel.

For example we say:

IL CIELO (the sky) because CIELO is a masculine word which begins with a consonant.

But we say LO ZAINO (the back pack) because ZAINO begins with Z, and we say LO STADIO (the stadium), LO SCRITTORE (the writer), LO SCIENZIATO (the scientist) as all these words begin with S + another consonant.

We also say LO PSICOLOGO (the psychologist) as it begins with PS, and LO GNOMO (the dwarf) as it starts with GN.

Anyway, in Italian there are a very few words starting with PS and GN, so you won’t come across them very often. :)

If a singular word begins with a vowel we must use L’, as for example L’ALBERO (the tree), L’AMICO (the friend) or L’INCONTRO (the meeting).

Ok, now let’s see the articles in the singular feminine form:

We always use LA before words beginning with any consonant, and we use L’ before words starting with a vowel.

For example we say LA VALIGIA (the suitcase), LA CENA (the dinner) or LA CANZONE (the song). But we say L’ENTRATA (the entry), L’INSALATA (the salad) or L’ATTRICE (the actress) as they begin with a vowel.

Now, let’s talk about the articles in the plural form:

The two main articles are:

I for masculine plural words and LE for feminine plural ones.

However we can also find GLI for masculine words in the plural.

We use I before words beginning with a consonant, but, quite similarly as what happens with the singular articles, we use GLI before nouns starting with S+another consonant, Z, PS, GN and also before nouns beginning with a vowel.

For example we say: I BAMBINI (the children) as it starts with the consonant B, but we say GLI ZAINI (the backpacks) as it starts with Z, or GLI SCAFFALI (the shelves) as it starts with S + another consonant and GLI PSICOLOGI (the psychologists).

Or, for example: GLI UCCELLI (the birds) and GLI ANNI (the years), as they start with vowels.

We use LE instead for all feminine words in the plural with no distinction and no matter which letter they begin with.

So to conclude, you can have a look at the table below:

	SINGULAR	PLURAL
MASCULINE	IL (words starting with consonants)	I (words starting with consonants)
	LO (words starting with Z, S+consonant, PS, GN)	GLI (words starting with vowels, Z, S+ consonant, PS, GN)
FEMININE	LA (words starting with any consonant)	LE (words starting with any consonant)
	L’ (words starting with a vowel)	LE (words starting with a vowel)

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THE GENDER OF WORDS - Il genere delle parole

In Italian articles, nouns, pronouns and adjectives can be found in the masculine or in the feminine form, singular and plural.

How to understand whether a word is masculine or feminine?

The general rule in the singular is that: words ending in –A are feminine and words ending in –O are masculine.

For the plural: words ending in –I are masculine, whereas those ending in –E are feminine.

For example TAVOLO (table) ends is O, so it’s masculine and singular, and STANZA (room) ends in A, so it’s feminine singular.

The plural forms of TAVOLO and STANZA are TAVOLI and STANZE.

However, there are also many words like TELEVISIONE, or CANE, which end in E.

So, how is it possible to know their gender?

Unfortunately, with those words there is no rule that helps to know whether they are masculine or feminine, so their gender must be learned by heart.

So, for example TELEVISIONE is feminine, we say in fact LA TELEVISIONE, and CANE is masculine and we say IL CANE.

If we build a full sentence we will have:

La televisione è nuova

The television is new.

Il cane è malato

The dog is ill.

As you can see the adjective is masculine when the noun it refers to is masculine, and feminine when the noun it refers to is feminine.

Sometimes we can also find exceptions, such as words ending in –O, which are feminine, as the word ECO, or words ending in A which are masculine, as POETA.

Being exceptions, they require to be learned by heart.

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