Verbs

The Three Conjugations

Italian verbs undergo changes in their endings, called conjugations, to indicate different grammatical features such as tense, mood, person, and number. Verbs can be regular or irregular, and their conjugation patterns vary. The three main verb conjugation classes in Italian are as follows.

Verbs that end in "-are", "-ere", or "-ire" are called their infinitive form. Which simply means the verb with "to" in front, i.e. the act of performing the action.

Verb Tenses

Italian verbs can be conjugated in various tenses, allowing speakers to express when the action took place.

There are actually over 12 tenses in italian! But do not worry about trying to learn all of them and instead focus just on the four most common ones.

• Present tense: Expresses actions happening in the present.
  For example, "Io mangio" (I eat).
• Future tense: Indicates actions that will occur in the future.
  For example, "Io mangerò" (I will eat).
• Present Perfect | "Passato Prossimo" (Recent Past) tense: Refers to actions that have already happened, or just happened.
  For example, "Io ho mangiato" (I have eaten).
  The Present Perfect tense also requires the auxiliary verb "avere", "to have", to be used before the verb, just like in English.
• Imperfect tense: Refers to actions in the past, but not at a specific time. In English, words like "used to ____" or "was _____", or sometimes "_____ed"
  For example, "Io mangiavo" (I used to eat | I ate).

Verb Agreement

Italian verbs agree with the subject in person and number. The endings change accordingly to match the subject and tense. Here's an example of the four basic tenses for "mangiare" - to eat.

This is also a great opportunity to familiarize yourself with Italian pronouns. "io"(i), "tu"(singular you), "lui/lei"(he/sh), "noi"(we),"voi"(plural you), and "loro"(they).

Regular and Irregular Verbs

Similar to English, Italian also has the concept of regular verbs and irregular verbs. Regular verbs follow a certain set of rules which can be applied when conjugating. Irregular verbs do not follow any system. On this site, all verbs are marked as regular or irregular, so you know when to apply the normal conjugation rules and when it's required to memorize an irregular verb's various conjugations for each tense.

Regular Verbs Reference Table

Use the following table as a reference when studying or reviewing regular verbs. Although it may be tempting to commit the below table to memory, the best way to get started getting familiar with how verbs change from tense to tense is to jump right into the verb study decks and see how each verb looks and sounds across the various tenses.