If you want to speak Italian properly, you need to know the following grammar rules. In particular you need to know how to conjugate Italian verbs. I’m here to help you in a quick and funny way.

Auxiliary Verbs: Essere and Avere

The Italian language has two auxiliary verbs: the verb “essere”, that means to be, and the verb “avere”, that means to have. These verbs are called auxiliary because they literally help all of the other verbs to build tenses such as the present perfect one.

In Italian the most used tenses are the Presente, the Passato Prossimo (Present Perfect Tense) and the Futuro Semplice (Future Tense). You can now read how auxiliary verbs conjugate in those tenses:

	Presente		Passato Prossimo		Futuro Semplice
	ESSERE	AVERE	ESSERE	AVERE	ESSERE	AVERE
Io	sono	ho	sono stato	ho avuto	sarò	avrò
Tu	sei	hai	sei stato	hai avuto	sarai	avrai
Lui/Lei	è	ha	è stato	ha avuto	sarà	avrà
Noi	siamo	abbiamo	siamo stati	abbiamo avuto	saremo	avremo
Voi	siete	avete	siete stati	avete avuto	sarete	avrete
Loro	sono	hanno	sono stati	hanno avuto	saranno	avranno

Verbs Conjugations: -are, -ere, -ire

It’s important to know that in Italian there are three main different conjugations, depending on their endings in the infinitive: -are, -ere or -ire. For example these three verbs have different conjugations:

-are parlare = to speak
-ere credere = to believe
-ire partire = to leave

It’s important to know each conjugation and its structure in order to conjugate every other regular verb, as the rules are pretty the same for verbs within the same group (-are, -ere o -ire). In fact try to take these infinitive endings off, and add the appropriate subject endings according to the tense, and the pattern becomes clear.

Presente

	1a Conjugation -are		2a Conjugation -ere		3a Conjugation -ire
	PARLARE	AMARE	LEGGERE	VIVERE	PARTIRE	SENTIRE	CAPIRE
Io	parlo	amo	leggo	vivo	parto	sento	capisco
Tu	parli	ami	leggi	vivi	parti	senti	capisci
Lui/Lei	parla	ama	legge	vive	parte	sente	capisce
Noi	parliamo	amiamo	leggiamo	viviamo	partiamo	sentiamo	capiamo
Voi	parlate	amate	leggete	vivete	partite	sentite	capite
Loro	parlano	amano	leggono	vivono	partono	sentono	capiscono

This last verb (capire) is an irregular verb, we will speak later about this kind of verbs.

Passato Prossimo

	1a Conjugation -are	2a Conjugation -ere	3a Conjugation -ire
	PARLARE	LEGGERE	PARTIRE	CAPIRE
Io	ho parlato	ho letto	sono partito	ho capito
Tu	hai parlato	hai letto	sei partito	hai capito
Lui/Lei	ha parlato	ha letto	è partito	ha capito
Noi	abbiamo parlato	abbiamo letto	siamo partiti	abbiamo capito
Voi	avete parlato	avete letto	siete partiti	avete capito
Loro	hanno parlato	hanno letto	sono partiti	hanno capito

When to use essere or avere ?

As you surely understood, in same cases we use the auxiliary verb essere (sono partito), while in the majority of cases we use the auxiliary verb avere (ho letto). How do you know if you have to use one or the other ?

While there are not fixed rules, we can say that:

• You should use the auxiliary verb essere with the majority of intransitive verbs and in passive/reflexive phrases.
• You should use the auxiliary verb avere in active phrases when the verb is transitive and with many intransitive verbs.

Instransitive Verbs

In Italian intransitive verbs are for example: “piovere”, “nuotare”, “dormire”, “morire”, “andare”, etc.. and are those verbs which don’t express an action but rather a state or a condition, such as essere (to be), stare (to stay), divenire (to become), etc. Also verbs which express movement: andare (to go), venire (to come), arrivare (to arrive), etc. After these types of verbs we can add information about ‘where’, ‘when’, ‘how’, ‘how long for’, etc. e.g. sto in ufficio tutto il giorno (I’m in the office all day long); Marco va al lavoro in treno (Marco goes to work by train). We can’t however express a direct object. In fact those verbs are meaningful without the need of being followed by a direct object.

Transitive Verbs

Transitive Verbs instead are those verbs who need a direct object in order to better define their meaning (which otherwise would be too wide) . Transitive means ‘to pass’, ‘to cross’, therefore it describes actions that move from the subject directly to an object, without having to use a preposition such as ‘to’, ‘at’, etc. The classic example we learn at school is: io mangio la mela (I eat the apple); in this sentence io is the subject of the verb, mangio is the transitive verb, and la mela is the direct object or accusative. Of course we don’t always express the direct object, for example: la sera mangio presto (in the evening I eat early), the idea of ‘dinner’, ‘meal’, ‘food’ is implicit but not expressed. Similarly, we can say Giovanni guida la macchina per andare a lavorare (Giovanni drives the car to go to work), in which guidare is a transitive verb because it is followed by a direct object, la macchina. However I can omit ‘la macchina’ and simply say Giovanni guida per andare a lavorare, the idea of the car being implicit. For example: comprare, leggere, mangiare, sentire, capire, amare, odiare, vendere, comprare, possedere, vincere… are transitive verbs.

Reflexive Verbs

Reflexive verbs are considered intransitives because the action takes place on the subject itself, therefore the reflexive verb lavarsi (to wash oneself) as in mi lavo le mani (‘I wash my hands’ or more literally ‘I wash myself the hands’) is intransitive, but lavare (to wash) as in io lavo il piatto (I’m washing the plate) is transitive!

Unfortunately dued to the large quantity of verbs and exceptions, I suggest you to learn/memorize each verb and you’ll be sure if you need to use essere or avere.

Futuro Semplice

	1a Conjugation -are	2a Conjugation -ere	3a Conjugation -ire
	PARLARE	LEGGERE	PARTIRE	CAPIRE
Io	parlerò	leggerò	partirò	capirò
Tu	parlerai	leggerai	partirai	capirai
Lui/Lei	parlerà	leggerà	partirà	capirà
Noi	parleremo	leggeremo	partiremo	capiremo
Voi	parlerete	leggerete	partirete	capirete
Loro	parleranno	leggeranno	partiranno	capiranno

Regular and Irregular Verbs

In Italian you’ll find regulars and irregular verbs. Regular verbs are easier to learn because when conjugating they follow a regular pattern that can be generalized to all the others regular verbs. Until now, in fact, we have seen only regular verbs (expept for “capire” which is an irregular verb). How do we know if a particular verbs conjugates as a regular or an irregular verb ? Unfortunately there are not fixed rules you can learn on irregulars, you can only learn and memorize those you want to use.

REGULAR VERBS

As said before, the main characteristic of Regular Verbs is that they follow a regular pattern. In fact regular verbs maintain their infinitive root (for example PARL- or CRED-) and they add the appropriate subject endings according to the tense.

	1a Conjugation -are	2a Conjugation -ere	3a Conjugation -ire
	PARL-ARE	CRED-ERE	PART-IRE
Io	parl-o	cred-o	part-o
Tu	parl-i	cred-i	part-i
Lui/Lei	parl-a	cred-e	part-e
Noi	parl-iamo	cred-iamo	part-iamo
Voi	parl-ate	cred-ete	part-ite
Loro	parl-ano	cred-ono	part-ono

IRREGULAR VERBS

Irregular verbs don’t follow a regular pattern and each verb may present unique irregularities. Some verbs may completely change even their infinitive root when conjugating in other tenses.

Let’s see how some of the most used irregular verbs conjugate:

	ANDARE	STARE	FARE	POTERE	VOLERE	DOVERE
Io	vado	sto	faccio	posso	voglio	devo
Tu	vai	stai	fai	puoi	vuoi	devi
Lui/Lei	va	sta	fa	può	vuole	deve
Noi	andiamo	stiamo	facciamo	possiamo	vogliamo	dobbiamo
Voi	andate	state	fate	potete	volete	dovete
Loro	vanno	stanno	fanno	possono	vogliono	devono

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Un abbraccio, Marco.