How does the Italian verbs conjugation work?
If you want to understand more about the Italian verbs conjugation, there are some basic rules about regular verbs to go through.
In Italian we have three groups of regular verbs: verbs ending in -are, in -ere and in -ire. Depending on the group verbs follow different patterns, so understanding to which group a verb belongs is the first step to be able to conjugate it in the different tenses.
Let’s start having a look at the Present Tense!
In the following table you can see the endings corresponding to each person: for example, if you want to conjugate the verb lavorare you just have to take off -are and add the endings of the Present Tense.
| -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 |
If you want to learn more about the Present Tense follow this link.
What happens with the Passato Prossimo?
In the Passato Prossimo we have the present tense of essere or avere plus the past participle of the main verb: the three groups of verbs form the Past Participle with different endings.
| Past Participle | |
| -are | -ato |
| -ere | -uto |
| -ire | -ito |
If you want to make the past participle of conoscere, for example, you take off -ere and add -uto: the result is conosciuto.
You can read more about how we use essere and avere in the Passato Prossimo and some useful examples in this grammar tip.
Another importante tense: the Imperfetto.
Let’s see another past tense, the Imperfetto:
| -are | -ere | -ire | |
| Io | -avo | -evo | -ivo |
| Tu | -avi | -evi | -ivi |
| Lui/lei | -ava | -eva | -iva |
| Noi | -avamo | -evamo | -ivamo |
| Voi | -avate | -evate | -ivate |
| Loro | -avano | -evano | -ivano |
If we want to use the second person singular of scrivere , it will be scrivevi. And this page is dedicated to this past tense to learn how to use it in Italian!
Now the Future Tense!
Here you can see the endings of the regular verbs:
| -are | -ere | -ire | |
| Io | -erò | -erò | -irò |
| Tu | -erai | -erai | -irai |
| Lui/lei | -erà | -erà | -irà |
| Noi | -eremo | -eremo | -iremo |
| Voi | -erete | -erete | -irete |
| Loro | -eranno | -eranno | -iranno |
The endings are quite similar, however it’s important to pay attention to the variations. In Future Tense part one and Future Tense part two you can read a simple explanation of the uses and read nice examples that will help!
How does the Present Conditional work?
These are the endings of the three groups of regular verbs:
| -are | -ere | -ire | |
| Io | -erei | -erei | -irei |
| Tu | -eresti | -eresti | -iresti |
| Lui/lei | -erebbe | -erebbe | -irebbe |
| Noi | -eremmo | -eremmo | -iremmo |
| Voi | -ereste | -ereste | -ireste |
| Loro | -erebbero | -erebbero | -irebbero |
Therefore, if you want to conjugate the third person plural of partire, you will have partirebbero. Have a look at this useful grammar tip to improve your confidence with this tense.
If you want to study more tenses, browse through our online resources and watch some lovely video tutorials!
Questions
