General features of Italian verbs

Let’s take a look at the core of Italian grammar!

It’s happened several times, even after months of Italian lessons, that a student, out of the blue, innocently asked: “Giulia, we mention verbs quite a lot but… what exactly is a verb?” In Italy, we are used to studying grammar vocabs quite thoroughly, but I have learnt this doesn’t happen everywhere. So, it’s crucial to make this point clear, as it’s one of the most important ones.

Actions, events and situations are expressed by the use of verbs. Italian has a complex system of different verb forms. In this first post, I will introduce the general features of Italian verbs, both regular and irregular, with a brief explanation of basic grammatical terminology, which will help you to understand these features. 

Grammatical subject

Usually, the subject of a verb is the ‘agent’ or ‘doer’ of an action, the ‘protagonist’ of an event:

Noi partiamo per il Brasile. = We leave for Brazil.

Franco e Teresa partono per il Brasile. = Franco and Teresa leave for Brazil.

Sometimes, we talk about facts rather than actions. Here the ‘subject’ of the verb is not ‘doing’ anything, but is the theme or main topic expressed by the verb:

  Giulia è bionda. = Giulia is blonde.

  La lezione di italiano dura tre ore. = The Italian lesson lasts three hours.

Persons of the verb

The different forms of the verb, determined by its grammatical subject, are called the persons (this is a purely grammatical term, not necessarily referring to human beings):

1 Singular first person (the speaker): I

2 Singular second person (the person addressed): you

3 Singular third person (the third party): he, she, it

4 Plural first person (the speaker + other people): we

5 Plural second person (the people addressed): you [a sort of ‘you guys’]

6 Plural third person (the third parties): they

In each tense, Italian verbs have six different endings, depending on who or what is carrying out the action. The different endings immediately identify the ‘person’ – the subject of the action – unlike in English, where only the third person singular has a distinctive ending (‘I play, you play, he/she plays’). The first and second persons are usually evident in the context of communication (speaker/writer and receiver):

  Quanti anni hai? Ho trentadue anni. = How old are you? I am thirty-two.

Using a subject pronoun to refer to the third person is often unnecessary where the person (or thing) has already been mentioned:

Quanti anni ha Maria? Ha venticinque anni. = How old is Maria? She is twenty-five.

So, you don’t have to use subject pronouns (like in English ‘I, you, he/she’, etc.) in Italian, unless you need to give particular emphasis to the subject.

Verb conjugations

The fact that Italian verbs have a pattern of six distinct verb endings in each of the tenses creates a large number of different forms of the same verb (almost one hundred!). Luckily for us, most verbs follow common patterns of change known as conjugations. Each verb has an invariable part, the ‘stem’, which carries its meaning, and an inflected part, the ‘ending’, which identifies the person, the tense, the mood, and other features.

 Traditionally, we distinguish three conjugations defined by the form that the verb takes in the infinitive (the infinitive is the form used in dictionary entries):

1st conjugation ending in -ARE as ‘parl-are’ (to speak)

2nd conjugation ending in -ERE as ‘scriv-ere’ (to write)

3rd conjugation ending in -IRE as ‘dorm-ire’ (to sleep)

The verbs of the 3rd conjugation (ending in -ire) follow two distinct patterns, the second of which, with endings in -isco, as in fin-ire/fin-isco ‘to finish’, is the least frequent. Both patterns, however, are considered as belonging to the same conjugation because of the -ire ending of the infinitive.

NOW IT'S TIME TO PUT WHAT YOU HAVE JUST LEARNT INTO PRACTICE!

Test yourself

 Group the following verbs into the three Italian conjugations and find out the stem!

leggere – dormire – ballare – guardare – ricevere – giocare – partire – vedere – sentire – amare – credere – aprire – chiudere – capire – guidare

Answers

ARE = ball-are / guard-are / gioc-are / am-are / guid-are

ERE = legg-ere / ricev-ere / ved-ere / cred-ere / chiud-ere

IRE = dorm-ire / part-ire / sent-ire / apr-ire / cap-ire