-iare Verbs

Italian -iare verbs
Share / Tweet / Pin Me!

Verbi con -iare

Italian verbs that end in –iare are conjugated very similarly to regular –are verbs, other than a small spelling change in certain conjugations.

If you conjugate a verb like baciare or mangiare in the present tense according to the normal rules, you get this:

io   bacio   mangio
tu   bacii   mangii
lui   bacia   mangia
noi   baciiamo   mangiiamo
voi   baciate   mangiate
loro   baciano   mangiano

For most of the conjugations, there’s no problem. But look at tu and noi: because the root ends in i and the endings begin with i, we end up with ii. We need to drop the duplicate i to get the correct conjugations:

io   bacio   mangio
tu   baci   mangi
lui   bacia   mangia
noi   baciamo   mangiamo
voi   baciate   mangiate
loro   baciano   mangiano

These corrective conjugations are required for all* verbs that end in –ciare, –sciare, –giare, and –gliare, including

-ciare verbs

annunciare   to announce
baciare   to kiss
cacciare   to hunt
cianciare   to babble
cominciare   to start
falciare   to mow
pronunciare   to pronounce

-sciare verbs

fasciare   to bind
lasciare   to leave
rilasciare   to release
rovesciare   to spill
strisciare   to crawl

 * The only exception is the verb sciare: see –_iare verbs, below.

-giare verbs

amoreggiare   to flirt
arrangiare   to arrange
fregiare   to embellish
gareggiare   to compete
mangiare   to eat
pigiare   to push
sfregiare   to rub
viaggiare   to travel

-gliare verbs

cagliare   to curdle
fagliare   to fault
farfugliare   to babble
figliare   to give birth
intrugliare   to entangle
pigliare   to catch
ragliare   to bray
sbagliare   to make a mistake
sbrogliare   to unravel
tagliare   to cut
vagliare   to sift

-_iare verbs

Most verbs that end in something other than c, g, gl, or sc + –iare follow the same pattern, including

abbreviare   to shorten
appaiare   to pair
cambiare   to change
copiare   to copy
gonfiare   to inflate
iniziare   to begin
rischiare   to endanger
speziare   to season
studiare   to study
variare   to vary

But more than 10 – as well as the verb sciare – correct the double i only in the noi form: they keep it in the tu form.

    avviare   sciare
io   avvio   scio
tu   avvii   scii
lui   avvia   scia
noi   avviamo   sciamo
voi   avviate   sciate
loro   avviano   sciano

Verbs with tu + _ii:

avviare   to start
deviare   to deviate
espiare   to atone
fuorviare   to mislead
inviare   to send
obliare   to forget
ovviare   to solve
riavviare   to restart
rinviare   to postpone
sciare   to ski
spiare   to spy
striare   to streak
sviare   to deviate

 Related lessons

 Share / Tweet / Pin Me!

Italian slightly irregular verbs

Laura K Lawless
Laura K Lawless
Virtual Italian Teacher at Lawless Languages | Website | + posts

Ciao! Iā€™m Laura K Lawless, creator, writer, editor, and CLO (Chief Lawless Officer) of this free online Italian learning site. Lawless Italian is an official Lawless Languages site.