Italian -iare Verbs - Lawless Italian Grammar


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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

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Laura K Lawless

Virtual Italian Teacher at Lawless Languages | Website | + posts

Ciao! I’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.