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Introduzione ai verbi
Verbs are action words that express the action (He runs) or state of being (I am tired) of a sentence. They are one of the main parts of speech.
Italian verbs have to be “conjugated” or “inflected”; that is, changed according to how they are used. They have five to six different conjugations for each tense and mood.
The basic form of a verb is called the "infinitive" and is the name of the verb. The English infinitive is “to” followed by a verb, while the Italian infinitive is a single word with one of three infinitive endings (-are, –ere, or –ire). These three groups can then be further divided into:
A) Regular verbs, which follow a standard pattern of verb conjugations:
| 1. | -are | parlare | (to speak) | Regular -are verbs |
| 2. | -ere | vendere | (to sell) | Regular -ere verbs |
| 3. | -ire | partire | (to leave) | Regular -ire verbs |
B) Stem-changing verbs, which take the same endings as regular verbs, but undergo spelling changes in the radical* of some conjugations.
C) Irregular verbs, which have unique conjugations.
When you encounter a new verb, be sure to learn its infinitive, which is used as the basis for just about everything you do with it.
* Most Italian verbs are conjugated by removing the infinitive ending to find the "radical" or "root" (e.g.,
More detailed lessons on all of the above coming soon!
Italian Verb Conjugations
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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.
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