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2.8: I verbi in -are, -ere, -ire al presente

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    Verbs ending in –are, –ere, –ire in the present tense

    The present tense indicates activities that you normally do, i.e.: canto in un coro [I sing in a choir]. In Italian the present tense also indicates:

    • Activities that are taking place right now, i.e.: mangio un panino [I’m eating a sandwich].
    • Activities that will take place in the near future, i.e.: domani parto per la Svezia [Tomorrow I’m leaving for Sweden].

    There are three groups of verbs in Italian:

    Verbs ending in -are Verbs ending in -ere Verbs ending in –ire
    ordinare [to order] prendere [to have; to take] aprire [to open]

    Ordinare, prendere and aprire are in the infinitive form. The infinitive is the base form of the verb, the form that you would find in the dictionary (analogous to the English to order; to take; to open). To conjugate the verb according to the subject that performs the action, dropthe–are, –ere, or–ire from the infinitive form and add the following endings:

    ordinare prendere aprire finire*
    [io] ordino [io] prendo [io] apro [io] finisco
    [tu] ordini [tu] prendi [tu] apri [tu] finisci
    [lui, lei, Lei] ordina [lui, lei, Lei] prende [lui, lei, Lei] apre [lui, lei, Lei] finisce
    [noi] ordiniamo [noi] prendiamo [noi] apriamo [noi] finiamo
    [voi] ordinate [voi] prendete [voi] aprite [voi] finite
    [loro] ordinano [loro] prendono [loro] aprono [loro] finiscono

    * Some –ire verbs add –isc– to the io, tu, lui, lei and loro forms: preferire [to prefer] capire [to understand] pulire [to clean] obbedire [to obey] restituire [to return something]

    • Some verbs, like mangiare [to eat] and studiare [to study], have an i in the stem that is pronounced. You do not need an additional i in the tu and noi forms:
    mangiare
    [io] mangio
    [tu] mangi [not: mangii]
    [lui, lei, Lei] mangia
    [noi] mangiamo [not: mangiiamo]
    [voi] mangiate
    [loro] mangiano

    Sciare [to ski] is an exceptional case: it adds i in the tu form: tu scii.

    • Verbs ending in –care and –gare add an h to the tu and noi forms for phonetic reasons (to maintain the same sound):
    cercare pagare
    [io] cerco [io] pago
    [tu] cerchi [tu] paghi
    [lui, lei, Lei] cerca [lui, lei, Lei] paga
    [noi] cerchiamo [noi] paghiamo
    [voi] cercate [voi] pagate
    [loro] cercano [loro] pagano
    • Pay attention to how the pronunciation of c and g changes in the verbs leggere: io leggo, tu leggi; conoscere: io conosco, tu conosci.

    This page titled 2.8: I verbi in -are, -ere, -ire al presente is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Rossella Pescatori via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.