In this post we will discuss about the Italian Verbs Conjugations and about some Italian Irregular Infinitives with special regard to the Latin origin and the English equivalent verb.

Here below a descriptive video.

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Italian Verbs Conjugations

Italian Verbs ConjugationAll the Italian Verbs are divided in three classes. Each of this class is defined by the Infinitive termination: the First Class ends in ARE, the Second Class ends in ERE, the Third Class ends in IRE.
Here following you have a list of some of the most common Italian Verbs for these three classes.

ARE ERE IRE
ANDARE

to go

CREDERE

to believe

DORMIRE

to sleep

AMARE

to love

DOVERE

to have to

SENTIRE

to feel

SOGNARE

to dream

SAPERE

to know

MORIRE

to die

SPERARE

to hope

VOLERE

to want

VENIRE

to come

CANTARE

to sing

POTERE

can

FINIRE

to finish

Each Class difines and provides the rules for the regular Italian Verbs. Instead if the verbs does not follow all the endings provided by its class or changes its root, it is an Irregular Verbs.

You have here an example of the REGULAR PRESENT (1st Conjugation) and of one IRREGULAR PRESENT (1st Conjugation)

 

 

SPERARE

(Regular, TO HOPE)

ANDARE

(Irregular, TO GO)

IO SPER – O VADO
TU SPER – I VAI
LUI / LEI SAPER – A VA
NOI SPER – IAMO ANDIAMO
VOI SPER – ATE ANDATE
LORO SPER – ANO VANNO

You can see that in order to conjugate SPERARE, that is a regular verb, you must drop the infinitive ending ARE, and then to attach the 1st class regular engings: – O, – I, – A, – IAMO, – ATE, – ANO.

By the other side the irregular Verb ANDARE not only changes its root but also changes the regular terminations for the first conjugation (for example VANNO).

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Italian Irregular Infinitives

Italian Irregular InfinitivesFinally we can speak about some interesting irregular infinitives. They are irregular from the Second Class (ERE), you can understand why looking at the Latin origin of these verbs: these Latin infinitives are all ending in ERE.

There are three possible endings for these Italian Irregular Infinitives: ORRE, URRE, ARRE. You will see that there is often an interesting simmetry between the Italian Infinitives and the equivalent in English regarding:

  • the root of the verb
  • the Englih terminations.

See below for more details:

ITALIAN LATIN ENGLISH
DED-URRE DEDUC-ERE TO DED-UCE
IND-URRE INDUC-ERE TO IND-UCE
PROD-URRE PRODUC-ERE TO PROD-UCE
RID-URRE REDUC-ERE TO RED-UCE
COMP-ORRE COMPON-ERE TO COMP-OSE
DEP-ORRE DEPON-ERE TO DEP-OSE
DISP-ORRE DISPON-ERE TO DISP-OSE
ESP-ORRE ESPON-ERE TO EXP-OSE
PROP-ORRE PROPON-ERE TO PROP-OSE
ESTR-ARRE EX-TRAH-ERE TO EX – TRACT
ATR-ARRE AB-TRAH-ERE TO ABS – TRACT
DISTR-ARRE DIS-TRAH-ERE TO DIS – TRACT
CONTR-ARRE CON-TRAH-ERE TO CON – TRACT

Here you find an Online Latin Dictionary that will let you know the English translation of the Latin words.

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Italian Verbs Conjugations plus some Irregular Infinitives

This post belogs to the Best way to learn Italian.

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Strange Italian Consonants

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