The Italian Present Tense - Regular Verbs

In this video you will learn the rules to correctly conjugate the Present Tense in Italian. We will focus on the rules for the regular verbs.

You can also download here the full lesson with the exercises!

When do you use this verb tense? You use it to talk about actions that:

• are happening now: "Oggi piove" (it's raining today --- today = now)
• a fact: "Io lavoro in banca." (I work in a bank --- fact)
• a habit: "Io gioco a calcio." (I play soccer --- habit) 

You can distinguish verbs by dividing them into 3 groups based on how the infinitive of the verb ends.

To conjugate the verbs you need to remove the last three letters of the infinitive and add the correct ending:

GROUP 1 - Verbs that end with -ARE

ARE: like the verbs lavorare (to work) / studiare (to study) / giocare (to play)

Lavorare (to work)

• io lavoro
• tu lavori
• lui / lei lavora
• noi lavoriamo
• voi lavorate
• loro lavorano

There is a little exception with the verbs that end with -CARE and -GARE

These verbs will need an H in the TU (second person singular) and NOI (first person plural):

Look at the examples:

Pagare (to pay)

• io pago
• tu paghi
• lui / lei paga
• noi paghiamo
• voi pagate
• loro pagano

Giocare (to play)

• io gioco
• tu giochi
• lui / lei gioca
• noi giochiamo
• voi giocate
• loro giocano

GROUP 2 - Verbs that end with -ERE

ERE: like the verbs prendere (to take) / leggere (to read) / correre (to run)

Prendere (to take)

• io prendo
• tu prendi
• lui / lei prende
• noi prendiamo
• voi prendete
• loro prendono

 GROUP 3 - Verbs that end with -IRE

In this case you have two different ways to conjugate them! You will have to learn which verb is conjugated in one way and which in the other!

IRE: like the verbs partire (to leave) / sentire (to listen - to hear) /finire (to finish)

First option:

Partire (to leave):

• io parto
• tu parti
• lui lei parte
• noi partiamo
• voi partite
• loro partono

Second option: in this case you will ADD -ISC with IO /TU /LUI/LEI / LORO:

Capire (to understand)

• io capisco
• tu capisci
• lui lei capisce
• noi capiamo
• voi capite
• loro capiscono

Here is a list of some common verbs that make this change:

• costruire (to build)
• dimagrire (to loose weight)
• finire (to finish)
• ingrandire (to make bigger / enlarge)
• impedire (to stop from happening)
• obbedire (to obey)
• preferire (to prefer)
• pulire (to clean)
• unire (to unite)

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