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

All 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

Finally 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 Online Italian Course for Beginners.

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