Introduction to Italian/Lesson 5

As in most languages, in Italian verbs are conjugated to agree with their tense.

Tenses
Tenses are something that people often have trouble with. In reality, they aren't that hard. First person: referring to yourself (I am a man, I don't like spinach). Second person: addressing someone directly (you are a woman, you don't like cabbage). Third person: referring to someone else (he is a man, she is a woman). First person plural: referring to a group of people including you (we are all men, we don't like asparagus). Second person plural: Addressing a group of people directly (you all are women, none of you like artichokes). Third person plural: Referring to a group of people (they are all men, they don't like broccoli). Tenses also include past, present, and future. As in, "I ate a burger," "I'm eating a burger," and, "I will eat a burger." Those are complicated and won't be discussed until later.

Regular Verbs
In Italian, verbs have an infinitive form and a conjugated form for every tense. An infinitive is basically like saying "to be", which conjugates to am, are, and is. Infinitives in Italian are only one word (instead of to be, to eat, etc.) and most end in -are, as in andare (to go), mangiare (to eat), passare (to pass), and many more. Infinitives that end in -are are considered regular verbs. Infinitives can also end in -ere and -ire, and most of those that do are irregular (meaning they don't follow a pattern when you conjugate them).

Conjugating Regular Verbs
There's a simple pattern to conjugating regular verbs. Basically, you just replace the -are suffix with another one according to the tense. This chart will show which suffixes are added for which tense: Now let's apply that to a word. Here are all the conjugations of mangiare (to eat). Important: Notice that for the second person conjugation the g is soft. This is only because it is soft in the root word, mangi-. If the root were mang (making the infinitive mangare) the second person conjugation would be manghi so as to preserve the hard g.

Some Basic Verbs
Here are some basic verbs in their infinitive form. Practice conjugating them. abitare – to live (to reside) arrivare – to arrive ascoltare – to listen (to) aspettare – to wait (for) ballare – to dance cantare – to sing cercare – to look (for) chiamare – to call comprare – to buy desiderare – to want, to wish dimenticare – to forget entrare – to enter frequentare – to attend, to frequent giocare – to play (a game) guardare – to watch, to look (at) guidare – to drive imparare – to learn incontrare – to meet insegnare – to teach lavorare – to work mandare – to send mangiare – to eat pagare – to pay (for) parlare – to speak passare – to pass (by); to spend time pensare (di) – to think (of) portare – to wear, to bring ricordare – to remember studiare – to study telefonare – to telephone (to call on a phone) tornare – to return trovare – to find usare – to use viaggiare – to travel visitare – to visit

Irregular Verbs to Memorize
Most irregular verbs will come later because they are more difficult to conjugate than regular ones. However, there are two in particular that you need to just memorize.

Essere
Essere is an infinitive meaning to be. You pretty much can't get by without knowing it. So here are it's conjugations. Memorize them. There are a few important notes on essere: 1. Sono is, in fact, the correct conjugation for both the first person and the third person plural. That's not a typo. 2. È is a very important word. It translates to is, which, of course, is used much more than am or are.

Avere
Avere is an infinitive meaning to have. It is also irregular and also needs to be memorized. Remember that the h is silent. h is made ​​to distinguish the written form from the different meaning that may otherwise have o - conjunction ai - preposition a - preposition anno - year

Idiomatic expressions using avere
In Italian there are many idiomatic expressions that use avere in its various conjugations:

These are just things that they say. Have need of is sometimes used in English, as you may know, but not much recently. Don't forget to conjugate avere, too - it's not "io avere freddo" (if you hear it on TV or read it in books, it usually is how stereotypized foreigners speak), it's "io ho freddo".