Verbi in -ere and -ire

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Verbs in -ereVerbs -ireVerbs –ire with –isc–

In Italian, adverbs are usually placed after the verb: Io studio sempre in biblioteca (I always study at the library), Io non sono mai stanco (I am never tired). Since Italian is a bit more liberal than English about placement, some adverbs of frequency may also be found at the beginning of a sentence: this rule especially applies to di solito (usually), ogni tanto (sometimes), qualche volta (sometimes): Di solito/Ogni tanto/Qualche volta dormo in albergo (I usually/sometimes/once in a while sleep in hotel). A big difference in adverbial use between English and Italian is the adverb mai. It needs negative phrases in Italian: Io non studio mai in biblioteca (I never study at the library), Non sono quasi mai stanco (I am hardly ever tired).

The adverb mai can be found alone in interrogative sentences and in simple answers (Mangi mai la carne? – Mai  Do you ever eat meat? – Never). In any case, these affermative sentences are equivalent to the negative ones (Non mangi mai la carne? – No, non mangio mai la carne Do you ever eat meat? – No, I never eat meat).

Regular verbs in -ere and -ire
The present tense of regular verbs in –ere is formed by dropping the infinitive ending (-ere) and adding the appropriate endings to the resulting root (-o, –i, –e, –iamo, –ete, –ono). For example, to form the present tense of leggere you first must drop –ere. Now that you have the root of the verb (legg– is the resulting root), you simply add the appropriate ending to it, depending on the person speaking. The table below displays the patterns for these verbs, using leggere (to read) as a model.

The present tense of regular verbs in –ire verb is formed by dropping the infinitive ending –ire and adding the appropriate endings to the resulting stem (-o, –i, –e, –iamo, –ite, –ono)¹Only one form differs from the verbs in –ere: (voi) –ete / –ite.. For example, to form the present tense of partire you first must drop –ire and then add the appropriate endings to the root of the verb (part-  is the resulting root), depending on the person speaking. The table below displays the patterns for these verbs, using partire (to leave) as a model.

A significant number of regular verbs of the third conjugation makes their present indicative (except the 1st and 2nd pl. persons – noi and voi) inserting –isc– between the root of the verb and the ending forms. The table below displays the patterns for these verbs, using finire (to finish) as a model.

• Repeat over and over the vocabulary and use Speech to Text to check if the computer recognizes your pronunciation.
• Quanto spesso guardi la TV, dormi, etc? (How often….?) Look at the images above. Pretend you are the subject of all the actions presented. Answer the question both orally and in writing. Then check if there are mistakes in your spoken Italian using Speech to Text and in your text using Spell and Grammar Checker.