Practice Makes Perfect: Italian Verb Tenses, Premium Third Edition

305 Pages·2019·3.495 MB·English

by  Paola Nanni-Tate

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Italian

Verb Tenses

PREMIUM THIRD EDITION
PaolaN anni-Tate

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Contents
Acknowledgments
v
Introduction
vii
Basic Terminology
ix
Unit 1 The Present Tense (Presente Indicativo) 1
Verbs Ending in -are 2
Verbs Ending in -ere 9
Verbs Ending in -ire 14
The Progressive Tense (Gerundio) 20
Essere(to Be) and Avere(to Have) 23
Expressions of Time 30
Fare(to Do, to Make) 32
Sapereand Conoscere(to Know) 34
Suonareand Giocare(to Play) 39
The Modal Verbs Volere(to Want, to Wish), Potere
(to Be Able, Can), and Dovere(to Have to, Must) 40
Lasciare, Partire, Uscire, and Andare Via(to Leave) 43
Unit 2 The Imperative (Imperativo) 47
Formal Commands 51
The Imperative with Object Pronouns and
Reflexive Pronouns 52
Additional Ways of Using the Imperative 53
Unit 3 Reflexive Verbs (Verbi Riflessivi) 59
Positioning of Reflexive Pronouns 60
Reciprocal Reflexives 62
Reflexive Versus Non-Reflexive 62
Unit 4 The Future Tense (Futuro Semplice) 65
The Future Tense of Essere 71
Unit 5 The Present Perfect Tense (Passato Prossimo) 73
The Present Perfect with Avere 73
The Present Perfect with Essere 80
Unit 6 The Imperfect Tense (Imperfetto) 85
Comparison of the Present Perfect and the Imperfect 90
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iv Contents
Unit 7 The Preterite (Passato Remoto) 95
Irregular Verbs in the Preterite 99
The Preterite of Fare 102
The Preterite of Essereand Avere 102
Unit 8 The Past Perfect (Trapassato Prossimo), Preterite Perfect
(Trapassato Remoto), and Future Perfect (Futuro Anteriore) 107
The Past Perfect (Trapassato Prossimo) 108
The Preterite Perfect (Trapassato Remoto) 109
The Future Perfect (Futuro Anteriore) 111
Unit 9 The Present Conditional (Condizionale Presente) 115
Unit 10 The Past Conditional (Condizionale Passato) 125
Unit 11 Compound Reflexive Verbs (Verbi Riflessivi Composti) 131
Unit 12 The Subjunctive Mood (Modo Congiuntivo) 135
The Present Subjunctive (Congiuntivo Presente) 136
The Imperfect Subjunctive (Congiuntivo Imperfetto) 149
The Past Subjunctive (Congiuntivo Passato) 154
The Past Perfect Subjunctive (Congiuntivo Trapassato) 158
Unit 13 The Passive Voice (Forma Passiva) 165
Verbs Other than Essereto Express the Passive Voice 165
Alternatives to the Passive Voice 169
Unit 14 Idiomatic Expressions (Espressioni Idiomatiche) 173
Idioms with Avere 173
Idioms with Fare 174
Special Constructions with Fare, Lasciare, Metterci,
and Volerci 176
Idioms with Dare 180
Unit 15 Verbs and Expressions Followed by a Preposition 187
Verbs and Expressions Followed by the Preposition a 187
Verbs and Expressions Followed by the Preposition di 191
Verbs Followed by the Preposition su 193
Verbs Followed Directly by the Infinitive 193
Impersonal Verbs 193
Unit 16 General Review of Verbs 197
Final Review
213
Verb Tables
249
Glossary of Verbs
257
Answer Key
263
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Acknowledgments
It is with profound gratitude that I acknowledge the expert and patient guidance of Garret
Lemoi, my editor at McGraw-Hill Education, during the months I have been assigned the task of
writing Practice Makes Perfect: Italian Verb Tenses. Writing this book has been a very pleasant
endeavor because of Mr. Lemoi’s kindness, patience, and experience.
I also would like to thank my son, Eric, and my husband, Bob, for looking over the book’s units.
Most of all I would like to thank all the students who will be using this book. It is for them that I
have been so keen on writing it. It is my profound hope that this book will help them to improve
their level of competence in the beautiful Italian language.
v
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Introduction
Practice Makes Perfect: Italian Verb Tensesis designed to improve the skills and knowledge of begin-
ning to intermediate students of Italian. Learning how to conjugate verbs correctly is a difficult
task in every language but more so in Italian because of the many tenses and irregular verbs.
Correctly conjugating a verb is a very important part of speaking and writing well, but one must
also understand the need to use one verb over another and the reason for choosing each verb.
It can be difficult; however, with time, dedication, practice, and consistency one can achieve
excellent results.
Practice Makes Perfect: Italian Verb Tenses was written with all student levels in mind and with the
desire to help make learning Italian verbs and this beautiful language a little easier. Each unit is
complete with explanations and exercises that reinforce the learning of each tense. By following
the lessons and completing the exercises, students will progress in their knowledge and under-
standing of Italian. For this new second edition, a Final Review unit has been added for even
more practice.
The short stories included at the end of each unit are designed to show students how to use the
verbs in everyday situations. Each story is followed by a vocabulary list to help students under-
stand its content.
New to this third edition are additional complementary resources available via the McGraw-Hill
Education Language Lab app. All vocabulary lists are provided as flashcards for study and
review; review exercises will test your progress; and streaming audio recordings provide native-
speaker answers for more than 100 exercises throughout the book.
Practice Makes Perfect: Italian Verb Tenses, with its concise explanations and extensive practice mate-
rial, will help students strengthen their skills in the Italian language.
vii
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Basic Terminology
There is some basic terminology you must be familiar with when studying Italian verbs.
Infinitive:The infinitive is the basic form of the verb as you find it in the dictionary. In English it
is expressed as: to+ verb (to eat, to sing, etc.). In Italian all infinitives end in -are(cantare, to sing;
parlare, to speak; etc.), -ere (leggere, to read; vedere, to see; etc.), or -ire (sentire, to hear, to listen;
finire, to finish; etc.). In the infinitive form the verb does not express any time or the subject of
the action. Some verbs have irregular infinitives such as: porre (to put), condurre (to lead), and
trarre(to pull). These must be learned individually.
Conjugation: Changing a verb’s infinitive ending to one that agrees with the subject and
expresses the time of the action is referred to as conjugating a verb.
to eat(mangiare) = infinitive Carla eats(Carla mangia). Eatsis a
conjugated verb.
Verb stem or root:All verbs in Italian end in -are, -ere, or -ire. By dropping these endings you are
left with the root, or stem, of the verb. By adding the required endings you conjugate the verb.
Regular and irregular verbs:Verbs are regular if the stem, or root, does not change from the
infinitive, irregular if it does.
parlare(to speak): parlo, parli, parla, etc. The root parl-does not change, therefore it is
a regular verb.
fare(to do, to make): faccio, fai, fa, facciamo, fate, fanno. The root far-changes,
therefore it is an irregular verb.
Subject pronouns:In English they are: I, you, he, she, it, we, you,and they. In Italian they are: io, tu,
lui, lei, noi, voi, and loro. There is no “it” in Italian. Every word is either masculine or feminine.
Subject pronouns are often omitted in Italian because the verb ending lets you know who the
subject is.
Che cosa fate? What are you doing?
Studiamo. We are studying.
The pronouns are used to place emphasis on the subject.
Tuhai letto questo libro? Haveyouread this book?
The subject pronouns are used:
• after anche, neanche, nemmeno:
Non ho parlato nemmeno io. Ididn’t speak either.
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