The big green book of Italian verbs: 555 fully conjugated verbs

688 Pages·2005·3.184 MB·English

by  Maes-Christie, Katrien;Franklin, Daniel

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THE
BIG GREEN
BOOK OF ITALIAN VERBS
555
FULLY CONJUGATED VERBS
Katrien Maes-Christie, Ph.D. Daniel Franklin
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-Publication Data
Maes-Christie, Katrien.
The big green bookofItalian verbs: 555 fullyconjugated verbs/ Katrien Maes-Christie,
DanielFranklin.
p. cm.
Includesindex.
ISBN 0-07-143121-7 (alk. paper)
1. Italian language—Verb. I. Franklin, Daniel. II. Title.
PC1271.M34 2004
458.2(cid:2)421—dc22 2004063162
Alle nostre figlie
Hannah e Nelleke — K. M-C.
Johanna e Hilary— D.F.
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Contents
Italian Tense Profiles 1
(cid:2) Easy-to-view summaries of formation and uses of each tense
The Basics of Conjugation 2
The Simple Tenses 6
Il presente· The present 6
L’imperfetto· The imperfect 9
Il passato remoto· The preterit 11
Il futuro· The future 13
Il condizionale presente· The present conditional 15
Il congiuntivo presente· The present subjunctive 16
Il congiuntivo imperfetto· The imperfect subjunctive 19
The Compound Tenses 20
Il passato prossimo· The present perfect 23
Il trapassato prossimo· The past perfect 24
Il trapassato remoto· The preterit perfect 25
Il futuro anteriore· The future perfect 26
Il condizionale passato· The perfect conditional 27
Il congiuntivo passato· The perfect subjunctive 28
Il congiuntivo trapassato· The past perfect subjunctive 28
Special Verb Types and Constructions 29
I verbi riflessivi· Reflexive verbs 29
I verbi impersonali· Impersonal verbs 31
La forma passiva· The passive voice 32
Commands 33
L’imperativo· The imperative 33
Nonfinite Verb Forms 34
L’infinito· The infinitive 34
Il gerundio· The gerund 35
Il participio presente· The present participle 35
Il participio passato· The past participle 36
555 Fully Conjugated Verbs 37
(cid:2) Alphabetically ordered with examples of common use
Top 50 Verbs:Full page of examples adjoining select conjugations
Exercises 644
(cid:2) Drills to test and improve your grasp of correct verb forms
Answers to Exercises 648
English-Italian Verb Index 649
(cid:2) 555 verb models cross-referenced by their English meanings
Irregular Verb Form Index 661
(cid:2) Index showing the infinitive of difficult irregular Italian verb forms
Italian Verb Index 665
(cid:2) More than 2,700 verbs cross-referenced to the full verb models
iii
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ITALIAN
TENSE
PROFILES
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2 THE BASICS OF CONJUGATION
THE BASICS OF CONJUGATION
To conjugate a verb is to list all of its different forms in a logical order. These verb forms
may have the following features: mood, tense, person, and number.
Mood and Tense
Finite verb forms in Italian express one of four modi, or moods: indicative, conditional,
subjunctive, or imperative. The mood of a finite verb form expresses how it relates to
reality or to the intent of the speaker or writer. The indicative mood (indicativo) makes a
statement or asks a question about an objective fact. The conditional mood (condizionale)
expresses a perceived result or outcome based on a stated or implied condition. The sub-
junctive mood (congiuntivo) expresses a condition, wish, emotion, or other sentiment of a
nonfactual, subjective nature. The imperative mood (imperativo) expresses a command.
These four moods are exemplified in the following sentences.
Leonardo da Vinci eravegetariano. Leonardo da Vinci wasa vegetarian.
(indicative)
Se avesse mangiatocarne, si sarebbe If he had eatenmeat, he would have
ammalato. (subjunctive,conditional) gotten sick.
Leonardo, mangiala tua verdura! Leonardo, eatyour vegetables!
(imperative)
Nonfinite verb forms belong to one of three modi: the infinitive (infinito), participle (par-
ticipio), or gerund (gerundio), as illustrated in the following sentences.
Mangiarecarne non è dannoso alla salute. To eat meat is not harmful to one’s health.
(infinitive)
Arrivataa casa, Ornella ha fatto uno After she arrivedhome, Ornella had
spuntino. (participle) a snack.
Mangiandosi diventa forti. Eatingmakes one strong.
(gerund)
In addition to mood, Italian verb forms express tense (past, present, and future). In Ital-
ian, there are both simple and compound tenses. In simple tenses (tempi semplici), the
verb form consists of a single word (the verb stem plus its ending); in compound tenses
(tempi composti), the verb form consists of an auxiliary (avere or essere) plus the past
participle of the verb. The conjugation tables in this book give all verb forms for all Ital-
ian tenses, simple and compound.
The details of tense formation and use of finite verb forms begins on page 6 with an
introduction to the simple tenses. The formation and use of nonfinite verb forms is
detailed on pages 34–36.
Person and Number
Finite verb forms in both Italian and English have person and number.
Persongenerally refers to the subject of a sentence—the person or thing that is perform-
ing the action of the verb. First person refers to the speaker and corresponds to the pro-
nouns I and wein English. Second personrefers to the person being spoken to and corre-
sponds to the pronoun you, singular or plural. Third person refers to the person or thing
being talked about and corresponds to the pronouns he, she, it,andthey.
In addition to person, an Italian verb has number, signifying whether the subject is one
person or thing (and therefore singular) or more than one (and therefore plural). The
following chart summarizes subject pronouns in English.
SINGULAR PLURAL
FIRST PERSON I we
SECOND PERSON you you
THIRD PERSON he/she/it they
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Person and Number 3
The verb form corresponding to each subject pronoun can be inserted into this chart,
creating a conjugation paradigm for that verb. This is a conventional listing of the verb
forms in a set order, and it is used in both English and Italian. Using this format, the
conjugation of the English verb to beis as follows.
SINGULAR PLURAL
FIRST PERSON I am we are
SECOND PERSON you are you are
THIRD PERSON he/she/it is they are
Am is first-person singular, isis third-person singular, and areis second-person singular
and plural, as well as first- and third-person plural.
The subject pronouns in Italian do not correspond exactly to those in English.
SINGULAR PLURAL
FIRST PERSON io I noi we
SECOND PERSON tu you (informal) voi you (informal)
Lei you (formal) Loro you (formal)
THIRD PERSON lui(egli) he loro they
lei(ella) she loro they
esso/essa it essi/esse they
• Italian has four subject pronouns that mean you in English. Tu and voi are informal
ways of addressing one person (tu) or more than one person (voi). These pronouns
(and their corresponding verb forms) are used when speaking to family members,
friends, fellow students, children, and so on. Leiand Loro(usually capitalized, even in
the middle of a sentence) are formal ways of addressing one person (Lei) or more than
one person (Loro). These pronouns (and their corresponding verb forms) are used
when speaking to a stranger, an acquaintance whom you don’t know very well, a pro-
fessor, an older person, and so on.
In several southern regions of Italy, the voiform of the verb is used in formal conver-
sation instead of the Lei/Loroform. It is used to address one or more persons.
• When two pronouns representing different persons are used as the subject of a sen-
tence, first person prevails over second and third, and second person over third, for
determining the person of the verb.
Tu ed io siamo sempre insieme. (noi) You and I are together all the time.
Tu e lui andate al cinema stasera. (voi) You and he are going to the movies this evening.
• Subject pronouns are often omitted in Italian, since the verb endings make the person
of the subject clear. These pronouns are sometimes used for emphasis or contrast.
Iol’ho fatto. Idid it.
Leistudia biologia, ma luistudia Sheis studying biology, but heis studying
matematica. mathematics.
In some tenses (for example, the present subjunctive), the same verb form may be used
for more than one of the persons; in such cases, the subject pronoun is used to avoid
ambiguity.
Tu vuoi che leicanti? Do you want herto sing?
• There are several third-person subject pronouns. Luiand leiare the most commonly
used subject pronouns; they refer to people and animals, but not to objects. Egli and
ellaalso refer to people but are limited to use in formal, written style. Essoand essa
are used for animals and objects; their plural counterparts, essiand esse, can refer to
people, as well as to animals and objects. See the pronoun chart above.
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4 THE BASICS OF CONJUGATION
• To express an indefinite subject (equivalent to English you, one, they, people), Italian uses
the pronoun si.
Si mangia bene in quel ristorante. The food is good in that restaurant.
(lit., One eats well in that restaurant.)
Verb Classes
Italian has three main classes of verbs, called conjugations. A verb’s conjugation, or class,
is determined by the ending of its infinitive—the form ending in -are,-ere, or-ire. The
infinitive, which corresponds to the English construction to , is invariable and is
not marked for person or number. We will use amareto love,temereto fear, and sentire
to feel, hear, to represent the first, second, and third conjugations, respectively. Each of
the three conjugations has its own set of endings for each tense, but there are many simi-
larities from conjugation to conjugation, and some endings of one conjugation are iden-
tical to those of one or both of the others.
First-conjugation (-are) verbs comprise the most numerous and most regular class. Vir-
tually all new verbs in Italian (for example, fotocopiare to photocopy and cliccare to click
[a mouse button]) are -areverbs.
Second-conjugation (-ere) verbs are less numerous and tend to be irregular. In some
-ere verbs, the ending is stressed (temere), in others the stress falls in the stem
(leggere). To indicate that the ending is stressed, a macron is placed above the thematic
-e- in the banner description of the verb in the conjugation tables (thus, -êre). This
stress is marked only as an aid to the language learner; it is not used in writing Italian.
Third-conjugation (-ire) verbs have, in addition to the verbs that follow the model of
sentire (io sento), a second type of verb that requires that -isc-be inserted between the
stem and ending in certain persons of the present tense of the indicative and subjunctive
moods and of the imperative. We will use finire (io finisco) as the model for this sub-
class of -ire verbs. For a few of these verbs, there is a choice as to whether -isc- is
inserted or not; examples are applaudireto applaudand mentireto lie. These are desig-
nated “optional -isc-” verbs in their conjugation banners. Some of these verbs, however,
are used only rarely with -isc- insertion (for example, avvertire to inform) and are so
designated.
Principal Parts of the Verb
In the conjugation tables in this book, the 555 verbs are presented in alphabetical order
by infinitive. It is the infinitive of an Italian verb that is the entry word in most dictionar-
ies. Three other verb forms are listed below the infinitive: the first-person singular pres-
ent indicative form, the first-person singular preterit indicative form, and the past par-
ticiple. Together with the infinitive, these three forms comprise the four principal partsof
the verb, and knowing them, you can construct all the forms of all Italian verbs except
for a few highly irregular ones.
Let verb No. 305, mettere,serve as an example.
mettere
metto · misi · messo
• From the infinitive, mettere, the following tenses are derived:
• The imperfect tense:
mettevo, mettevi, metteva, mettevamo, mettevate, mettevano
• The preterit tense of regular verbs (illustrated below with temere) and the tu, noi,
and voiforms of most irregular preterit verbs:
temere (regular) temei, temesti, temé, tememmo, temeste, temerono
mettere (irregular) —, mettesti, —, mettemmo, metteste, —
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Principal Parts of the Verb 5
The Conjugation Banner
Conjugation Spelling changes English meanings Infinitive Verb number
cominciare
to begin, start 105
regular -areverb, ci (cid:2)c/e, i; comincio · cominciai · cominciato
trans. (aux. avere)/intrans. (aux. essere)
Verb use (transitive,intransitive,modal, 1sing.present 1sing.preterit Past participle
and/or impersonal) and auxiliary
• The future tense:
metterò, metterai, metterà, metteremo, metterete, metteranno
• The present conditional tense:
metterei, metteresti, metterebbe, metteremmo, mettereste, metterebbero
• The imperfect subjunctive tense:
mettessi, mettessi, mettesse, mettessimo, metteste, mettessero
• From the first-person singular of the present tense, metto, the following tenses are derived:
• The remainder of the present tense:
—, metti, mette, mettiamo, mettete, mettono
• The present subjunctive tense:
metta, metta, metta, mettiamo, mettiate, mettano
• From the first-person singular of the preterit tense, misi, the io, lui/lei, and loro forms
are derived:
misi, —, mise, —, —, misero
(The tu, noi, and voi forms are regular and are derived from the infinitive, as shown
above. The preterit form is given as a principal part because many Italian verbs, espe-
cially -ere verbs, have irregular forms in the preterit tense.)
• The past participle,messo,is used as the second component of all compound tenses:
PRESENT PERFECT ho messo
PAST PERFECT avevo messo
PRETERIT PERFECT ebbi messo
FUTURE PERFECT avrò messo
PERFECT CONDITIONAL avrei messo
PERFECT SUBJUNCTIVE abbia messo
PAST PERFECT SUBJUNCTIVE avessi messo
For other uses of the past participle, see pages 32 and 36.
note An Italian verb may be linked to its object by a preposition, even if the corre-
sponding English verb uses no preposition. When learning the principal parts and mean-
ings of an Italian verb, it is important to learn the prepositions, if any, that link it to its
object.
assomigliare a to resemble godere di to enjoy
credere a/in to believe in incontrarsi con to meet
entrare in to enter ridere di to laugh at
giungere a to reach, arrive at sposarsi con to get married to
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6 THE SIMPLE TENSES
THE SIMPLE TENSES
The simple tenses (i tempi semplici) are those in which the conjugated verb consists of a
single word, inflected with different endings to show mood, tense, person, and number.
Listed below are the seven simple tenses of Italian. The first four belong to the indica-
tive mood, although this designation is often omitted when discussing them.
Presente (indicativo) Present (indicative) page 6
Imperfetto (indicativo) Imperfect (indicative) page 9
Passato remoto (indicativo) Preterit (indicative) page 11
Futuro semplice (indicativo) Future (indicative) page 13
Condizionale presente Present conditional page 15
Congiuntivo presente Present subjunctive page 16
Congiuntivo imperfetto Imperfect subjunctive page 19
Il presente · The present
The present tense forms of Italian verbs consist of a single word with two parts: the stem,
which conveys the meaning of the verb, and the present-tense ending, which indicates
the person and number of the verb’s subject. To determine the present-tense stem of a
regular verb, drop the ending of the infinitive (-are, -ere, or-ire).
amare (cid:2) am-
temere (cid:2) tem-
sentire (cid:2) sent-
Then add the present-tense endings of the appropriate conjugation.
amare to love (STEMam-)
io amo noi amiamo
tu ami voi amate
lui/lei ama loro amano
temere to fear (STEMtem-)
io temo noi temiamo
tu temi voi temete
lui/lei teme loro temono
sentire to feel, hear (STEMsent-) finire to end, finish (STEMfin-)
io sento noi sentiamo io finisco noi finiamo
tu senti voi sentite tu finisci voi finite
lui/lei sente loro sentono lui/lei finisce loro finiscono
• The io, tu, and noi forms have the same endings in all three conjugations: -o, -i,
-iamo. The voi form has the characteristic stem vowel of its conjugation in the end-
ing: -ate, -ete, -ite. The lui/lei and loro forms have -a and -ano in the first conju-
gation and -eand -onoin the second and third conjugations.
• The lui/leiand loroforms are used for the formal youin all tenses.
• There is an important shift in stress in all three conjugations. The three forms of the
singular and the third-person plural are stressed on the vowel of the stem, while the
first- and second-person plural forms are stressed on the vowel of the ending. The
only exception is for -isc-verbs of the third conjugation: the iof the inserted -isc- is
stressed, not the stem vowel.