Page 18 - verbo italiano

8 / Webster’s New World 575+ Italian Verbs

Minor spelling changes don’t make a verb irregular. For example, verbs belonging
to the –are group that end in –care, -gare, or -iare undergo internal spelling changes
in certain tenses to preserve the hard or soft sound of the conjugated verb form (c/
g + a, o, u hard sound, as in “cat”, “golf”; c/g + i, e soft sound as in “george”, “cello”).
There are no spelling changes in the second and third group.
You should memorize the irregular verbs. Only four –are verbs, and their com-
pounds, are irregular. They are andare, dare, fare, and stare. The majority of irregu-
lar verbs belong to the –ere group. Some verbs are irregular in only some tenses,
and there are “families” of irregularities. When it is possible, a pattern of irregular-
ity will be provided, in order to facilitate the acquisition of the irregular forms.

Italian Moods and Tenses

In Italian, there are seven moods. The four definite moods (modi finiti) are the:
ﻰﻟﻻدﻟا لﻌﻔﻟا
• Indicative: The most commonly used mood in everyday conversation. It is
used for ordinary statements and questions.
ﻲطرﺷ • Conditional: The conditional mood allows a softening of the tone of
a request or advice and it expresses what would happen under certain
circumstances.
ﮫﯾﻔطﻌﻟا لﻌﻔﻟا ﻎﯾﺻ
• Subjunctive: Whereas the indicative is used to express or indicate facts,
the subjunctive mood conveys the opinions and attitude of the speaker. The
subjunctive often follows verbs such as pensare (“to think”).
رﻣﻻا ﺔﻐﯾﺻ • Imperative: The imperative gives a command.

The three “indefinite moods” or “non personal forms” (modi indefiniti), in which
the subject remains undefined, are the:
ردﺻﻣﻟا ﺔﻐﯾﺻ • Infinitive
لﻋﺎﻔﻟا مﺳا ﺔﻐﯾﺻ • Gerund
لوﻌﻔﻣﻟا مﺳإ • Participle

Tense can be simple or compound. The simple tenses consist of one word. Table
3 shows the simple tenses and their equivalents in English of the verb parlare (“to
talk”). Note that the Italian tenses might have two equivalent English translations.