Italian grammar

Italian grammar is the study of grammar of the Italian language.

Italian words can be divided into these lexical categories: article, noun, adjective, pronoun, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection.

Articles

See also: italian language § Sounds

Definite article

Gender	Number	Article	Usage
Masculine	Singular	il/lo	Lo before s + consonant, z, gn, ps, pn, x, y and consonant clusters (disregarding sonorants), l' before a vowel, otherwise il. Note lo iodio ("the iodine"), lo Ionio (the Ionian Sea) where the initial i represents a semiconsonant; on the other hand, it is usual to employ l' before semiconsonantic u (pronounced /w/) in mobile diphthongs: l'uomo "the man", l'uovo "the egg" . However, foreign words beginning with w and used in Italian, like West (referring to the American Old West) and whisky, are usually perceived as beginning with a v sound, and the il article is used: il West, il whisky, and Giacomo Puccini's opera is La fanciulla del West.
	Plural	i/gli	gli (pronounced /ʎi/) before a vowel or z, sc, gn and consonant clusters (disregarding sonorants)
Feminine	Singular	la	l' before a vowel: but la iarda ("the yard") for the same reason as before
	Plural	le	l' is used rarely before a vowel

Indefinite article

Morpheme	Gender	Usage
Masculine	un	uno before z, sc, gn and consonant clusters (disregarding sonorants)
Feminine	una	un' before a vowel

The forms l' and un' arise from mandatory elision of lo, la and una before vowels.

The plural of il dio ("the god") features an irregular definite article, being gli dei instead of *i dei.

Inflection of nouns and adjectives

Nouns and adjectives generally inflect by gender (masculine and feminine, with only some instances of vestigial neuter) and number (singular and plural). Inflection patterns are similar for the two categories:

General noun and adjectival endings for number and gender

Gender	Singular	Plural	Example
Masculine	-o	-i	il capello nero , i capelli neri ("the black hair")
Feminine	-a	-e	la bella macchina, le belle macchine ("the beautiful car(s)")
Masculine and feminine	-e	-i	il/la comandante intelligente , i/le comandanti intelligenti ("the smart commander(s)")
Masculine	-a	-i	l' atleta entusiasta ("the enthusiastic athlete(s)")
All nouns ending with a stressed vowel	singular = plural		la città, le città ("the town(s)")
Non-integrated loanwords			il/la manager trendy, i/le manager trendy ("the trendy manager(s)")

In the last two examples, only the article carries information about gender and number.

The Italian hard and soft C and G phenomenon leads to a few spelling/pronunciation peculiarities in certain cases:

• Words in -cio and -gio form plurals in -ci and -gi, e.g. bacio / baci ("kiss(es)")
• Words in -cia and -gia have been a point of contention; according to a commonly employed rule, they:
  • form plurals in -cie and -gie if the final letter before the suffix is a vowel: camicia, camicie ("shirt(s)"); ciliegia, ciliegie ("cherry"/"cherries").
  • form plurals in -ce and -ge if the final letter before the suffix is a consonant: frangia, frange ("fringe(s)"); faccia, facce ("face(s)").
  • when the i is stressed, it always remains in plural: farmacia / farmacie ("chemist's shop(s)"), nevralgia / nevralgie ("neuralgia(s)").
• Words in -co and -go behave quite irregularly: "the grammarians are skeptical of any attempt at giving a ruling about this area". There are only partial, empirical rules of thumb:
  • plurals are formed with -chi and -ghi if the last letter before the suffix is a consonant or a stressed vowel: fungo / funghi ("mushroom(s)"), stecco / stecchi ("stick(s)"), mago / maghi ("magician(s)"), fuoco / fuochi ("fire(s)")
  • plurals are formed with -ci and -gi if the last letter before the suffix is an unstressed vowel: comico / comici ("comedian(s)"), medico / medici ("physician(s)")
  • in words ending with -logo suffix, the plural is usually in -gi when -logo means "expert" or "student", corresponding to English -logist (e.g. archeologo / archeologi, "archaeologist(s)"), while it is in -ghi when it means "speech" or "reasoning", corresponding often to English -logue/-log (e.g. catalogo / cataloghi, "catalogue(s)").
  • there are exceptions such as amico / amici ("friend(s)"), greco / greci ("Greek(s)"), valico / valichi ("mountain pass(es)"), carico / carichi ("cargo(s)").

Nouns

Most nouns derive from Latin, from Greek or from a Latinization of foreign words:

Derivation of noun inflections

Latin declension	Masculine	Feminine
1st (-a / -ae)	poeta / poeti "poet(s)"	rosa / rose "rose(s)"
2nd (-us / -i)	carro / carri "truck(s)"
3rd (-Ø,-is / -es)	cane / cani "dog(s)"	parete / pareti "wall(s)"
3rd (-as / -ates)		città / città "town(s)"
4th (-us / -us)	passo / passi "step(s)"	mano / mani "hand(s)"
5th (-ies / -ies)		speci.e. / speci.e. "species"
Greek words	problema / problemi "problem(s)"	crisi / crisi "crisis", "crises"

Any other noun, both those from Latin with an unusual ending and those derived from languages other than Latin or Greek, and not Latinized (cifra - meaning "digit" - and ragazzo/ragazza - meaning "boy/girl" - are from Hebrew and Arabic respectively, but they are Latinized), and nouns ending with a stressed vowel are not inflected, thus:

• il re / i re ("the king(s)": rex / reges)
• il caffè / i caffè ("the coffee(s)")
• il film / i film ("the film(s)")

There are certain words (neuter in Latin) that are masculine in the singular and feminine or masculine in the plural:

• il braccio / le braccia or i bracci ("the arm(s)")
• l'uovo / le uova ("the egg(s)")
• il ginocchio / le ginocchia or i ginocchi ("the knee(s)")
• il sopracciglio / le sopracciglia or i sopraccigli ("the eyebrow(s)")

These nouns' endings derive regularly from the Latin neuter endings of the second declension, but there are some from the third declension: e.g. il gregge / le greggi (flock(s), but i greggi works, too); the tradition of calling them "irregular" or "mobile gender" (genere mobile) would come from the paradigm that there are so few nouns of this kind that the existence of neuter can be considered vestigial. The choice of plural is sometimes left to the user, while in some cases there are differences of meaning:

• sometimes, for body parts, the feminine/neuter plural denotes the literal meaning while the masculine one denotes a figurative meaning: il braccio ("the arm") / le braccia ("the arms") / i bracci ("the isthmuses", "the inlets"); il corno ("the horn") / le corna ("the horns" of an animal) / i corni ("the horns" as musical instruments)
• sometimes, especially in poetic and old-fashioned Italian, the masculine plural acts as a count noun, while the neuter/feminine plural acts as a mass noun: il cervello ("the brain") / due cervelli ("two brains") / le cervella ("the cerebral matter"); l'anello ("the ring") / due anelli ("two rings") / le anella ("ringlets"); furthermore, il dito ("the finger") / le dita ("the fingers") and also due dita ("two fingers") / but i diti indici ("the index fingers")

Irregular plurals

There are very few proper irregular plurals in Italian (plurali irregolari). Some of these are:

• l'uomo / gli uomini (man/men; lat. homo / homines )
• il dio / gli dei (god/gods; note also the irregularity in the article: gli instead of i)
• il bue / i buoi (ox/oxen)
• il tempio / i templi (temple/temples)
• un belga / dei belgi (Belgian / Belgians)
• il carcere / le carceri (prison (masculine) / prisons (feminime))
• l'ala / le ali (wing/wings) (but "l'ale" is poetically admitted)
• l'arma / le armi (weapon/weapons) (but "l'arme" is poetically admitted)
• la mano / le mani (hand/hands)
• la eco / gli echi (echo (feminime) / echos (masculine))

Alteration

In Italian, altered nouns are nouns with particular shades of meaning. They are divided into diminutives, "vezzeggiativi" (diminutives with kindness and sympathy nuance), augmentatives and pejoratives.

	Suffix	Example
diminutivi (diminutive)	-ino	tavolo (table)	tavolino (a small table)
	-etto	libro (book)	libretto
	-ello	bambino (child)	bambinello (a little child)
	-icello	monte (mountain)	monticello
	-icciolo	porto (port)	porticciolo
vezzeggiativi	-uccio	cavallo (horse)	cavalluccio
	-acchiotto	orso (bear)	orsacchiotto
	-iciattolo	fiume (river)	fiumiciattolo
	-olo	figlio (son)	figliolo (also figliuolo)
	-otto	cucciolo (puppy)	cucciolotto
accrescitivi (augmentative)	-one	libro (book)	librone (a big book)
	-accione	uomo (man)	omaccione
dispregiativi (pejorative)	-accio	libro (book)	libraccio (a bad book)
	-astro	medico (medic)	medicastro (a bad medic)
	-ucolo	poeta (poet)	poetucolo
	-onzolo	medico (medic)	mediconzolo
	-uncolo	uomo (man)	omuncolo (an insignificant man)

Adjectives

In Italian, an adjective can be before or after the noun. Placing the adjective after the noun can alter its meaning or indicate restrictiveness of reference; the unmarked placement for most adjectives (e.g. colours, nationalities) is after the noun. If a noun has many adjectives, usually not more than one will be before the noun . When there is possibility to choose, the second word is the more important, so if the adjective is after the noun, it is more emphasized :

• un buon uomo = a good man (nothing special, a good man)
• un uomo buono = a good man, a man that is good (it is important that he is good, the adjective is emphasized)

Adjectives are inflected by gender and number:

Gender	Grammatical number	Case 1	Case 2
Masculine	Singular	-o	-e
	Plural	-i	-i
Feminine	Singular	-a	-e
	Plural	-e	-i

Degrees of comparison

Italian has three degrees of comparison: comparative, relative superlative and absolute superlative.

The comparative and relative superlative degrees are both formed around the word più (licterally "plus", meaning "more" or "most"), for instance:

• sono il più scemo fra gli uomini ("I am the dumbest of men")
• sono più scemo di te ("I am dumber than you")

Viceversa, inverting the order of the words, it's required to substitute più with meno (licterally 'minus', meaning "less" or "few"), for instance:

• sono il meno forte del campionato ("I am the less strong of championship", in this particular case "più debole" sounds well)
• tu sei meno scemo di me ("You are less dumb than me", exactly the same meaning)

The absolute superlative, derived from the Latin synthetic superlative in -issimus, is formed by adding -issimo to an adjective: ingelligente ("intelligent"), intelligentissimo ("very intelligent"); sporco ("dirty") sporchissimo ("very dirty"). If the two letters before the last vowel are pr or br (aspro, Latin asper, celebre, Latin celeber), the r is removed and -errimo is the suffix used (asperrimo, celeberrimo) (English: very sour, very famous).

Some adjectives form their degrees of comparison irregularly (though with a regular variant also in common use), like

• buono ("good"), migliore / più buono ("better" or "best"), migliore / ottimo / buonissimo ("very good")
• cattivo ("bad"), peggiore / più cattivo ("worse" or "worst"), pessimo / cattivissimo ("very bad")

Possessive adjectives

Possessive adjectives, like articles, must agree with the gender and number of the noun they modify. Hence, mio zio (my uncle), but mia zia (my aunt). So depending on what is being modified, the possessive adjectives are:

Person	Masculine		Feminine
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
1st sing.	mio	miei	mia	mie
2nd sing.	tuo	tuoi	tua	tue
3rd sing.	suo	suoi	sua	sue
1st pl.	nostro	nostri	nostra	nostre
2nd pl.	vostro	vostri	vostra	vostre
3rd pl.	loro	loro	loro	loro

In most cases the possessive adjective is used with an article, usually the definite article:

Ho perso la mia penna.	("I have lost my pen.")
Mi piace il mio lavoro.	("I like my job.")
Hanno rubato la mia automobile!	("They have stolen my car!")

And with the indefinite article:

Un mio amico mi ha detto che...	("A friend of mine told me that...")
Ho visto una sua foto.	("I have seen a photograph of him/her.")
Luca è un mio amico.	("Luca is a friend of mine.")

The only exception is when the possessive refers to an individual family member, (unless the family member is described or characterized in some way):

Laura è mia sorella	("Laura is my sister.")
Ieri ho visto mia sorella Diana	("I saw my sister Diana yesterday.")
Questa penna è di mia zia.	("This pen is my aunt's.")

But mamma and papà (or babbo, in Central Italy) (mother and father) usually get the article.

For emphasis, however, possessive adjectives are sometimes placed after a noun. This is usually after words like 'colpa' (fault, sin); 'casa' (house, home); 'merito' (merit); 'piacere' (pleasure); or in vocative expressions.

È colpa sua	("It is his/her fault")
Oh dio mio!	("Oh, my god!")
Arrivederci, amico mio!	("Goodbye, my friend!")
Vorresti andare a casa mia?	("Would you like to come over to my house?")

If the antecedent of a third person possessive (being used as an object) is the subject of the sentence, proprio can be used instead of suo, though the usage of proprio is declining in the spoken language :

Marco e Maria erano in aula. Marco ha preso il proprio libro.	("Marco and Maria were in the classroom. Marco took his own book.")
Marco e Maria erano in aula. Marco ha preso il suo libro.	("Marco and Maria were in the classroom. Marco took her/his book.")

Demonstrative adjectives

Italian originally had three degrees of demonstrative adjectives: questo (for items near or related to the first person speaker: English "this"), quello (for items near or related to an eventual third person: English "that"), and codesto (for items near or related to an eventual second person). The usage has undergone a simplification, including the meaning of codesto in quello. Only Tuscan speakers still use codesto.

Pronouns

Italian features a sizeable set of pronouns. Personal pronouns are inflected by person, number and, in the third person, gender. Literary subject pronouns also have a distinction between animate (egli, ella) and inanimate (esso, essa) antecedents, although this is lost in colloquial usage, where lui, lei and loro are used for animate subjects as well as objects, while no specific pronoun is employed for inanimate subjects.

There is also the uninflected pronoun ciò, which is only used with abstract antecedents.

Personal pronouns are normally dropped in the subject, as the conjugation is usually enough to determine the grammatical person. They are used when some emphasis is needed, e.g. sono italiano ("I am Italian") vs. io sono italiano ("I [specifically, as opposed to others] am Italian").

Personal pronouns

	First Person		Second Person		Third Person
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Reflexive	Masculine		Feminine
						Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Subject	io	noi	tu	voi	-	egli, esso (lui)	essi (loro)	ella, essa (lei)	esse (loro)
Object	me	noi	te	voi	sé	lui	loro	lei	loro
Clitic accusative	mi	ci	ti	vi	si	lo	li	la	le
Clitic dative	mi	ci	ti	vi	si	gli	loro	le	loro
Clitic dat. before acc.	me	ce	te	ve	se	glie-	glie-	glie-	glie-

Notes:

• 2nd person nominative pronoun is tu for informal. For formal use, the 3rd person form Lei has been used since the Renaissance: it is used like "Sie" in German, "usted" in Spanish and "você" in Portuguese. Previously, and in some Italian regions today (e.g., Campania), voi is used as a formal singular, as in the French "vous". The pronouns lei (third-person singular) and Lei (second-person singular formal) are pronounced the same but written as shown. Formal Lei and Loro take third-person conjugations. The formal plural person is very rarely used in modern Italian; the unmarked form is widely used instead (e.g. "Gino, Lei è un bravo ingegnere. Marco, Lei è un bravo architetto. Insieme, voi sarete una gran bella squadra" "Gino, you are a good engineer. Marco, you are a good architect. Together, you will be a great good team").
• Accusative lo and la elide to l' before a vowel or h: l'avevo detto ("I had said it"), l'ho detto ("I have said it").
• When accusative pronouns are used in a compound tense, the final vowel of the past participle must agree in gender and number with the accusative pronoun. For example, hai comprato i cocomeri e le mele? ("Did you buy the watermelons and the apples?") - Li [i cocomeri] ho comprati ma non le [le mele] ho comprate ("I bought them [the former] but I did not buy them [the latter]"). This also happens when the underlying pronoun is made opaque by elision: l'ho svegliato ("I woke him up"), versus L'ho svegliata ("I woke her up").
• In modern Italian, dative gli (to him) is used commonly even as plural (to them) instead of classical loro. So: "Conosci Luca: gli ho sempre detto di stare lontano dalle cattive compagnie" (You know Luca: I have always told him to stay away from bad companies"). And: "Conosci Luca e Gino: gli ho sempre detto..." (...I have always told them...) instead of "... ho sempre detto loro di stare...".

Clitic pronouns

Though objects come after the verb as a rule, this is not the case with a class of unstressed, clitic pro-forms.

Dative and accusative pronouns come before the verb. If an auxiliary verb is used, the pronouns come before the auxiliary . If both dative and accusative pronouns are used, the dative comes first. Pronominal particles ce/ci (to it) and ne (of it) are treated like accusative pronouns for word-order purposes.

Note that the clitic ci acts both as a first person plural accusative pronoun and a pro-form with a different meaning.

Examples:

Davide lascia la sua penna in ufficio.	(David leaves his pen at the office.)
Davide la lascia in ufficio.	(David leaves it at the office.)
Davide ce la lascia.	(David leaves it to us. (but also : David leaves it there.))
Davide ce ne lascia una.	(David leaves us one of them. (but also [rare]: David leaves one [of them] there.))
Davide potrebbe lasciarcene una.	(David might leave us one of them (but also [rare]: David might leave one [of them] there.)
or Davide ce ne potrebbe lasciare una.	(exactly the same as above)

(Compare with the similar use of objective pronouns and pro-forms in French and Catalan.)

Finally, in the imperative and infinitive cases, the objective pronouns come once again after the verb, but this time as a suffix:

Davide lascia la sua penna in ufficio.	(David leaves his pen at the office.)
"Lasciala in ufficio!"	("Leave it at the office!")
"Lasciacela!"	("Leave it to us!" also [less common] "Leave it there!")
Davide potrebbe lasciarla in ufficio.	(David might leave it at the office.)
"Non lasciarcela!"	("Do not leave it to us!" also [less common] "Do not leave it there!")
Davide dovrebbe lasciarcela.	("David should leave it to us." also [less common] "David should leave it there")

• Dative mi, ti, ci, and vi become me, te, ce, and ve when preceding another pronoun ("dammelo" (give it to me)) or develop as a me, a te, a noi and a voi when emphasized ("dallo a me" (give it TO ME)).
• Accusative mi, ti, lo, la, ci, and vi become me, te, lui, lei, noi, and voi when emphasized ("uccidimi" (kill me) against "uccidi me, non lui" (kill me, not him)).
• Dative gli, le, loro (commonly gli) can be developed into a lui, a lei, a loro, when emphasized ("lo sai solo tu: a loro non l'ho detto" (only you know it: I have not told them))
• Dative gli combines with accusative lo, la, li, le and ne (partitive, meaning "of it" or "of them") to form glielo, gliela, glieli, gliele and gliene. These combinations are used for feminine and plural too ("Maria lo sa? Gliel'hai detto?" (Does Maria know it? Have you said it to her?)).

Verbs

Main articles: Italian verbs

Italian verb infinitives have one of three endings, either -are, -ere, or -ire. Exceptions are porre "to place" (from Latin ponere), and a few verbs ending in -urre or -arre, most notably tradurre (Latin traducere) "to translate". Italian grammar does not explicitly recognise verbal aspect, though different tenses and periphrases actually render different aspects.

Tenses

• Simple tenses (examples in first person)

Tense	Italian name	Translation(s)	First person translation
Present (Indicative mood)	indicativo presente	do am doing1	faccio I do I am doing
Imperfect (Indicative mood)	indicativo imperfetto	was used to	facevo I was doing I used to do
Future (Indicative mood)	futuro semplice	will/shall	farò I shall do
Preterite (Indicative mood)	passato remoto	did2	feci I did
Present (Conditional mood)	condizionale presente	would	farei I would do
Present (Subjunctive mood)	congiuntivo presente	(that) I be	(che) io sia
Imperfect (Subjunctive mood)	congiuntivo imperfetto		(che) io fossi
Present (Imperative mood)	imperativo	be quiet!	stai zitto!

• Compound tenses (examples in first person)

Tense	Italian name	Translation(s)	First person translation
Recent Past (Indicative mood)	passato prossimo	have done	ho fatto
Recent Pluperfect (Indicative mood)	trapassato prossimo	had done	avevo fatto
Future Perfect (Indicative mood)	futuro anteriore	shall have done	avrò fatto
Remote Pluperfect (Indicative mood)	trapassato remoto		ebbi fatto
Preterite (Conditional mood)	condizionale passato	would have done	avrei fatto
Preterite (Subjunctive mood)	congiuntivo passato		(che) io abbia fatto
Pluperfect (Subjunctive mood)	congiuntivo trapassato		(che) io avessi fatto

• Special forms (Modi indefiniti, Indefinite tenses)

Tense	Italian name	Translation(s)	Example
Present, Infinite mood	infinito presente	to do	fare
Perfect, Infinite mood	infinito passato	to have done	aver(e) fatto
Present, Gerund mood	gerundio presente	doing	facendo
Perfect, Gerund mood	gerundio passato	having done	avendo fatto
Present, Participle mood	participio presente	doing	facente
Perfect, Participle mood	participio passato	done	fatto

Aspects other than imperfective, aorist (that are rendered by simple tenses) and perfect (that is rendered by compound tenses) are rendered in Italian through periphrastical forms which aren't recognized by the canonical Italian grammar as proper tenses.

Examples:

• Present tense, indicative mood, progressive aspect: io sto facendo (English: I'm doing)
• Present tense, indicative mood, inchoative aspect: io sto per fare (English: I'm about to do)

¹Present continuous in Italian is similar to that in English but not as frequently used. Italian usually uses the simple present instead, except when emphasizing the ongoing nature of the action.

²The preterite is becoming obsolete in spoken Italian (as in French and High German); instead, the present perfect (ho fatto) is used. It is still used in Southern Italy but becoming less common there, too. It is, however, very common in literature, even modern literature. If there is no reference to the present, as when speaking of the dead, the perfect is proscribed and the preterite must be used.

³ As above, the past continuous in Italian is not often used, and its use is considered interchangeable in most situations with the imperfetto (imperfect).

⁴The Trapassato Prossimo (Recent Pluperfect) and the extremely rare Trapassato Remoto (Remote Pluperfect) are separate tenses in Italian though not in English.

Compound tense auxiliary verbs

In Italian, compound tenses are formed with an auxiliary verb (either essere "to be" or avere "to have"). Transitive verbs use avere as their auxiliary verb. Verbs in the passive voice always use essere. For intransitive verbs a reliable rule cannot be given, although a useful rule of thumbs is that if a verb's part participle can take on adjectival value, essere is used, otherwise avere. Also, reflexive verbs and unaccusative verbs use essere (typically non-agentive verbs of motion and change of state, i.e. involuntary actions like cadere (to fall) or morire (to die)).

The distinction between the two auxiliary verbs is important for the correct formation of the compound tenses and is essential to the agreement of the past participle. Some verbs use both, though, like vivere (to live): in recent past tense you can say io ho vissuto or io sono vissuto (I have lived).

Past participle

The past participle is used in Italian as both an adjective and to form many of the compound tenses of the language. There are regular endings for the past participle, based on the conjugation class (see below). There are, however, many irregular forms as not all verbs follow the pattern, particularly the -ere verbs. Some of the more common irregular past participles include: essere (to be) → stato (same for stare); fare (to do, to make) → fatto; dire (to say, to tell) → detto; aprire (to open) → aperto; chiedere (to ask) → chiesto; chuidere (to close) → chuiso; leggere (to read) → letto; mettere (to put) → messo; perdere (to lose) → perso; prendere (to take, to get) → preso; rispondere (to answer) → risposto; scrivere (to write) → scritto; vedere (to see) → visto.

The past participle when used with essere (for unaccusative verbs et al. ) follows the usual adjective agreement rules.

For the intransitive verbs taking essere, the past participle always agrees with the subject: lui è partito; lei è partita. This is also true for reflexive verbs, the impersonal si construction (which, interestingly, requires any adjectives that refer to it to be in the masculine plural: Si è sempre stanchi alla fine della giornata - One is always tired at the end of the day), and the passive voice, which also use essere (Si è sparato - He shot himself, against Lui ha sparato - He shot).

The past participle when used with avere never changes to agree with the subject. It agrees with the object though, in sentences where a pronoun replacing the object is proceeding (e.g. Hai mangiato la mela? - Sì, l'ho mangiata (Have you eaten the apple? - Yes, I have eaten it)).

When the pronoun is first or second person, there is optional agreement: Maria! Giovanni ti ha chiamato / chiamata? - No, non mi ha chiamato / chiamata (Maria! Has Giovanni called you? - No, he has not). In relative clauses, the agreement is obsolete: La storia che avete raccontata (obsolete) / raccontato non mi convince (The story you told does not convince me).

Tense relationship in subordinate sentences

Italian inherits consecutio temporum, a grammar rule from Latin that disciplines the relationship between the tenses in subordinate sentences. Consecutio temporum has very rigid rules. These rules order the subjunctive tense in order to express contemporaneity, posteriority and anteriority in relation with the principal sentence.

• to express contemporaneity when the principal clause is in a simple tense (future, present, or simple past,) the subordinate clause uses the present subjunctive, to express contemporaneity in the present.
  • Penso che Davide sia intelligente. I think David is smart.
• when the principal clause has a past imperfect or perfect tense, the subordinate clause uses the imperfect subjunctive, expressing contemporaneity in the past.
  • Pensavo che Davide fosse intelligente. I thought David was smart.
• to express anteriority when the principal clause is in a simple tense (Future, or present or passato prossimo) the subordinate clause uses the past subjunctive.
  • Penso che Davide sia stato intelligente. I think David has been smart.
• to express anteriority when the principal clause has a past imperfect or perfect tense, the subjunctive has to be pluperfect.
  • Pensavo che Davide fosse stato intelligente. I thought David had been smart.
• to express posteriority the subordinate clause uses not subjunctive but indicative mood, because the subjunctive has no future tense.
  • Penso che Davide sarà intelligente. I think David will be smart.
• to express posteriority with respect to a past event, the subordinate clause uses the past conditional, whereas in other European languages (such as French, English, and Spanish) the present conditional is used.
  • Pensavo che Davide sarebbe stato intelligente. I thought that David would be smart.

Regular conjugations

The infinitive of first conjugation verbs end in -are, that of second conjugation verbs in -ere, and that of third conjugation verbs in -ire. In the following examples for different moods, the first conjugation verb is parlare (meaning to talk/speak), the second conjugation verb is temere (to fear) and the third conjugation verb is partire (to leave/depart.)

Indicative mood

	Present			Preterite			Imperfect			Simple Future
	1st Conj.	2nd Conj.	3rd Conj.	1st Conj.	2nd Conj.	3rd Conj.	1st Conj.	2nd Conj.	3rd Conj.	1st Conj.	2nd Conj.	3rd Conj.
io	parlo	temo	parto	parlai	temetti	partii	parlavo	temevo	partivo	parlerò	temerò	partirò
tu	parli	temi	parti	parlasti	temesti	partisti	parlavi	temevi	partivi	parlerai	temerai	partirai
egli	parla	teme	parte	parlò	temette	partì	parlava	temeva	partiva	parlerà	temerà	partirà
noi	parliamo	temiamo	partiamo	parlammo	tememmo	partimmo	parlavamo	temevamo	partivamo	parleremo	temeremo	partiremo
voi	parlate	temete	partite	parlaste	temeste	partiste	parlavate	temevate	partivate	parlerete	temerete	partirete
essi	parlano	temono	partono	parlarono	temettero	partirono	parlavano	temevano	partivano	parleranno	temeranno	partiranno
	Recent past = present of avere / essere + past participle			Remote pluperfect = preterite of avere / essere + past participle			Recent pluperfect = imperfect of avere / essere + past participle			Future perfect = simple future of avere / essere + past participle

Some third conjugation verbs such as capire insert -isc- between the stem and the endings in the present, e.g., capisco, capisci, capisce, etc. It is impossible to tell from the infinitive form which verbs exhibit this phenomenon, which often originated in Latin verbs denoting the "inchoative" aspect of an action, that is, verbs describing the beginning of an action. There are some 500 verbs like this, the first ones in alphabetic order being abbellire, abolire, agire, alleggerire, ammattire and so forth. In some grammatical systems, "isco" verbs are considered a fourth conjugation, often labelled 3b. There are also certain verbs that end in -rre, namely trarre, porre, (con)durre and derived verbs with different prefixes (such as attrarre, comporre, dedurre, and so forth). They are derived from earlier trahere, ponere, ducere and are conjugated as such.

Subjunctive mood

	Present			Imperfect
	1st Conj.	2nd Conj.	3rd Conj.	1st Conj.	2nd Conj.	3rd Conj.
io	parli	tema	parta	parlassi	temessi	partissi
tu	parli	tema	parta	parlassi	temessi	partissi
egli	parli	tema	parta	parlasse	temesse	partisse
noi	parliamo	temiamo	partiamo	parlassimo	temessimo	partissimo
voi	parliate	temiate	partiate	parlaste	temeste	partiste
essi	parlino	temano	partano	parlassero	temessero	partissero
	Past = present of avere / essere + past participle			Past perfect = imperfect of avere / essere + past participle

• Third conjugation verbs like capire mentioned above insert -isc- in the first, second, and third persons singular and third person plural of the present.
• Compound forms (past and past perfect) are made by adding the past participle (e.g. parlato) to the corresponding auxiliary form (as "abbia") in the present and imperfect tenses.

Conditional mood

	Present
	1st Conj.	2nd Conj.	3rd Conj.
io	parlerei	temerei	partirei
tu	parleresti	temeresti	partiresti
egli	parlerebbe	temerebbe	partirebbe
noi	parleremmo	temeremmo	partiremmo
voi	parlereste	temereste	partireste
essi	parlerebbero	temerebbero	partirebbero
	Past = present of avere / essere + past participle

From the table we can see that the verbs each take their own root, from their class of verb, -are becomes -er-, -ere becomes -er-, and -ire becomes -ir-, the same roots as used in the future indicative tense. Onto this root, all verbs add on the same ending, depending on the conjugation.

Some verbs do not follow this pattern, but take irregular roots, these include: Andare (to go) ~ Andr-, Avere (to have) ~ Avr-, Bere (to drink) ~ Berr-, Dare (to give) ~ Dar-, Dovere (to have to) ~ Dovr-, Essere (to be) ~ Sar-, Fare (to make/do) ~ Far-, Godere (to enjoy) ~ Godr-, Potere (to be able to) ~ Potr-, Rimanere (to remain) ~ Rimarr-, Sapere (to know) ~ Sapr-, Sedere (to sit) ~ Sedr-, Stare (to be/feel) ~ Star-, Tenere (to hold) ~ Terr-, Vedere (to see) ~ Vedr-, Venire (to come) ~ Verr-, Vivere (to live) ~ Vivr-, Volere (to want) ~ Vorr- etc.

The Italian conditional mood is a mood that refers to an action that is possible or likely, but is dependent upon a condition. Example:

Io andrei in spiaggia, ma fa troppo freddo.

("I would go to the beach, but it is too cold.")

It can be used in two tenses, the present, by conjugation of the appropriate noun, or the past, using the auxiliary conjugated in the conditional, with the past participle of the appropriate noun:

Mangerei un sacco adesso, se non stessi cercando di fare colpo su queste ragazze.	("I would eat a lot now, if I were not trying to impress these girls")
Sarei andato in città, se avessi saputo che ci andavano loro.	("I would have gone to the city, if I had known that they were going.")

Many Italian speakers often use imperfect instead of conditional and subjunctive. While incorrect, this is somewhat tolerated in spoken Italian (rarely in written Italian, even if it used to be a correct form in past times):

Se lo sapevo, andavo al mare.	("If I had known it, I would have gone to the beach.")
Se Lucia non faceva quel segno, la risposta sarebbe probabilmente stata diversa.	("If Lucia had not made that sign, the answer would probably have been different.")

The conditional can also be used in Italian to express "could", with the conjugated forms of potere ("to be able to"), or "should", with the conjugated forms of dovere ("to have to"):

[Lui] potrebbe leggere un libro.	("He could read a book.")
[Loro] dovrebbero andare a letto.	("They should go to bed.")

Imperative mood

	1st Conj.	2nd Conj.	3rd Conj.
(tu)	parla!	temi!	parti!
(Lei)	parli!	tema!	parta!
(noi)	parliamo!	temiamo!	partiamo!
(voi)	parlate!	temete!	partite!
(essi)	parlino!	temano!	partano!

Verbs like capire insert -isc- in all except the noi and voi forms.

Non-finite forms

• Infinitive: present: -are, -ere, -ire; past: avere/essere + past participle
• Gerund: present: -ando, -endo, -endo; past: avendo/essendo + past participle
• Participle: present: -ante -ente -ente; past: -ato, -uto (though verbs of the second conjugation almost always have a contracted desinence, e.g. "cuocere" (to cook) "cotto" (cooked)), -ito

Irregular verbs

While the majority of Italian verbs are regular, many of the most commonly used ones are irregular. In particular, the auxiliary verbs essere and avere, and the common modal verbs potere (ability, to be able to), dovere (duty, to have to), sapere (knowledge, to know how to) and volere (will, to want to) are all irregular. Many of the irregularities are accounted for by the substance of Latin grammar; in Latin the verb had four principal parts, of which the third and fourth (perfect stem and perfect passive participle) were formed regularly from the present stem only in the first and second conjugations, whereas in the third and fourth (in -ere with short e and in -ire) the presence of the i on the stem caused a mutation of the following consonants and made irregularities at a very early stage of the language.

The first conjugation has the big majority of regular verbs (except "andare" (to go), "fare" (to do, to make (from third Latin conjugation)), "dare" (to give) and "stare" (to stay), which are strongly irregular). Almost every new verb (as neologism) enters in first conjugation (e.g. formattare (to format) is of first conjugation and perfectly regular).

The second conjugation is usually irregular. They are from Latin, where they were irregular too. The few regulars are from Latin second conjugation: like "temere" (to fear), "godere" (to enjoy)... The majority is from Latin third conjugation, which is practically all irregular.

The third conjugation (deriving from Latin fourth conjugation) has two different ways: Greek one (or incohative) with insertion of -sc-, "capire" (to understand), "io capisco" (I understand), and Latin one with no insertion, "sentire" (to feel), "io sento" (I feel). There are some irregulars, but not too many: example, "morire" (to die), "io muoio" (I die). The verb "dire" (to say, to tell) derives from Latin third conjugation, and is strongly irregular.

Most verbs of the second conjugation are irregular in the passato remoto (preterite) tense, which resembles the Latin Perfect tense.

essere (to be; an auxiliary)

	Indicative				Subjunctive		Conditional
	Present	Preterite	Imperfect	Future	Present	Imperfect
io	sono	fui	ero	sarò	sia	fossi	sarei
tu	sei	fosti	eri	sarai	sia	fossi	saresti
egli	è	fu	era	sarà	sia	fosse	sarebbe
noi	siamo	fummo	eravamo	saremo	siamo	fossimo	saremmo
voi	siete	foste	eravate	sarete	siate	foste	sareste
essi	sono	furono	erano	saranno	siano	fossero	sarebbero

avere (to have; an auxiliary)

	Indicative				Subjunctive		Conditional
	Present	Preterite	Imperfect	Future	Present	Imperfect
io	ho	ebbi	avevo	avrò	abbia	avessi	avrei
tu	hai	avesti	avevi	avrai	abbia	avessi	avresti
egli	ha	ebbe	aveva	avrà	abbia	avesse	avrebbe
noi	abbiamo	avemmo	avevamo	avremo	abbiamo	avessimo	avremmo
voi	avete	aveste	avevate	avrete	abbiate	aveste	avreste
essi	hanno	ebbero	avevano	avranno	abbiano	avessero	avrebbero

potere (to be able to, can, could; a modal)

	Indicative				Subjunctive		Conditional
	Present	Preterite	Imperfect	Future	Present	Imperfect
io	posso	potei	potevo	potrò	possa	potessi	potrei
tu	puoi	potesti	potevi	potrai	possa	potessi	potresti
egli	può	poté	poteva	potrà	possa	potesse	potrebbe
noi	possiamo	potemmo	potevamo	potremo	possiamo	potessimo	potremmo
voi	potete	poteste	potevate	potrete	possiate	poteste	potreste
essi	possono	poterono	potevano	potranno	possano	potessero	potrebbero

dovere (to have to, must, should; a modal)

	Indicative				Subjunctive		Conditional
	Present	Preterite	Imperfect	Future	Present	Imperfect
io	devo/debbo	dovetti	dovevo	dovrò	debba	dovessi	dovrei
tu	devi	dovesti	dovevi	dovrai	debba	dovessi	dovresti
egli	deve	dovette	doveva	dovrà	debba	dovesse	dovrebbe
noi	dobbiamo	dovemmo	dovevamo	dovremo	dobbiamo	dovessimo	dovremmo
voi	dovete	doveste	dovevate	dovrete	dobbiate	doveste	dovreste
essi	devono/debbono	dovettero	dovevano	dovranno	debbano	dovessero	dovrebbero

volere (to want, will, would); a modal)

	Indicative				Subjunctive		Conditional
	Present	Preterite	Imperfect	Future	Present	Imperfect
io	voglio	volli	volevo	vorrò	voglia	volessi	vorrei
tu	vuoi	volesti	volevi	vorrai	voglia	volessi	vorresti
egli	vuole	volle	voleva	vorrà	voglia	volesse	vorrebbe
noi	vogliamo	volemmo	volevamo	vorremo	vogliamo	volessimo	vorremmo
voi	volete	voleste	volevate	vorrete	vogliate	voleste	vorreste
essi	vogliono	vollero	volevano	vorranno	vogliano	volessero	vorrebbero

Adverbs

An adjective can be made into a modal adverb by adding -mente (from Latin "mindly", ablative of "mens" (mind), feminine noun) to the ending of the feminine singular form of the adjective. E.g. lenta "slow (feminine)" becomes lentamente "slowly". Adjectives ending in -re or -le lose their e before adding -mente (facile "easy" becomes facilmente "easily", particolare "particular" becomes particolarmente "particularly").

These adverbs can also be derived from the absolute superlative form of adjectives, e.g. lentissimamente ("very slowly"), facilissimamente ("very easily").

There is also a plethora of temporal, local, modal and interrogative adverbs, mostly derived from Latin, e.g. quando ("when"), dove ("where"), come ("how"), perché ("why"/"because"), mai ("never"), sempre ("always"), etc.

Prepositions

Italian has a closed class of basic prepositions, to which a number of adverbs can be added that also double as prepositions, e.g.: sopra il tavolo ("upon the table"), prima di adesso ("before now").

In modern Italian the prepositions tra and fra are interchangeable, and often chosen on the basis of euphony: tra fratelli ("among brothers") vs. fra i tralicci ("between the power pylons").

All the basic prepositions except tra, fra, per and con have to be combined with an article placed next to them.

Italian	English	Preposition + article
di	of, from	del, dello, della / dei, degli, delle
a	to, at	al, allo, alla / ai, agli, alle
da	from, by	dal, dallo, dalla / dai, dagli, dalle
in	in	nel, nello, nella / nei, negli, nelle
con	with	con il, con lo, con la / con i, con gli, con le
su	on, about	sul, sullo, sulla / sui, sugli, sulle
per	for, through	per il, per lo, per la / per i, per gli, per le
tra / fra	between, among	tra il, tra lo, tra la / tra i, tra gli, tra le

Sentences and word order

Italian is a SVO language. Nevertheless, the SVO sequence is sometimes replaced by one of the other arrangements (SOV, VSO, OVS, etc.), especially for reasons of emphasis and, in literature, for reasons of style and metre: Italian has a relatively free word order.

The subject is usually omitted when it is a pronoun – distinctive verb conjugations make it redundant. Subject pronouns are considered emphatic when used at all.

Questions are formed by a rising intonation at the end of the sentence (in written form, a question mark). There is usually no other special marker, although wh-movement does usually occur. In general, intonation and context are important to recognize questions from affirmative statements.

Davide è arrivato in ufficio.	(David has arrived at the office.)
Davide è arrivato in ufficio?	(Has David arrived at the office?)
Perché Davide è arrivato in ufficio?	(Why has David arrived at the office?)
Perché Davide è arrivato in ufficio.	(Because David has arrived at the office.)
È arrivato Davide in ufficio.	("It was David who arrived at the office" or "David arrived at the office" - depending on the intonation)
È arrivato Davide in ufficio?	(Has David, in particular, arrived at the office?)
È arrivato in ufficio.	(He has arrived at the office.)
Egli è arrivato in ufficio.	(He has arrived at the office.)
Chi è arrivato in ufficio?	(Who has arrived at the office?)

In general, adjectives come after the noun they modify, adverbs after the verb. But: as with French, adjectives coming before the noun indicate essential quality of the noun. Demonstratives (e.g. questo this, quello that) come before the noun, and a few particular adjectives (e.g. bello) may be inflected like demonstratives and placed before the noun.

Some common grammar mistakes in Italian language

Among the deprecated Italian grammar uses are:

• in spoken informal or dialectal language, the usage of an indicative form where a subjunctive one is required. For Instance: credo che Giorgio ieri fosse a casa ("I believe that yesterday George was at home") is right, credo che Giorgio ieri era a casa is deprecated; se Maria fosse stata a casa, le avrei telefonato ("if Mary had been at home, I would have telephoned her") is right, se Maria era a casa le telefonavo is deprecated, even if it is an old usage, found in classic Italian writers;
• the nominative third person pronouns (egli, ella, essi) and the courtesy form (Ella) are being replaced by their accusative forms (lui, lei, loro and Lei). The usage, while formally erroneous, is generally accepted.

External links

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• La grammatica italiana
• Italian Language: Grammar, a small directory of Italian grammar resources
• Grammar : Online Italian Help