First Conjugation Italian Verbs

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The infinitives of all regular verbs in Italian end in –are, –ere, or –ire and are referred to as first, second, or third conjugation verbs, respectively. In English the infinitive (l'infinito) consists of to + verb.

amare to love   temere to fear   sentire to hear

Verbs with infinitives ending in –are are called first conjugation, or –are, verbs. The present tense of a regular –are verb is formed by dropping the infinitive ending –are and adding the appropriate endings to the resulting stem. There is a different ending for each person.

Characteristics of the First Conjugation

• Verbs ending in –care (cercare, caricare) and –gare (litigare, legare): add an h immediately after the root when declinations start with e or i to maintain the hard c or hard g sound.

cercare	legare
tu cerchi	tu leghi
noi cerchiamo	noi leghiamo
io cercherò	io legherò

• Verbs ending in –ciare (baciare), –giare (mangiare), and –sciare (lasciare): drop the i of the root when declinations start with e or i.

cominciare	mangiare	strisciare
tu cominci	tu mangi	tu strisci
noi cominciamo	noi mangiamo	noi strisciamo
io comincerò	io mangerò	io striscerò

• Verbs ending in –iare (inviare, studiare, gonfiare):
• the i of the root is conserved, except for the declinations –iamo and –iate, when the accent is tonic on the first person singular of the present indicative (io invìo).


• the i of the root is dropped when the declinations that start with i (–i, –iamo, –iate, –ino) when the accent is not tonic on the first person singular of the present indicative (io stùdio).

espiare	studiare
io espio	io studio
che tu taglii	che tu studii
noi espiamo	noi studiamo
voi espiate	voi studiate

• Verbs ending in –gliare (tagliare, pigliare): drop the i of the root only before the vowel i.

tagliare	pigliare
io taglio	io piglio
tu tagli	tu pigli
noi tagliamo	noi pigliamo
voi tagliate	voi pigliate

• Verbs ending in –gnare are regular, therefore the i of the endings –iamo (indicative and present conjunctive) and –iate (present conjunctive) is maintained.

regnare	sognare
noi regniamo	noi sogniamo
che noi regniamo	che noi sogniamo
che voi regniate	che voi sogniate