First Conjugation Italian Verbs

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
tu cerchi
noi cerchiamo
io cercherò

legare
tu leghi
noi leghiamo
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
tu cominci
noi cominciamo
io comincerò

mangiare
tu mangi
noi mangiamo
io mangerò

strisciare
tu strisci
noi strisciamo
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
io espio
che tu espii
noi espiamo
voi espiate

studiare
io studio
che tu studii
noi studiamo
voi studiate

• Verbs ending in –gliare (tagliare, pigliare): drop the i of the root only before the vowel i.
tagliare
io taglio
tu tagli
noi tagliamo
voi tagliate


pigliare
io piglio
tu pigli
noi pigliamo
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
noi regniamo
che noi regniamo
che voi regniate


sognare
noi sogniamo
che noi sogniamo
che voi sogniate

Note! The second person plural of the present indicative is formed regularly.

voi regnate   voi sognate