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

Characteristics of the Third Conjugation

• Many –ire verbs add, between the root and declination, the suffix isc to the first, second, and third person singular and third person plural of the indicative and subjunctive present tense, and to the second and third person singular and third person plural of the present imperative tense:
finire io finisco
tu finisci
egli finisce
essi finiscono

che io finisca
che tu finisca
che egli finisca
che essi finiscano

finisci   finisca   finiscono

• some verbs have both forms, similar to the model of sentire and finire:
languire   io languo   io languisco
mentire   io mento   io mentisco
• other verbs also have both forms but take on diverse significance:
ripartire
io riparto (to leave again)
io ripartisco (to divide)
• Generally the present participle (il participio presente) of third conjugation verbs end in ente, several have the form iente, and a few can have both endings:
morire   morente
esordire   esordiente
dormire   dormente/dormiente
• Some participles change the letter t that precedes the declination of the participle iente to the letter z:
sentire   senziente