Updated on April 11, 2024
Italian present tense made easy: A comprehensive guide
If there’s something Italian is known for, it’s the rich variety of verb tenses. Before you get ahead of yourself and jump into those deep waters, let’s dip a toe with the Italian present tense or presente indicativo. It may be the simplest of tenses, but its uses range widely. From describing current situations to narrating historical facts, the present indicative in Italian is quite multifaceted.
As a rule of thumb, to build the present indicative in Italian (as well as most tenses), you will substitute the endings of their infinitive forms – ‘are’, ‘ere’ or ‘ire’ – with the declined ones in the present tense. Each ending conjugates according to the subject. For each subject pronoun, a different suffix is added.
Time to get more pragmatic, though, and to learn how to conjugate and use the Italian present tense.
Verbs ending in ‘are’ are also called “first conjugation verbs” (verbi di prima coniugazione) and among others, you can find amare (to love), mangiare (to eat), regalare (to give a gift), baciare (to kiss) and suonare (to play an instrument).
When wanting to conjugate them in the Italian present tense, the ‘-are’ portion is removed and subject-accorded endings are added. Let’s take the verb parlare (to speak) as an example:
| Subject | Present Indicative endings for ‘are’ verbs | English |
| Io | parl-o | I speak |
| Tu | parl-i | You speak |
| Lui/lei | parl-a | He/she/it speaks |
| Noi | parl-iamo | We speak |
| Voi | parl-ate | You speak |
| Loro/essi | parl-ano | They speak |
Note: In Italian, who carries out an action (that is to say, the subject) is usually expressed through the ending of the verb itself. Soon you will realize that natives omit for the most part the subjects both when speaking and writing.
As hinted above, Italian verbs can be tricky. That is the case with verbs of the first conjugation ending in ‘gare’ or ‘care’. In both cases, you need to remember to insert an -h right between the root verb and its ending in the ‘you’ person, both singular and plural. This is to maintain the hard /g/ and /k/ sounds and facilitate pronunciation.
Let’s see what happens when we decline the verbs pagare (to pay) and cercare (to look for):
| Subject | Verb ending in ‘gare’ | Verb ending in ‘care’ | English |
| Io | pag-o | cerc-o | I pay/look for |
| Tu | pag-Hi | cerc-Hi | You pay/look for |
| Lui/lei | pag-a | cerc-a | He/she/it pays/ looks for |
| Noi | pag-Hiamo | cerc-Hiamo | We pay/look for |
| Voi | pag-ate | cerc-ate | You pay/look for |
| Loro/essi | pag-ano | cerc-ano | They pay/look for |
Verbs ending in ‘ere’ belong to the seconda coniugazione or second conjugation. Examples of verbs belonging to this group are: chiedere (to ask), perdere (to lose), leggere (to read) or conoscere (to know).
The verb scrivere (to write), in the Italian present tense is conjugated as follows:
| Subject | Present Indicative endings for ‘ere’ verbs | English |
| Io | scriv-o | I write |
| Tu | scriv-i | You write |
| Lui/lei | scriv-e | He/she/it writes |
| Noi | scriv-iamo | We write |
| Voi | scriv-ete | You write |
| Loro/essi | scriv-ono | They write |
This is the third and last of the verb groups in Italian. Verbs that end in ‘ire’ count among them aprire (to open), scoprire (to discover, to find out), coprire (to cover) and many more.
In Italian, the present indicative for the verb sentire (to feel) shapes as shown below:
| Subject | Present Indicative endings for ‘ire’ verbs | English |
| Io | sent-o | I feel |
| Tu | sent-i | You feel |
| Lui/lei | sent-e | He/she/it feels |
| Noi | sent-iamo | We feel |
| Voi | sent-ite | You feel |
| Loro/essi | sent-ono | They feel |
Verbs such as preferire (to prefer) or capire (to understand), even though belonging to the third conjugation group, behave slightly differently than their counterparts.
The exception for these verbs stands in how the three singular persons and the 3rd person plural are formed: between the root verb and the ending, ‘-isc’ is added.
| Subject | Present Indicative endings | English |
| Io | Cap – isc + o | I understand |
| Tu | Cap – isc + i | You understand |
| Lui/lei | Cap – isc + e | He/she/it understands |
| Noi | cap-iamo | We understand |
| Voi | cap-ite | You understand |
| Loro/essi | Cap – isc + ono | They understand |
Other verbs that behave this way are: finire (to finish), pulire (to clean), spedire (to send).
Wow! What a parade of verb endings! Understanding how the present indicative in Italian works allows you to start building simple sentences and thoughts. With consistent practice, you will soon be able to hardwire these three conjugations into your linguistics skills and use them effortlessly.
But what the Italian present tense abounds of (declination-wise), it makes up for it by bulking up its uses. The present indicative describes:
The most straightforward of uses for the present indicative is to talk about actions, events or habits that occur regularly. This follows the same logic as the present simple in English.
To facilitate things, in a sentence where English would employ the present continuous, Italian sticks instead to the present.
With the addition of temporal particles, the present tense in Italian can also be used to discuss plans that will happen in the future.
Instead of using a tailored tense for situations that started in the past but still have an effect in the present, Italian adopts once more the present indicative.
Usually employed this way for a dramatic effect, the Italian present tense is also used when narrating historical facts. Bear in mind that, even so, it doesn’t totally replace the past tense:
Verbs are the foundation of speech and communication. Knowing how to conjugate them and how to best use them is are paramount for your journey into learning the language of the Bel Paese. Italians do not shy away from an in-promptu chat, so you wanna be prepared to surprise your native friends with your flawless use of the present tense.
