Italian Present Tense

The Italian present tense (presente) is happening right now. It`s a simple tense-that is, the verb form consists of one word only. The present tense of a regular Italian verb is formed by dropping the infinitive ending and adding the appropriate endings to the resulting stem.

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 (-o, -i, -a, -iamo, -ate, -ano). See the table below for a sample conjugation of amare (to love).

PRESENT TENSE CONJUGATION OF AMARE (TO LOVE) PERSON SINGULAR PLURAL I (io) amo (I love) (noi) amiamo (we love) II (tu) ami (you love, familiar) (voi) amate (you love, familiar) III (Lei) ama (you love, formal) (Loro) amano (you love, formal) (lui/lei) ama (he/she loves) (loro) amano (they love)

The infinitive of first-conjugation Italian verbs (those ending in -are) and the conjugated forms of the present tense are pronounced like most Italian words: the stress falls on the next-to-last syllable. The one exception is the third person plural form amano, which is pronounced AH-mah-noh, with stress falling on the first syllable. A few first-conjugation verbs are listed in the following table.

COMMON FIRST-CONJUGATION VERBS arrivare to arrive ascoltare to listen aspettare to wait ballare to dance camminare to walk cantare to sing dimenticare to forget guidare to drive imparare to learn insegnare to teach lavorare to work nuotare to swim parlare to speak pranzare to dine, to have lunch suonare to play (a musical instrument) telefonare to telephone visitare to visit