Italian grammar

Italian grammar is the body of rules describing the properties of the Italian language. Italian words can be divided into the following lexical categories: articles, nouns, adjectives, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.

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Articles Italian articles vary according to definiteness (definite, indefinite, and partitive), number, gender, and the initial sound of the subsequent word. Partitive articles compound the preposition with the corresponding definite article, to express uncertain quantity. In the plural, they typically translate into English as 'few'; in the singular, typically as 'some'.

+Definite article !Gender !Number !Article !Usage
Masculine	Singular		Standard masculine singular definite article, used in all cases other than those detailed below. Foreign words beginning with , pronounced or , take il and not lo: il West (referring to the American Old West), il whisky , il Watt , etc.
			Used before words with certain initial sounds: before pronounced as , , or followed by another consonant ("", Italian: S (esse) complicata, S impura, or S preconsonantica) before Gemination:Self-geminating consonants are always long between vowels. , pronounced as or ; ; ; (or or in loan words, e.g. lo chef) pronounced as before complex consonant clusters , pronounced as or ; as or ; as or , as or , etc., mostly foreign words before or pronounced as semivowel , (e.g. foreign words such as lo yoghurt, and local words and scientific or geographical names such as lo iodio)
			Used before words that begin with a vowel ( ) or ().
	Plural		Standard masculine plural definite article, used for plurals that take il in the singular: i cani (plural of il ).
			Corresponds to lo and l' in the singular: before vowels, pronounced /ʎ/ before the consonants listed for lo, pronounced /ʎi/ Il ('the god') has the irregular plural gli ('the gods').
Feminine	Singular		Standard form of the feminine singular definite article, used before consonants and before when pronounced as semivowel , e.g. la .
			As with l', used before any word that begins with a vowel, not including when pronounced as the semivowel .
	Plural		Standard form of the feminine plural definite article, never elided.

+Indefinite article !Gender !Article !Usage
Masculine		Standard masculine singular indefinite article, used before vowels and simple consonants.
		Used instead of un before "impure s", self-geminating consonants, and complex consonant clusters, following the same rules as lo vs. il above, for example: uno .
Feminine		Standard feminine singular indefinite article.
		Used before any word that starts with a vowel, not including when used as semivowel .

+Partitive article !Gender !Number !Article !Contraction of
Masculine	Singular		di + il
			di + l'
			di + lo
	Plural		di + i
			di + gli
Feminine	Singular		di + la
			di + l'
	Plural		di + le

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Inflection of nouns and adjectives Nouns have gender (masculine, feminine or, in many instances, both) and inflect in number (singular and plural). When a noun refers to people or animals with natural gender, grammatical gender typically corresponds. The gender each noun is written in is not arbitrary: because most nouns have a masculine and a feminine form, the form the given noun is written in could change the entire structure of the sentence. As in most other Romance languages, the historical neuter has merged with the masculine. A subgroup of these deriving from Latin's second declension are considered feminine in the plural. Subclauses and infinitives are masculine. Adjectives inflect for gender and number in patterns broadly similar to nouns.

+General noun and adjectival endings by number and gender !Gender !Singular !Plural !Example
Masculine	-o	-i	il cappello nero , i cappelli neri ('the black hat(s)')
Feminine	-a	-e	la bella macchina , le belle macchine ('the beautiful car(s)')
Masculine and feminine	-e	-i	il/la comandante intelligente , i/le comandanti intelligenti ('the smart commander(s)')
Mixed (historically neuter)	-o	-a	il lenzuolo leggero , le lenzuola leggere ('the light bed sheet(s)')
Masculine	-a	-i	l 'atleta entusiasta , gli atleti entusiasti ('the enthusiastic athlete(s)')
Feminine	-ie	-ie	la specie estinta , le specie estinte ('the extinct species')
All nouns ending with a stressed vowel	singular = plural		la città , le città ('the city(-ies)')
Non-integrated			il/la manager trendy, i/le manager trendy ('the trendy manager(s)')

In the last two examples, only the article carries information about gender and number.

Most masculine words that end in -io pronounced as drop the -o and thus end in -i in the plural: vecch io / vecchi ('old'), funzionar io / funzionari ('functionary(-ies)'), esemp io / esempi ('example(s)'), etc.

The Italian hard and soft C and G phenomenon leads to certain peculiarities in spelling and pronunciation:

• Words in -cio and -gio form plurals in -ci and -gi, e.g. ba cio / baci ('kiss(es)')
• Words in -cia and -gia have been a point of contention. According to a commonly employed rule, they:
• form plurals in -ce and -ge if the final letter before the suffix is a consonant: fran gia , frange ('fringe(s)'); fac cia , facce ('face(s)').
• form plurals in -cie and -gie if the final letter before the suffix is a vowel: cami cia , camicie ('shirt(s)'); cilie gia , ciliegie ('cherry'/'cherries'). Note that the presence of an i in the plural ending has no impact on the pronunciation in this case. Accademia della Crusca, Plurali difficili. .
• when the i is stressed, it always remains in plural: farma cia / farmacie ('chemist's shop(s)'), nevral gia / nevralgie ('neuralgia(s)').
• Words in -co and -go behave irregularly: for some words the plural form causes the hard consonant to become soft, and for others the consonant remains hard. "The grammarians are skeptical of any attempt at giving a ruling about this area."
  Luca Serianni (1997). 9788811504702, Garzanti. ISBN 9788811504702
  There are, however, certain rules of thumb:
• plurals are formed with -chi and -ghi if the last letter before the suffix is a consonant or a stressed vowel: fun go / funghi ('mushroom(s)'), stec co / stecchi ('stick(s)'), ma go / maghi ('magician(s)'), fuo co / fuochi ('fire(s)')
• plurals are formed with -ci and -gi if the last letter before the suffix is an unstressed vowel: comi co / comici ('comedian(s)'), medi co / medici ('physician(s)')
• in words ending with -logo suffix, the plural is usually in -gi when -logo means 'expert' or 'student', corresponding to English -logist (e.g. archeo logo / archeologi, 'archaeologist(s)'), while it is in -ghi when it means 'speech' or 'reasoning', corresponding often to English -logue/-log (e.g. cata logo / cataloghi, 'catalogue(s)').
• there are exceptions such as ami co / amici ('friend(s)'), gre co / greci ('Greek(s)'), vali co / valichi ('mountain pass(es)'), cari co / carichi ('cargo(s)').
• Words in -ca and -ga form plurals in -che and -ghe, e.g. ami ca / amiche ('female friend(s)')

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Nouns Most nouns are derived from Latin. Many of these are themselves borrowed from Greek (e.g. poeta below). Although Italian nouns do not inflect for case, they are derived from a mixture of the Latin nominative and accusative cases:

+Derivation of noun inflections

amic a / amich e 'female friend(s)'

ala /ali 'wing(s)'

parete / pareti 'wall(s)'

mano / mani 'hand(s)'

fed e / fed i 'faith(s)'

Nouns ending in any letter other than -a, -e or -o, as well as nouns ending in a stressed vowel, are normally invariable in the plural. Thus:

• la gru / le gru ('the crane(s)', from Latin grūs / grūes)
• la città / le città ('the city(ies)', contracted form of archaic cittade, cittadi, from Latin cīvitātem, cīvitātēs)
• il caffè / i caffè ('the coffee(s)')
• il film / i film ('the film(s)')

There are certain words (derived from Latin second-declension neuter nouns) that are masculine in the singular and feminine or masculine in the plural. Examples include:

• il braccio / le braccia or i bracci ('the arm(s)')
• l'uovo / le uova ('the egg(s)')
• il ginocchio / le ginocchia or i ginocchi ('the knee(s)')
• il sopracciglio / le sopracciglia or i sopraccigli ('the eyebrow(s)')

These nouns' endings derive regularly from the Latin neuter endings of the second declension (sg. -um / pl. -a), but there are some from the third declension as well: e.g. il gregge / le greggi ('flock(s)', but i greggi works, too); the tradition of calling them "irregular" or "mobile gender" ( genere mobile) would come from the paradigm that there are so few nouns of this type that the existence of neuter can be considered vestigial (compared to Romanian, which has many more nouns of the masculine singular–feminine plural type, and as such are usually classified as a separate neuter gender). The choice of plural is sometimes left to the user, while in some cases there are differences of meaning: Accademia della Crusca, Plurali doppi

• Sometimes, for body parts, the feminine/neuter plural denotes the literal meaning while the masculine one denotes a figurative meaning: il braccio ('the arm') / le braccia ('the arms') / i bracci ('the isthmuses', 'the inlets'); il corno ('the horn') / le corna ('the horns' of an animal) / i corni ('the horns' as musical instruments)
• Sometimes, especially in poetic and old-fashioned Italian, the masculine plural acts as a count noun, while the neuter/feminine plural acts as a mass noun: il cervello ('the brain') / due cervelli ('two brains') / le cervella ('the cerebral matter'); l'anello ('the ring') / due anelli ('two rings') / le anella ('ringlets'); furthermore, il dito ('the finger') / le dita ('the fingers') and also due dita ('two fingers') / but i diti indici ('the index fingers')

Most noun stems are derived from the accusative: Latin socer/socerum begets Italian suocero, and Latin pēs/pēdem begets Italian piede. There are a few exceptions, however, such as uomo from Latin homo/hominem and moglie from Latin mulier/mulierem. Neuter third-declension nouns may bequeath Italian nouns either from the nominative/accusative case (e.g. capo from caput, cuore from cor) or from the oblique case used for other cases and for the plural (e.g. latte from lac, lact-, giure from ius, iur-).

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Irregular plurals There are a few genuine irregular plurals in Italian ( plurali irregolari). Most of these were introduced in Vulgar Latin, but some derive from irregular Latin plurals. Examples include:

• uomo / uomini ('man'/'men'; Latin homo / homines )
• il dio / gli dei ('god(s)'; note also the irregularity in the article: gli instead of i)
• bue / buoi ('ox(en)'; Latin bovem / boves)
• tempio / templi ('temple(s)'; the plural retains the l from Vulgar Latin templiIn Classical Latin, the word is neuter: templum / templa. However, in Vulgar Latin the neuter gender gradually eroded as more and more words migrated to the other genders. The earliest evidence for a masculine version of templum in Vulgar Latin comes from the Late Latin Codex Bezae ( 400) where we read 'quiaegodestruamhunctemplum' where in the Vulgata we read 'Ego dissolvam templum hoc' ( Evangelium secundum Marcum 14.58). The nominative singular is unattested, but judging from other attested neuter nouns turned masculine, it would presumably have been * templus. See An Introduction to Vulgar Latin by Charles Hall Grandgent, p. 145, and Itala und Vulgata by Hermann Rönsch, p. 266. in order to distinguish it from tempi, the plural of tempo; the l is lost in the singular)

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Alteration In Italian, altered nouns are nouns with particular shades of meaning. They are divided into , vezzeggiativi (diminutives with kindness and sympathy nuance), and pejoratives.

! rowspan="7"	diminutivi (diminutive)	-ino	tavolo ( table)	tavol ino ( small table)
-etto	libro ( book)	libr etto
-atto	cerbia ( deer)	cerbi atto ( fawn)
-ello	bambino ( child)	bambin ello ( small child)
-icello	monte ( mountain)	mont icello
-icciolo	porto ( port)	port icciolo
-acchio	orso ( bear)	ors acchio
! rowspan="5"	vezzeggiativi (terms of endearment)	-uccio	cavallo ( horse)	cavall uccio
-acchiotto	orso ( bear)	ors acchiotto
-iciattolo	fiume ( river)	fium iciattolo
-olo	figlio ( son)	figli olo (also figliuolo)
-otto	cucciolo ( puppy)	cucciol otto
! rowspan="2"	accrescitivi (augmentative)	-one	libro ( book)	libr one ( big book)
-accione	uomo ( man)	om accione
! rowspan="6"	dispregiativi (pejorative)	-accio	libro ( book)	libr accio ( bad book)
-astro	medico ( medic)	medic astro ( quack doctor)
-ucolo	poeta ( poet)	poet ucolo
-onzolo	medico ( medic)	medic onzolo
-uncolo	uomo ( man)	om uncolo ( insignificant man)
-otto	contadino ( farmer)	contadin otto ( peasant)

Many other alterations can be built, sometimes with more than one suffix: for example, libro ('book') can become libretto (diminutive), libricino (double diminutive), libercolo (diminutive + pejorative), libraccio (pejorative), libraccione (pejorative + augmentative). Uomo ('man'), coming from Latin homo, becomes om- in altered forms: omino/ ometto (diminutive), omone (augmentative), omaccio (pejorative), omaccione (augmentative + pejorative).

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Adjectives In Italian, an adjective can be placed before or after the noun. The markedness placement for most adjectives (e.g. colours, nationalities) is after the noun, but this is reversed for a few common classes of adjective—those denoting beauty, age, goodness, and size are placed before the noun in the unmarked case, and after the noun for emphasis.

Placing the adjective after the noun can alter its meaning or indicate restrictiveness of reference. If a noun has many adjectives, usually no more than one will be before the noun.

• un libro rosso = a red book (the unmarked case)
• un rosso libro = a book that is red (the marked case; it is especially important to the intended meaning that the book is red, as opposed to some other color)
• un buon uomo = a good man (the unmarked case)
• un uomo buono = a man who is good (the marked case; it is especially important to the intended meaning that he is good, the adjective is emphasized)

Adjectives are inflected for gender and number:

Masculine	Singular	-o	-e
	Plural	-i	-i
Feminine	Singular	-a	-e
	Plural	-e	-i

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Degrees of comparison Italian has three degrees of comparison: comparative, relative superlative and absolute superlative.

The comparative and relative superlative are formed with più ('more', 'most'); for instance:

• sono più alto di te ("I am taller than you")
• sono il più alto fra gli uomini ("I am the tallest of men")

Vice versa when expressing inferiority, meno ('less, fewer') is used; for instance:

• sono il meno forte del campionato ("I am the least strong of the championship")
• tu sei meno alto di me ("You are less tall than me")

Another comparative form is made with the word come ('as', 'like'); for instance:

• sono alto come te ("I am as tall as you")

The absolute comparative is formed by placing troppo ('too') before the adjective; for instance:

• sei troppo buono ("you are too good").

The absolute superlative, derived from the Latin synthetic superlative in -issimus, is formed by adding -issimo to an adjective: intelligente ('intelligent'), intelligent issimo ('very intelligent'); sporco ('dirty') sporchissimo ('very dirty'). If the two letters before the last vowel are pr or br (e.g. aspro, celebre), the r is removed and -errimo is the suffix used ( asp errimo , celeberrimo) ('very sour', 'very famous'). Another way to form the absolute superlative is to place either molto or assai ('very') before the adjective. For instance sporchissimo and molto sporco ('very dirty') are the same, although the form ending in issimo is usually perceived as more emphatic; that is, sporchissimo is dirtier than molto sporco.

Some adjectives have irregular comparatives (although with regularly-formed variants also in common use), such as

• buono ('good'), migliore / più buono ('better' or 'best'), ottimo / buonissimo ('very good')
• cattivo ('bad'), peggiore / più cattivo ('worse' or 'worst'), pessimo / cattivissimo ('very bad')
• grande ('big'), maggiore / più grande ('bigger'), massimo / grandissimo ('very big')
• piccolo ('small'), minore / più piccolo ('smaller'), minimo / piccolissimo ('very small')

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Possessive adjectives With the exception of 3rd person plural loro ('their'), possessive adjectives, like articles, must agree with the gender and number of the noun they modify. Hence, mio zio ('my uncle'), but mia zia ('my aunt'). So depending on what is being modified, the possessive adjectives are:

mie

tue

sue

nostre

vostre

loro

In most cases the possessive adjective is used with an article, usually the definite article:

("I have lost my pen.")

("I like my job.")

("They have stolen my car!")

And sometimes with the indefinite article:

("A friend of mine told me that...")

("I have seen a photograph of him/her.")

("Luke is a friend of mine.")

The only exception is when the possessive refers to an individual family member (unless the family member is described or characterised in some way):

("Laura is my sister.")

("I saw my sister Diana yesterday.")

("This pen is my aunt's.")

Mamma and papà (or babbo, in central Italy; 'mother' and 'father'), however, are usually used with the article.

For emphasis, however, possessive adjectives are sometimes placed after the noun. This is usually after words such as colpa ('fault', 'sin'); casa ('house', 'home'); merito ('merit'); piacere ('pleasure'); or in vocative expressions.

("It is his/her fault.")

("Oh, my god!")

("Goodbye, my friend!")

("Would you like to come over to my house?")

If the antecedent of a third person possessive (being used as an object) is the subject of the sentence, proprio can be used instead of suo, although the usage of proprio is declining in spoken language:

("Marco and Maria discussed philosophy. Marco took his own point of view.")

("Marco and Maria discussed philosophy. Marco took his/her point of view.")

The first sentence is unambiguous and states that Marco took his own point of view, whereas the second sentence is ambiguous because it may mean that Marco took either his own or Maria's point of view.

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Demonstrative adjectives Italian originally had three degrees of demonstrative adjectives: questo (for items near or related to the first person speaker: 'this'), quello (for items near or related to an eventual third person: 'that'), and codesto (for items near or related to an eventual second person). The usage has undergone a simplification, including the meaning of codesto in quello, and only Tuscan dialect speakers still use codesto. Its use is very rare in modern language, and the word has acquired a rather pejorative connotation.

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Pronouns Italian features a sizeable set of pronouns. are inflected for person, number, case, and, in the third person, gender. Literary subject pronouns also have a distinction between animate ( egli, ella) and inanimate ( esso, essa) antecedents, although this is lost in colloquial usage, where lui, lei, and loro are the most used forms for animate subjects, while no specific pronoun is employed for inanimate subjects (if needed, demonstrative pronouns such as questo or quello may be used). There is also the uninflected pronoun ciò, which is only used with abstract antecedents.

Personal pronouns are normally omitted in the subject, as the conjugation is usually enough to determine the grammatical person. They are used when some emphasis is needed, e.g. sono italiano ('I am Italian') vs. io sono italiano ( 'I specifically, am Italian').

The words ci, vi and ne act both as personal pronouns (respectively instrumental and genitive case) and clitic for "there" ( ci and vi, with identical meaning—as in c è , ci sono, vè , vi sono, ci vengo, etc.) and "from there" ( ne—as in: è entrato in casa alle 10:00 e ne è uscito alle 11:00).

+
! rowspan="2" Nominative ! colspan="2"	Genitive ! colspan="3"	Dative ! colspan="2"	Accusative ! colspan="3"	Instrumental

+ Possessive
! colspan="2" Singular ! colspan="2"	Plural

+
! Nominative/ Accusative ! colspan="2" Genitive ! colspan="2"	Dative ! Instrumental

+ Local case
ci, vi	ce, ve	qui, qua / lì, là	ne	da qui, da qua / da lì, da là

Notes:

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Clitic pronouns Although objects come after the verb as a rule, this is often not the case with a class of unstressed clitic .

Clitic pronouns are replaced with the stressed form for emphatic reasons. A somewhat similar situation is represented by the dative shift in English ditransitive verbs. Compare, for example, (emphasis in italic) "John gave a book to her" with "John gave her a book". In Italian these two different emphases map respectively to "John diede un libro a lei" (stressed form) and "John le diede un libro" (clitic form). Compared to English, Italian presents a richer set of Grammatical case.

Clitic pronouns generally come before the verb, but in certain types of constructions, such as lo devo fare, they can also appear as (attached to the verb itself)—in this case, devo farlo. In the infinitive, gerund and, except with third-person courtesy forms, clitic pronouns must always be compound to the suffix as encliticsThis was not always the case, however. It is not rare indeed to find in opera the clitic before the imperative, as in Ti ferma! (which in standard Italian means 'He/She/It stops you!') instead of the standard Fermati! (which means 'Stop yourself!'). However this usage today is completely non-standard and modern listeners might have difficulties with it when approaching old texts. (as in confessalo! 2p./ confessiamolo! 1p./ confessatelo! 2p., ricordandolo and mangiarlo).

+ Examples of clitic pronouns

! Italian ! English

Other examples:

accusative	(David leaves it in the office.)
dative + accusative + nominative	(David leaves me it.)
	(David leaves (to) you one of them.)
accusative + nominative + dative	(David leaves it to me.)
	(David leaves one of them (to) you.)
(subjunctive +) infinitive + dative + accusative	(David might leave one of them to him/ her/ it.)
dative + accusative + subjunctive (+ infinitive)	(David might leave one of them to him/ her/ it.)

(Compare with the similar use of objective pronouns and pro-forms in french grammar and Catalan.)

Finally, in the imperative mood, the objective pronouns come once again after the verb, but this time as a suffix:

imperative + accusative	("Leave it in the office!")
imperative + dative + accusative	("Leave it to me!"/"Leave me it!")
(conditional +) infinitive + dative	(David might leave it in the office.)
negative imperative + dative + accusative	("Do not leave it to/ for him/ her/ it/ them!")
imperative + dative + accusative	("David should leave it to/ for him/ her/ it/ them.")

• Stressed forms of all four non-subject cases are used when emphasized (e.g. uccidi me, non lui ("kill me , not him "), dallo a lei ("give it to her"), lo farò con lui ("I'll do it with that"), etc.).
• In colloquial speech, form I. of the dative ( mi, ti, gli, le, si, ci, vi) is often associated with the emphasized form of the dative ( a me, a te, a lui, a lei, a sé, a noi, a voi, a loro) in such a way: a me mi danno un libro ("they give me a book"), a loro gli hanno venduto una casa ("they sold them a house"). Although widely used, this redundant usage is considered non-standard.

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Combinations of clitics In Italian it is possible to append more than one clitic to a single verb. In normal usage, two is the usual limit, although clusters of three can occasionally arise for some speakers,Lepschy, Giulio and Anna Laura Lepschy. 1998. The Italian Language Today. New York: New Amsterdam Books. p. 214. especially with impersonal constructs (e.g. Ce la si sente = "One feels up to it", or Nessuno ha ancora visto l'ultimo film di Woody Allen, quindi ce lo si vede tutti insieme! = "Nobody has watched the last Woody Allen movie yet, so we have to watch it together!"). Any two cases can be used together, except for accusative + genitive, and word order is strictly determined according to one of the following two patterns:Lepschy, Giulio and Anna Laura Lepschy. 1998. The Italian Language Today. New York: New Amsterdam Books. p. 212.

1. When third-person non-reflexive accusative or genitive clitics are used, form II. of the other clitic is used, which always precedes it. Thus:

ne si

For example:

• Ve lo dico già da ora: io non verrò! = "I already told you pl. (said it to you): I'm not coming!" (dative + accusative)
• Ce li ha già dati = "He/she/you already gave them to us" (dative + accusative)
• Ecco l'uomo di cui mi innamorai! Te ne ho portato la foto! = "Here's the man I fell in love with! I brought you the picture (of him)!" (dative + genitive)
• Vedresti Carla con una gonna lunga e un cappello? – Sì, ce la vedrei = "Could you imagine Carla with a long skirt and a hat? – Yes, I could imagine her with that" (instrumental + accusative)
• Riuscirai a trasportare abbastanza mele con quel piccolo furgoncino? – Uomo di poca fede! Ce ne trasporterò quintali! = "Will you be able to transport enough apples with such a small van? – Man of little faith! I'll transport quintals of them (with it)!" (instrumental + genitive)
2. Otherwise, form I. is used for both clitics:

si

Thus:

• Mi ti mostro senza veli = "I'm showing myself without veils to you" (accusative + dative)
• Ti si fece incontro = "He/she approached you (moved himself/herself to you)" (dative + accusative)
• Gli ti darò nelle mani, perché in pezzi ti faccia come tu meriti = "I will deliver you to him, so that he will tear you to pieces as you deserve" (dative + accusative)
• Marco ha vinto! Che farà con tutti quei soldi? – Ci si pagherà l'Università = "Marco won! What's he going to do with all that money? – He'll use it to pay for college (pay for college for himself with it)" (instrumental + dative)
• Metti via quella pistola! Ti ci ammazzi! = "Put away that pistol! You'll use it to kill yourself (kill yourself with it)!" (accusative + instrumental)

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Apocopated forms Clitic forms (except cui) before a verbal form beginning with a vowel (except when they are compound to the suffix) can be apocopated; apocopations are more common before verbal forms è, ho, hai, ha, hanno, abbia, and abbiano of verbs essere and avere, than when they are before verbal forms of other verbs, which are more rare, also apocopations of che are rare, while apocopation of cui is avoided due to phonetic ambiguities with words such as qua (homophone to cu'ha). Apocopation is not mandatory. Ci is graphically apocopated only in front of "e" and "i" (as in c'è and c'inserisco), but the "i" is graphically kept in front of other vowels (as in mi ci addentro), although in all cases it is pronounced /t͡ʃ/ (without the "i"); similarly gli is graphically apocopated only in front of "i" (as in gl'impongo) but not in front of other vowels ( gli è dato sapere), although in all cases the "i" is never pronounced. The apocopated form of che is always pronounced /k/, even when otherwise common phonetic rules switch their pronunciations.(with ho, hai, ha, hanno, and verbal forms beginning with "a", "o" or "u")

+ Examples of apocopated forms
mi	m'è	m'ho	m'hai	m'ha	—	m'avete	m'hanno
ti	t'è	t'ho	t'hai	t'ha	t'abbiamo	—	t'hanno
gli	gli è	gli ho	gli hai	gli ha	gli abbiamo	gli avete	gli hanno
gliela/gliele/glieli/glielo	gliel'è	gliel'ho	gliel'hai	gliel'ha	gliel'abbiamo	gliel'avete	gliel'hanno
la/le/li/lo	l'è	l'ho	l'hai	l'ha	l'abbiamo	l'avete	l'hanno
si	s'è	—	—	s'ha	—	—	s'hanno
ci	c'è	ci ho	ci hai	ci ha	ci abbiamo	ci avete	ci hanno
vi	v'è	v'ho	v'hai	v'ha	v'abbiamo	v'avete	v'hanno
che	ch'è	ch'ho	ch'hai	ch'ha	ch'abbiamo	ch'avete	ch'hanno

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T–V distinction Italian makes use of the T–V distinction in second-person address. The second-person nominative pronoun is tu for informal use, and for formal use, the third-person form Lei (and historically Ella) has been used since the Renaissance.

Massimo Birattari (2025). 9788850238224, TEA. ISBN 9788850238224

It is used like Sie in German, usted in Spanish, and vous in French. Lei was originally an object form of ella, which in turn referred to an honorific of the feminine gender such as la magnificenza tua/vostra ('Your Magnificence') or Vossignoria ('Your Lordship'),Maiden, Martin, M.Mair Parry. 1997. The dialects of Italy. p. 113. and by analogy, Loro came to be used as the formal plural. Previously, and in some Italian regions today (e.g. Campania), voi was used as the formal singular, like French vous. The pronouns lei (third-person singular), Lei (formal second-person singular), loro (third-person plural), and Loro (formal second-person plural) are pronounced the same but written as shown, and formal Lei and Loro take third-person conjugations. Formal Lei is invariable for gender (always feminine), but adjectives that modify it are not: one would say to a man La conosco ('I know you') but Lei è alto ('You are tall'). Formal Loro is variable for gender: Li conosco ('I know you masc.') vs. Le conosco ('I know you fem.'), etc. The formal plural is very rarely used in modern Italian; the unmarked form is widely used instead. Accademia della Crusca, Sui pronomi di cortesia For example: Gino, Lei è un bravo ingegnere. Marco, Lei è un bravo architetto. Insieme, voi sarete una gran bella squadra. ("Gino, you are a good engineer. Marco, you are a good architect. Together, you will make a very good team.").

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Verbs

Based on the ending of their infiniti presenti ( -are, -ere, or -ire), all Italian verbs can be assigned to three distinct conjugation patterns. Exceptions are found: fare, 'to do/make' (from Latin fācere), and dire, 'to say' (from Latin dīcere), were originally 2nd conjugation verbs that reduced the unstressed vowel in the infinitive (and consequentially in the future and conditional, whose stem derives from the infinitive), but still follow the 2nd conjugation for all the other tenses; this behaviour is similarly featured in the verbs ending in -trarre, -porre and -durre, derived respectively from the Latin trahere ('to drag'), pōnere ('to put'), and dūcere ('to lead').Berloco 2018

Just like many other Romance languages, Italian verbs express distinct verbal aspects by means of analytic structures such as periphrases, rather than synthetic ones; the only aspectual distinction between two synthetic forms is the one between the imperfetto (Habitual aspect past tense) and the passato remoto (perfective past tense), although the latter is usually replaced in spoken language by the passato prossimo.

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Tenses

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Simple tenses

I do I am doingWhile Italian features a series of periphrastic progressive tenses grammatically distinct from the unmarked forms, the present and past continuous are used less frequently than in English, and can generally be replaced with the respective simple forms. This cannot necessarily apply to all other progressive tenses.

I used to do I was doing

I did

I will do

I would do

(that) I do

(that) I did/do

(you) do!

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Compound tenses

Aspects other than the habitual and the imperfective, such as the perfective, the progressive and the prospective, are rendered in Italian by a series of periphrastic structures that may or may not be perceived as different tenses by different speakers. Note the difference between:

• Perfect aspect: io ho fatto ("I have done")
• Progressive aspect: io sto facendo ("I'm doing")
• Prospective aspect: io sto per fare ("I'm about to do")

I have done I did

I had doneThe trapassato prossimo (recent pluperfect) and the more uncommon trapassato remoto (remote pluperfect), while separate tenses in Italian, translate the same English tense, the past perfect; the difference in usage between the two mirrors the one between the present perfect and the preterite.

I had done

I will have done I may have done

I am doing

I was doing

I will be doing I may be doing

I would have done

I would be doing

(that) I have done

(that) I had done

(that) I be doing

(that) I were doing

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Impersonal forms

to do

to have done

doing

having done

doing

done

Notes

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Compound tense auxiliary verbs

In Italian, compound tenses expressing perfect aspect are formed with either auxiliary verb ('to have') for and some intransitive verbs and with ('to be') for the remaining intransitive verbs, plus the past participle. Progressive aspect is rendered by verb plus the gerund. The prospective aspect is formed with stare plus the preposition and the infinitive.

The passive voice of transitive verbs is formed with in the perfective and prospective aspects, with in the progressive or habitual aspect, and with either essere or venire in the perfective aspects:

• Il cancello è stato appena aperto. ("The gate has just been opened.")
• Il cancello sta per essere aperto ("The gate is about to be opened.")
• Il cancello sta venendo aperto in questo momento. ("The gate is being opened right now.")
• Il cancello viene aperto ogni giorno. ("The gate is opened every day.")
• Il cancello fu/venne aperto in fretta. ("The gate was quickly opened.")

For the perfect tenses of intransitive verbs a reliable rule cannot be given, although a useful rule of thumb is that if a verb's past participle can take on Adjective value, essere is used, otherwise avere. Also, and unaccusative verbs use essere (typically non-agentive verbs of motion and change of state, i.e. involuntary actions such as ('to fall') or ('to die')).

The distinction between the two auxiliary verbs is important for the correct formation of the compound tenses and is essential to the agreement of the past participle. Some verbs, such as ('to live'), may use both: Io ho vissuto ('I have lived') can alternatively be expressed as, Io sono vissuto.

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Past participle

The past participle is used in Italian as both an adjective and to form many of the compound tenses of the language. There are regular endings for the past participle, based on the conjugation class (see below). There are, however, many irregular forms as not all verbs follow the pattern, particularly the -ere verbs. Some of the more common irregular past participles include: essere ('to be') → stato (same for stare); fare ('to do', 'to make') → fatto; dire ('to say, to tell') → detto; aprire ('to open') → aperto; chiedere ('to ask') → chiesto; chiudere ('to close') → chiuso; leggere ('to read') → letto; mettere ('to put') → messo; perdere ('to lose') → perso; prendere ('to take', 'to get') → preso; rispondere ('to answer') → risposto; scrivere ('to write') → scritto; vedere ('to see') → visto.

For the intransitive verbs taking essere, the past participle always agrees with the subject—that is, it follows the usual adjective agreement rules: egli è partito; ella è partita. This is also true for , the impersonal si construction (which requires any adjectives that refer to it to be in the masculine plural: Si è sempre stanch i alla fine della giornata – One is always tired at the end of the day), and the passive voice, which also use essere ( Queste mele sono state comprat e da loro – These apples have been bought by them, against Essi hanno comprat o queste mele – They bought these apples).

The past participle when used with avere never changes to agree with the subject. It must agree with the object, although, in sentences where this is expressed by a third person clitic pronoun (e.g. Hai mangiato la mela? – Sì, l'ho mangiat a (Have you eaten the apple? – Yes, I have eaten it)). When the object is expressed by a first or second person clitic pronoun instead, the agreement is optional: Maria! Ti ha chiamato / chiamata Giovanni? – No, non mi ha chiamato / chiamata (Maria! Has Giovanni called you? – No, he has not).

In all the other cases where the object is not expressed by a clitic pronoun, the agreement with the object is obsolescent in modern Italian (but still correct): La storia che avete raccontat a (obsolete) / raccontat o non mi convince (The story you told does not convince me); or compare Manzoni's Lucia aveva avut e due buone ragioniAlessandro Manzoni, The Betrothed (1827) with the more modern Lucia aveva avut o due buone ragioni (Lucia had had two good reasons).

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Tense relationship in subordinate sentences

Italian inherits consecutio temporum, a grammar rule from Latin that governs the relationship between the tenses in principal and subordinate clauses. Consecutio temporum has very rigid rules. These rules require the subjunctive tense in order to express contemporaneity, posteriority and anteriority in relation with the principal clause.

• To express contemporaneity when the principal clause is in a simple tense (future, present, or simple past), the subordinate clause uses the present subjunctive, to express contemporaneity in the present.
• Penso che Davide sia intelligente. I think David is smart.
• When the principal clause has a past imperfect or perfect, the subordinate clause uses the imperfect subjunctive, expressing contemporaneity in the past.
• Pensavo che Davide fosse intelligente. I thought David was smart.
• To express anteriority when the principal clause is in a simple tense (future, or present or passato prossimo) the subordinate clause uses the past subjunctive.
• Penso che Davide sia stato intelligente. I think David has been smart.
• To express anteriority when the principal clause has a past imperfect or perfect, the subjunctive has to be pluperfect.
• Pensavo che Davide fosse stato intelligente. I thought David had been smart.
• To express posteriority the subordinate clause uses the future tense in the indicative mood, not the subjunctive, because the subjunctive has no future tense.
• Penso che Davide sarà intelligente. I think David will be smart.
• To express posteriority with respect to a past event, the subordinate clause uses the past conditional, whereas in other European languages (such as French, English, and Spanish) the present conditional is used.
• Pensavo che Davide sarebbe stato intelligente. I thought that David would have been smart.

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Regular conjugation

The infinitive of first conjugation verbs ends in -are, that of second conjugation verbs in -ere, and that of third conjugation verbs in -ire. In the following examples for different Grammatical mood, the first conjugation verb is parlare ('to talk/speak'), the second conjugation verb is temere ('to fear') and the third conjugation verb is partire ('to leave/depart').

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Indicative mood

	Recent past = present of avere/ essere + past participle			Remote pluperfect = preterite of avere/ essere + past participle			Recent pluperfect = imperfect of avere/ essere + past participle			Future perfect = simple future of avere/ essere + past participle

Many third conjugation verbs insert an infix -sc- between the stem and the endings in the first, second, and third persons singular and third person plural of the present indicative and subjunctive, e.g. capire > capisco, capisci, capisce, capiamo, capite, capiscono (indicative) and capisca, capisca, capisca, capiamo, capiate, capiscano (subjunctive). This subgroup of third conjugation verbs is usually referred to as incoativi, because in Latin the original function of the suffix -sc- was to denote , but this meaning is totally lost in modern Italian, where the suffix mostly serves a euphonic function.

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Subjunctive mood

The Italian subjunctive mood is used to indicate cases of desire, express doubt, make impersonal emotional statements, and to talk about impending events.

	Past = present of avere/ essere + past participle			Past perfect = imperfect of avere/ essere + past participle

• Third conjugation verbs, such as capire, mentioned above insert -isc- in the first, second, and third persons singular and third person plural of the present.
• Compound forms ( past and past perfect) are made by adding the past participle (e.g. parlato) to the corresponding auxiliary form (as abbia) in the present and imperfect.

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Conditional mood

	Past = conditional of avere/ essere + past participle

As the table shows, verbs each take their own root from their class of verb: -are becomes - er-, - ere becomes - er-, and - ire becomes - ir-, the same roots as used in the future indicative tense. All verbs add the same ending to this root.

Some verbs do not follow this pattern, but take irregular roots, these include: Andare ('to go') ~ Andr-, Avere ('to have') ~ Avr-, Bere ('to drink') ~ Berr-, Dare ('to give') ~ Dar-, Dovere ('to have to') ~ Dovr-, Essere ('to be') ~ Sar-, Fare ('to make/do') ~ Far-, Godere ('to enjoy') ~ Godr-, Potere ('to be able to') ~ Potr-, Rimanere ('to remain') ~ Rimarr-, Sapere ('to know') ~ Sapr-, Sedere ('to sit') ~ Sedr-, Stare ('to be/feel') ~ Star-, Tenere ('to hold') ~ Terr-, Vedere ('to see') ~ Vedr-, Venire ('to come') ~ Verr-, Vivere ('to live') ~ Vivr-, Volere ('to want') ~ Vorr- etc.

The Italian conditional mood is a mood that refers to an action that is possible or probable, but is dependent upon a condition. Example:

("I would go to the beach, but it is too cold.")

It can be used in two tenses, the present, by conjugation of the appropriate verb, or the past, using the auxiliary conjugated in the conditional, with the past participle of the appropriate noun:

("I would eat a lot now, if I were not trying to impress these girls.")

("I would have gone to the city, if I had known that they were going.")

Many Italian speakers often use the imperfect instead of the conditional and subjunctive. Prescriptivists usually view this as incorrect, but it is frequent in colloquial speech and tolerated in all but high registers and in most writing: See an excerpt at

("If I had known it, I would have gone to the beach.")

("If Lucia had not made that sign, the answer would probably have been different.")

The conditional can also be used in Italian to express "could", with the conjugated forms of potere ('to be able to'), "should", with the conjugated forms of dovere ('to have to'), or "would like", with the conjugated forms of volere ('want'):

("He could read a book.")

("They should go to bed.")

("I would like a glass of water, please.")

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Imperative mood

Verbs such as capire insert -isc- in all except the noi and voi forms. Technically, the only real imperative forms are the second-person singular and plural, with the other persons being borrowed from the present subjunctive.

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Non-finite forms

• Infinitive: present: -are, -ere, -ire; past: avere/essere + past participle
• Gerund: present: -ando, -endo, -endo; past: avendo/essendo + past participle
• Participle: present: -ante -ente -ente; past: -ato, -uto (although verbs of the second conjugation almost always have a contracted desinence, e.g. cuocere ('to cook') cotto ('cooked')), -ito

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Irregular verbs

While the majority of Italian verbs are regular, many of the most commonly used are irregular verb. In particular, the essere, stare and avere, and the common dovere (expressing necessity or obligation), potere (expressing permission and to a lesser degree ability), sapere (expressing ability) and volere (expressing willingness) are all irregular.

The only irregular verbs of the first conjugation are dare ('to give'), which follows the same pattern as stare, and andare ('to go'), which features Suppletion forms in the present of the indicative, subjunctive and imperative from the Latin verb VADERE. While apparently a 1st conjugation verb, fare is actually a highly irregular verb of the second conjugation. Even the third conjugation features a small handful of irregular verbs, such as morire ('to die'), whose present is muoio, muori, muore, moriamo, morite, muoiono (indicative) and muoia, muoia, muoia, moriamo, moriate, muoiano (subjunctive).

The second conjugation combines the second and third conjugation of Latin; since the verbs belonging to the third conjugation were athematic, and they behaved less regularly than the ones belonging to the other conjugations (compare AMĀRE > AMAVI, AMATVS, first conjugation, and LEGĚRE > LEGI, LECTVS, third conjugation), the second conjugation Italian features many irregularities that trace back to the original paradigms of the Latin verbs: amare > amai, amato (first conjugation, regular), but leggere > lessi, letto (second conjugation, irregular).

+ essere (to be; auxiliary)

+ stare (to stay; auxiliary)

+ avere (to have; auxiliary)

+ dovere (to have to, must, should; modal)

+ potere (to be able to, can, could; modal)

+ volere (to want, will, would; modal)

+ sapere (to be able to, can; modalThe verb sapere has two distinctive meanings depending whether it is used as a modal verb (i.e. accompanying another infinitive) or not. As a modal verb it means 'can, being able to', as in so suonare il violino ('I can play the violin'), while as a normal verb it means 'to know', as in so cosa significhi ('I know what that means').)

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Adverbs

An adjective can be made into a modal adverb by adding -mente (from Latin mente, ablative of mens ('mind'), feminine noun) to the ending of the feminine singular form of the adjective. E.g. lenta, 'slow' (feminine), becomes lentamente, 'slowly'. Adjectives ending in -re or -le lose their e before adding -mente ( facile, 'easy', becomes facilmente, 'easily'; particolare, 'particular', becomes particolarmente, 'particularly').

These adverbs can also be derived from the absolute superlative form of adjectives, e.g. lentissimamente ('very slowly'), facilissimamente ('very easily').

There is also a plethora of temporal, local, modal and interrogative adverbs, mostly derived from Latin, e.g. quando ('when'), dove ('where'), come ('how'), perché ('why/because'), mai ('never'), sempre ('always'), etc.

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Prepositions

Italian has a closed class of basic prepositions, to which a number of can be added that also double as prepositions, e.g.: sopra il tavolo ('upon the table'), prima di adesso ('before now').

In modern Italian the prepositions tra and fra are interchangeable, and often chosen on the basis of euphony: tra fratelli ('among brothers') vs. fra i tralicci ('between the power pylons').

In modern Italian, all the basic prepositions except tra, fra, con, and per have to be combined with an article placed next to them. Of these, con and per have optional combining forms: col, collo, colla, coll', coi, cogli, colle; pel, pello, pella, pell', pei, pegli, pelle; except for col and coi, which are occasionally used, these forms are archaic and very rare.

Prepositions normally require the article before the following noun in a similar way as the English language does. However Latin's lack of articles influenced several cases of prepositions used without article in Italian (e.g. a capo, da capo, di colpo, in bicicletta, per strada).

The preposition su becomes su di before a pronoun (e.g. su di te). Some speakers also use su di before a word beginning in u for euphonic reasons (e.g. su di un cavallo), but this is regarded as incorrect by grammarians. Historically the variant form sur was used before the letter u; however, this form fell into disuse during the nineteenth century.

di	of, from	del	dello	della	dell'	dei	degli	delle
a	to, at	al	allo	alla	all'	ai	agli	alle
da	from, by, since	dal	dallo	dalla	dall'	dai	dagli	dalle
in	in	nel	nello	nella	nell'	nei	negli	nelle
su	on, about	sul	sullo	sulla	sull'	sui	sugli	sulle

con	with	col	collo	colla	coll'	coi	cogli	colle
per	for, through	pel	pello	pella	pell'	pei	pegli	pelle
tra	between, among	tral	trallo	tralla	trall'	trai	tragli	tralle
fra	between, among	fral	frallo	fralla	frall'	frai	fragli	fralle

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Syntax

Italian is an SVO language. Nevertheless, the SVO sequence is sometimes replaced by one of the other arrangements (SOV, VSO, OVS, etc.), especially for reasons of emphasis and, in literature, for reasons of style and metre: Italian has relatively free word order.

The subject is usually omitted when it is a pronoun—distinctive verb conjugations make it redundant. Subject pronouns are considered emphatic when used at all.

Questions are formed by a rising intonation at the end of the sentence (in written form, a question mark). There is usually no other special marker, although wh-movement does usually occur. In general, intonation and context are important to recognize questions from affirmative statements.

("David has arrived at the office.")

("Talking about David… did he arrive at the office?" or "Davide has arrived at the office? Really?" – depending on the intonation)

("Why has David arrived at the office?")

("Because David has arrived at the office.")

("It was David who arrived at the office" or "David arrived at the office" – depending on the intonation)

("Has David arrived at the office?")

("He has arrived at the office.")

(" He has arrived at the office.")

("Who has arrived at the office?")

In general, adjectives come after the noun they modify, adverbs after the verb. But: as with french grammar, adjectives coming before the noun indicate essential quality of the noun. Demonstratives (e.g. questo, 'this', quello, 'that') come before the noun, and a few particular adjectives (e.g. bello) may be inflected like demonstratives and placed before the noun.

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Disputed points in Italian grammar

Among sometimes proscribed Italian forms are:

• The usage of an indicative form where a subjunctive one is traditional; for instance: credo che Giorgio ieri fosse a casa ("I believe that yesterday George was at home") is considered proper, while credo che Giorgio ieri era a casa may not be; se Maria fosse stata a casa, le avrei telefonato ("if Mary had been at home, I would have telephoned her") is preferred, se Maria era a casa le telefonavo is often proscribed, despite being found in classic Italian writers.
• The use of the object forms ( lui, lei, loro and Lei) of third person pronouns instead of the subject forms ( egli, ella, essi, and Ella), which are employed in formal language.
• Ma però, despite being widespread in spoken language, is proscribed in formal usage because it is redundant ( ma and però are synonyms).

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Italian grammar books

The first Italian grammar was printed by Giovanni Francesco Fortunio in 1516 with the title Regole grammaticali della volgar lingua.

Michael Metzeltin (2025). 9788481683561, Academia Llingua Asturiana. . ISBN 9788481683561

Ever since, several Italian and foreign scholars have published works devoted to its description. Among others may be mentioned the famous Grammatica storica della lingua italiana e dei suoi dialetti written by the philologist Gerhard Rohlfs, published at the end of the 1960s.

Among the most modern publications are those by Luca Serianni, in collaboration with Alberto Castelvecchi, Grammatica italiana. Suoni, forme, costrutti (Utet, Turin, 1998); and by Lorenzo Renzi, Giampaolo Salvi and Anna Cardinaletti, Grande grammatica italiana di consultazione (third vol., Bologna, Il Mulino, 1988–1995). The most complete and accurate grammar in English is A Reference Grammar of Modern Italian by Martin Maiden and Cecilia Robustelli (McGraw-Hill, Chicago, 2000; second ed. Routledge, New York, 2013).

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Bibliography

• Luca Serianni (2025). 9788811504887, Garzanti. ISBN 9788811504887
• Fabrizio Berloco (2025). 9788894034813, Lengu. . ISBN 9788894034813

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Notes and references

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External links

• Verb Conjugation Trainer from Molto Bene Italian
• Accademia della Crusca

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