Italian Regular and Irregular Verbs Explained

The irregular verbs are the ones you'll hear most. Our list is ranked by how often each verb occurs in film and TV subtitles, and all ten of the most common are irregular, from essere and avere to sapere. Yet the label sounds worse than it is. Of our 142 irregular -ere verbs, 104 are regular in the present tense and keep their irregular forms for the passato remoto (the past historic, a one-word past tense) and the past participle.

The four types at a glance

The first three types use regular endings, and the -isc- and spelling-change verbs add one small rule each. Only the irregular verbs have forms you have to learn separately.

Count verbs, and regular wins, with 293 of our 600. Count how often they're used, and irregular wins. The whole top ten is irregular, and so are 15 of the top 20. The other five are cercare, the one spelling-change verb, and four regular verbs: parlare, pensare, credere and trovare. In the top 100 the two nearly tie, with 45 irregular verbs and 43 regular, plus 10 spelling-change verbs and 2 with -isc-.

-are, -ere and -ire: the three conjugations

Italian grammars group verbs into three conjugations by the ending of the infinitive: -are is the 1st, -ere the 2nd and -ire the 3rd. The ending is the first clue to a verb's type, because the four types are spread very unevenly across them:

An -are verb is almost always regular. Only 5 of our 369 are irregular: fare, stare, andare, dare and rifare, the last built on fare. The other 364 take parlare's endings. Treccani, the Italian encyclopedia, describes the 1st conjugation as the one with the highest share of regular verbs, and the only one that still takes in new verbs.

An -ere verb is probably irregular, but mostly in the past. Of our 153, 142 are irregular. Only 11 are regular: credere, vendere, combattere, ricevere, temere, battere, cedere, procedere, sbattere, ripetere and premere.

An -ire verb could go either way. Of our 70, 37 are regular with -isc-, 14 are regular without it and 19 are irregular. For the regular ones, the io form tells you which: capisco has -isc-, dormo doesn't.

The -rre verbs belong with -ere. We give our 8 verbs in -rre a row of their own, but grammars count them in the 2nd conjugation, because each is a shortened Latin -ere verb. Tradurre comes from traducere and porre from ponere. All 8 are irregular.

Fare and dire are disputed. By the infinitive, fare is an irregular -are verb and dire an irregular -ire verb, which is how we count them. By their Latin roots, facere and dicere, both belong to the 2nd conjugation, and the old stems show in facevo and dicevo. The Accademia della Crusca, the Italian language academy, says each view can be defended.

Regular verbs

A regular verb follows one of three models, one per conjugation: parlare (to speak), credere (to believe) and dormire (to sleep). Drop the -are, -ere or -ire to get the stem, then add the endings. Here are the three side by side:

The three share more than they differ. In the present, the io, tu and noi forms end the same way in all three, and credere and dormire differ only in the voi form, credete against dormite. The vowel of the infinitive comes back in the voi form and the imperfect, and the participles end in -ato, -uto and -ito. In the future, the a of -are turns into e, so parlare gives parlerò.

Regular -ere verbs can have two passato remoto forms, such as credetti or credei, and both are correct. Our tables list credetti first.

Our 293 regular verbs are 268 -are verbs, 11 -ere verbs and 14 -ire verbs. Add the spelling-change verbs, which use the same endings, and parlare's pattern covers 364 of our 600.

Two ways to say -ere. Temere (to fear) and credere are both regular, but temére is stressed on the ending and crédere on the stem. Standard spelling marks neither, so check a dictionary. Avere, potere, dovere and vedere are stressed like temére, and prendere and leggere like crédere. The endings are the same either way, so the stress only matters when you say the verb.

-ire verbs with -isc-

Many -ire verbs add -isc- between the stem and the ending in some forms. Finire (to finish) is the usual model:

The -isc- goes into four persons of the present: io, tu, lui/lei and loro. The noi and voi forms never have it, so finiamo and finite look just like dormiamo and dormite. The same four persons take it in the present subjunctive (io finisca, loro finiscano), and so do the commands for tu, Lei and Loro (finisci, finisca, finiscano), because the Lei and Loro commands are subjunctive forms. Everywhere else, an -isc- verb is plain regular: finivo, finii, finirò, finito.

Capire (to understand) works the same way: capisco, capiamo, capiscono. Our tables label these 37 verbs “regular (-isc-)”, and Treccani also splits the 3rd conjugation into verbs with -isc- and verbs without.

How to tell. The infinitive won't tell you. Dormire and finire end alike, yet one gives dormo and the other finisco. In our 600, 39 of the 70 -ire verbs take -isc- in the io form: the 37 labeled regular (-isc-), plus sparire and seppellire, which are irregular elsewhere. So a guess of -isc- would be right 39 times out of 70, a little better than a coin toss. Many everyday verbs go without it, such as sentire (sento), partire (parto) and servire (servo).

So check the io form once, in a dictionary or on the verb's page, and you'll know the pattern for good. Two verbs in our list allow both: mentire gives mento or mentisco, and eseguire gives eseguisco or eseguo. The Accademia della Crusca calls mentisco much rarer, and our tables list mento first, so mentire is labeled regular. Eseguisco comes first, so eseguire is labeled regular (-isc-).

Spelling-change verbs

These 96 verbs take parlare's endings in every form. Only the spelling of the stem changes, to keep its sound. All of them are -are verbs ending in -care, -gare or -iare, and many teachers call them regular, with a spelling note. They're right. Our label is there for the spelling.

The rules come from Treccani's grammar. In Italian, c and g are hard before a and o, as in cat and go, and soft before e and i, so ci sounds like the ch in cheese. Each rule keeps a verb's sound the same when the ending changes, and there are four of them.

-care and -gare: add an h. Before an ending that starts with e or i, an h keeps the c or g hard. Cercare (to look for) gives cerchi, cerchiamo and cercherò, and pagare (to pay) gives paghi and pagherò. Our list has 28 verbs in -care and 15 in -gare.

-ciare, -giare and -sciare: drop the i. In mangiare (to eat), the i is there only to make the g soft. Before e or i the g is soft anyway, so the i goes: mangi, mangiamo, mangerò. Cominciare gives comincerò, and lasciare gives lascerò. Our list has 14 verbs in -ciare, 7 in -giare and 4 in -sciare.

Other -iare verbs: one i, unless it's stressed. In studiare, whose io form studio is stressed on the u, the i of the stem merges with an ending that starts with i (studi, studiamo) but stays before e (studierò). In inviare, whose io form invio is stressed on the i, that i is a full vowel, so the tu form keeps both: invii. Sciare (to ski), one of the four -sciare verbs, follows this rule too: scii, scierò. Our list has 21 of these other -iare verbs.

-gliare: like studiare, not like mangiare. Tagliare (to cut) drops the i before another i, as in tagli and tagliamo, but keeps it before e: taglierò. Our list has 7 of them.

The -ere verbs go the other way. They keep the spelling and let the sound change, so vincere gives vinco, with a hard c, and vinci, with a soft one. Every such verb in our 600 is irregular anyway, for other reasons.

If a form of an -are verb looks odd, check the letter before the ending. The endings are parlare's in all 96 verbs.

Irregular verbs

Our label “irregular” means that at least one form of the verb is off the pattern. One is enough, so the 174 verbs with the label range from essere, with forms such as sono, fui and stato, to aprire, which is regular except for its participle, aperto. Many teachers would call aprire regular with an irregular participle, and that's a fair way to put it. Both descriptions agree on the forms. They only differ on the name.

Most irregular -ere verbs are regular in the present. Of our 142 irregular -ere verbs, 104 have a regular present, imperfect, future, conditional and subjunctive. Their irregular forms are the passato remoto, the past participle, or both. Prendere (to take) is typical. Its present is prendo, prendi, prende, prendiamo, prendete, prendono, with credere's endings, and prendevo and prenderò are regular too. Only the passato remoto (presi) and the participle (preso) are new, so a learner meeting prendere in the present tense has nothing new to learn until those two. Mettere is the same: metto and metterò, but misi and messo.

Only 31 of the 142 have an irregular present, such as piacere (piaccio) and scegliere (scelgo), and 27 have a contracted future, such as avere (avrò) and vedere (vedrò).

Two more patterns help. In an irregular passato remoto, usually only io, lui/lei and loro change: presi, prese and presero, but the regular prendesti. Essere is the exception, with fui, fosti, fu, furono. The passato remoto and the participle also tend to come as a pair, though not always: avere has ebbi but the regular avuto. All 146 verbs in our list with an irregular participle are labeled irregular.

Most irregular verbs fall into families.

-si or -ssi in the passato remoto, -so, -sto or -tto in the participle. This is the biggest family. Chiudere gives chiusi and chiuso, chiedere chiesi and chiesto, scrivere scrissi and scritto, and leggere lessi and letto.

Doubled consonants. Some passato remoto forms double a consonant: cadere gives caddi, tenere tenni, volere volli and sapere seppi.

Contracted futures. Some verbs drop a vowel in the future: avere gives avrò, potere potrò, dovere dovrò, vedere vedrò and andare andrò. Others double the r: tenere gives terrò, volere vorrò and venire verrò. The conditional is contracted the same way.

-go in the present. Tenere gives tengo and tengono, venire vengo and vengono, and rimanere rimango and rimangono. The subjunctive keeps the g: tenga, venga.

The -rre verbs. Tradurre (to translate) keeps its Latin stem traduc- in most forms, as in traduco and traducevo, with tradussi in the passato remoto, tradotto as the participle and tradurrò in the future. Condurre, produrre and ridurre follow it. Porre (to put) gives pongo, posi, posto and porrò, and proporre follows it.

The -are four. Andare, dare, fare and stare are the only irregular -are verbs, apart from rifare, which follows fare. Andare has two stems in the present, vado but andiamo, and fare keeps its old stem in faccio, facevo and facesti. Dare and stare run in parallel: do, dai, dà and sto, stai, sta.

-ire verbs irregular only in the participle. Aprire (aperto), offrire (offerto), coprire, scoprire and soffrire change in the participle and nowhere else. Their present and passato remoto are regular: apro and aprii, offro and offrii.

The top ten. Essere, avere, fare, potere, dovere, volere, stare, dire, andare and sapere are all irregular in the present: sono, ho, faccio, posso, devo, voglio, sto, dico, vado, so. No family covers them.

What the type doesn't tell you: avere or essere

The type tells you the endings. It doesn't tell you which auxiliary, or helper verb, a verb takes in the passato prossimo, the past tense made of avere or essere plus the past participle (ho parlato, I spoke). Most verbs take avere: 498 of our 600. Another 73 take essere, and 29 take either, depending on the meaning.

Essere goes with verbs of motion to a place, such as andare, venire, arrivare and partire. It also goes with verbs of staying, such as stare and rimanere, and of a change of state, such as nascere, morire and diventare. Every reflexive verb takes it too. Movement alone doesn't decide it, though: camminare (to walk) and viaggiare (to travel) take avere.

Finire takes avere with an object and essere without: ho finito il lavoro (I finished the work), but la lezione è finita (the lesson is over). Passare and cominciare work the same way, and correre takes avere when you went running and essere when you ran somewhere.

None of this follows from the type. Partire and dormire are both regular -ire verbs, yet one gives sono partito and the other ho dormito. And dovere, potere and volere show avere on their pages, but before another verb they usually take that verb's auxiliary: sono dovuto andare (I had to go), because andare takes essere.

In what order to learn them

1. Parlare's pattern. It covers 364 of our 369 -are verbs, spelling-change verbs included, so it comes first.
2. The top ten, by heart. They're the most common verbs on our list, and all irregular, so learn them early, one at a time, the way you'd learn vocabulary.
3. Credere, dormire and finire. With parlare, they give you the present of every regular verb. Check the io form of each new -ire verb as you meet it.
4. The spelling changes, as you meet them. Each is one small rule on top of endings you already know.
5. Past participles, with the passato prossimo. This is where many irregular -ere verbs first show it (preso, messo, scritto, chiuso), so learn each participle with its auxiliary.
6. The passato remoto, in families. Take the -si verbs together (presi, misi, chiusi), then the doubled consonants (caddi, tenni, volli).

To drill one family at a time, the Italian verb conjugation worksheet generator prints exercises for the verbs and tenses you choose, and it can filter the list to -isc- verbs, spelling-change verbs or verbs with an irregular past participle. Put prendere, mettere and chiudere on one sheet with the present and the passato remoto, and the present boxes turn out to be the easy half.

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Licenses and credits

Conjugation tables come from English Wiktionary through kaikki.org (CC BY-SA 4.0). Verbs are ranked by Hermit Dave's FrequencyWords list, built from OpenSubtitles 2018 (CC BY-SA 4.0).