Italian language: Simple Tenses

Simple Tenses (Tempi Semplici)

The Latin verbal endings are modified in Italian the dominating trend being the closed syllables to become open. The major transformations are as follows:

the final -m, -s, -t were dropped everywhere, cf. the Latin forms vivam that I live, vivas that you live, vivat that he live all coincided in It. viva that I/you/he live;
the final Latin -nt (3rd. p. pl. ending) was changed everywhere to -no, cf. L. amant [they] love vs. It. amano [they] love, L. legunt [they] read vs. It. leggono [they] read, etc.;
the 1st. p. pl. Latin terminations -âmus, -êmus, -imus and -îmus are generalized in Italian to -iamo, cf. L. amâmus [we] love, tenêmus [we] hold, legimus [we] read, venîmus [we] come vs. It. amiamo, teniamo, leggiamo, veniamo;
the Latin characteristic -ba- was softened into -v- and the subsequent endings were transformed on the pattern of the present tense, cf. L. amabam I was loving, amabas you were loving, amabat he was loving vs. It. amavo, amavi, amava (cf. the present forms amo, ami, ama...);
the endings for past simple are easily recognizable as they show much conservatism; note that some Italian verbs of the 2nd conjugation may use alternative endings;

many verbs of the 4th conjugation (in its major part derived from the Latin 4th conjugation) have incorporated the inchoative affix -sc- between the root and declination in some of their forms (namely the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd p. sg. and 3rd p. pl. of the indicative and subjunctive present tense, and to the 2nd and 3rd p. sg. and 3rd p. pl. of the present imperative):

		Present Indicative	Present Subjunctive	Present Imperative
Sg.	1 p.	io finisco	che io finisca	finisci
	2 p.	tu finisci	che tu finisca	finisca
	3 p.	egli finisce	che egli finisca
Pl.	3 p.	essi finiscono	che essi finiscano	finiscono

Some verbs may have forms either with sc or without sc, cf.:
languire to languish : io languo and io languisco
mentire to lie : io mento and io mentisco
Other verbs have both forms but take on diverse significance:
ripartire : io riparto I leave again vs. io ripartisco I divide.

A similar phenomenon occurs in French (finir : finissons, finissez, finissent etc.), in Spanish (establecer : establezco, establezca; traducir : traduzco, traduzca etc.), in Portuguese (agradecer : agradezo etc.) etc.; see the Latin inchoative verbs.

Non-Finite Verbal Forms

		I	II		III
		I	stress on the penultimate	stress on the antepenultimate	w/o -sc-	with -sc-
Present Infinitive		amare	temere	credere	partire	finire
Present Participle	Sg.	amante	temente	credente	partente	finente
Present Participle	Pl.	amanti	tementi	credenti	partenti	finenti
Gerund		amando	temendo	credendo	partendo	finendo
Past Participle	Sg.	amato	temuto	creduto	partito	finito
Past Participle	Pl.	amati	temuti	creduti	partiti	finiti

Generally the present participle of 3rd conjugation verbs end in -ente, several have the form -iente, and a few can have both endings:

	morire to die	morente dying
	esordire to begin	esordiente beginning
	dormire to sleep	dormente / dormiente sleeping

Some participles change the letter t that precedes the declination of the participle iente to the letter z:

sentire to feel

senziente feeling

Many 2nd and 3rd conjugation verbs have irregular past pasticiples.

See the list of the Irregular Past Participles.

Finite Verbal Forms

The Present Indicative (Presente Indicativo)

		I	II		III
		I	stress on the penultimate	stress on the antepenultimate	w/o -sc-	with -sc-
Sg.	1. 2. 3.	amo ami ama	temo temi teme	credo credi crede	parto parti parte	finisco finisci finisce
Pl.	1. 2. 3.	amiamo amate amano	temiamo temete temono	crediamo credete credono	partiamo partite partono	finiamo finite finiscono

Formation: The Latin pattern of endings is modified with the aim the syllables to be opened; thus the final -s and -t were dropped and the -nt was changed to -no; the 1st. p. pl. termination for all conjugations was generalized to -iamo.

See the Latin Present Indicative.

See the Usage of the Present tense.

The Imperfect Indicative (Imperfetto Indicativo)

		I	II		III
		I	stress on the penultimate	stress on the antepenultimate	w/o -sc-	with -sc-
Sg.	1. 2. 3.	amavo amavi amava	temevo temevi temeva	credevo credevi credeva	partivo partivi partiva	finivo finivi finiva
Pl.	1. 2. 3.	amavamo amavate amavano	temevamo temevate temevano	credevamo credevate credevano	partivamo partivate partivano	finivamo finivate finivano

Formation: The imperfect terminations are marked by the characteristic -v(a)-; in sigular they were influenced by the endings of the present indicative (-o, -i, -a).

The only exception to the standard formation is the verb essere: ero, eri, era etc.

See the Latin Imperfect Indicative.

See the Usage of the Imperfect tense.

The Past Simple Indicative (Passato Remoto)

		I	II		III
		I	stress on the penultimate	stress on the antepenultimate	w/o -sc-	with -sc-
Sg.	1. 2. 3.	amai amasti amò	temei temesti temé	credetti credesti credette	partii partisti partì	finii finisti finì
Pl.	1. 2. 3.	amammo amaste amarono	tememmo temeste temerono	credemmo credeste credettero	partimmo partiste partirono	finimmo finiste finirono

Formation: The terminations follow well the Latin pattern. The -v- / -u- characteristic was however dropped and this brought about some regular changes:

L. amavi, finivi => It. amai, finii.

Note the evolution of the 3rd. p. sg. terminations of the -are verbs:

L. amavit => VL. *amau(t) => It. amò.

The 2nd conjugation verbs have developped two types of endings for the 1st and 3rd p. sg. and the 3rd p. pl.; usually they may be used alternatively:

credetti and credei	credette and credé	credettero and crederono
temetti and temei	temette and temé	temettero and temerono
vendetti and vendei	vendette and vendé	vendettero and venderono

In standard usage the forms –etti, –ette, and –ettero are preferred. The majority of verbs whose root ends in t though, such as battere to beat, potere can, and riflettere to reflect, take the endings –ei, –é and –erono.

io battei	egli batté	essi batterono
io potei	egli poté	essi poterono
io riflettei	egli rifletté	essi rifletterono

See the Latin Perfect Indicative.

Many 2nd conjugation verbs and a few 3rd conjugation verbs have particular (irregular) forms in the Past Simple tense.

See the Usage of the Past Simple tense.

The Future Indicative (Futuro Semplice)

		I	II		III
		I	stress on the penultimate	stress on the antepenultimate	w/o -sc-	with -sc-
Sg.	1. 2. 3.	amerò amerai amerà	temerò temerai temerà	crederò crederai crederà	partirò partirai partirà	finirò finirai finirà
Pl.	1. 2. 3.	ameremo amerete ameranno	temeremo temerete temeranno	crederemo crederete crederanno	partiremo partirete partiranno	finiremo finirete finiranno

Formation: It is derived from the Vulgar Latin modal construction infinitive + the Present Indicative of the auxiliary habêre (It. avere) to have, which is of a future meaning. In Italian writing the forms of avere were appended to the infinitive to make a whole word, cf.: finir ho => finirò, finir hai => finirai, finir ha => finirà etc. Note in the plural the verbal forms abbiamo, avete were shortened to -mo, -te. Note that the 1st conjugation verbs change the thematic vowel -a to -e: amare => amerò.

See the List of Irregular Future Indicative and Present Conditional verbal forms.

See the Usage of the Future tense.

The Present Subjunctive (Presente Congiuntivo)

		I	II		III
		I	stress on the penultimate	stress on the antepenultimate	w/o -sc-	with -sc-
Sg.	1. 2. 3.	che ami che ami che ami	che tema che tema che tema	che creda che creda che creda	che parta che parta che parta	che finisca che finisca che finisca
Pl.	1. 2. 3.	che amiamo che amiate che amino	che temiamo che temiate che temano	che crediamo che crediate che credano	che partiamo che partiate che partano	che finiamo che finiate che finiscano

Practical Rule of Formation: Most verbs form their subjunctive stem from the first person plural of the present indicative. The -o of the first person plural is dropped and the relevant subjunctive endings are added in its place, cf.:

tenere (present: tengo) => che io tenga, che tu tenga etc.
finire (present: finisco) => che io finisca, che tu finisca etc.
venire (present: vengo) => che io venga, che tu venga etc.

See the Latin Present Subjunctive.

See the Irregular Present Subjunctives.

See the Usage of the Subjunctive mood.

The Imperfect Subjunctive (Imperfetto Congiuntivo)

		I	II		III
		I	stress on the penultimate	stress on the antepenultimate	w/o -sc-	with -sc-
Sg.	1. 2. 3.	che amassi che amassi che amasse	che temessi che temessi che temesse	che credessi che credessi che credesse	che partissi che partissi che partisse	che finissi che finissi che finisse
Pl.	1. 2. 3.	che amassimo che amaste che amassero	che temessimo che temeste che temessero	che credessimo che credeste che credessero	che partissimo che partiste che partissero	che finissimo che finiste che finissero

Formation: It follows pretty well the Latin pattern. See the Latin Imperfect Subjunctive.

The Present Conditional (Condizionale Presente)

		I	II		III
		I	stress on the penultimate	stress on the antepenultimate	w/o -sc-	with -sc-
Sg.	1. 2. 3.	amerei ameresti amerebbe	temerei temeresti temerebbe	crederei crederesti crederebbe	partirei partiresti partirebbe	finirei finiresti finirebbe
Pl.	1. 2. 3.	ameremmo amereste amerebbero	temeremmo temereste temerebbero	crederemmo credereste crederebbero	partiremmo partireste partirebbero	finiremmo finireste finirebbero

Formation: Historically the Present Conditional was formed by appending the past simple forms of the auxiliary avere to have to the infinitive (in 1st and 2nd p. the auxiliary is shortened). Note that the 1st conjugation verbs change the thematic vowel -a to -e: amare => amerebbe.

See the List of Irregular Future Indicative and Present Conditional verbal forms.

See the Usage of the Conditional mood.

The Present Imperative (Imperativo)

		I	II		III
		I	stress on the penultimate	stress on the antepenultimate	w/o -sc-	with -sc-
Sg.	1. 2. 3.	-- ama ami	-- temi tema	-- credi creda	-- parti parta	-- finisci finisca
Pl.	1. 2. 3.	amiamo amate amino	temiamo temete temano	crediamo credete credano	partiamo partite partano	finiamo finite finiscano

Formation: The forms of the 2 p. sg. and pl. inherit the Latin Present Imperative.

The other imperative forms are borrowed from the Present Indicative (1st p. pl.) and Present Subjunctive.

See the Usage of the Imperative.

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