Regular verbs in Italian: the 3 families

In this post, we are going to address everything you need to know about regular verbs in Italian.

But don’t panic! There’s no reason to get worried about it because these verb endings always follow a pattern.

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What are regular Italian verbs?

There are many irregular verbs in the Italian language, including the auxiliary verbs essere and avere. They are called irregular because the endings in some tenses do not follow a consistent pattern.

However, Italian has a large number of regular verbs which follow a consistent format and a regular pattern.

What are the 3 Italian verb families?

Italian verbs are divided into three families depending on their endings as conjugations: verbs in -are (first conjugation), -ere (second conjugation), and -ire (third conjugation).

Common verbs such as mangiare (to eat), credere (to believe), and partire (to go) can be good instances of regular verbs in Italian.

The endings of the three conjugations for regular Italian verbs in the present indicative, imperfect indicative, remote past, and simple future are shown in the tables below.

Present Indicative

Of course, the presente is the tense of today or now. It means I eat or I am eating in English.

These are the present indicative’s endings:

–are –ere –ire
io –o –o –o/–isco
tu –i –i –i/–isci
lui, lei, lei –a –e –e/–isce
noi –iamo –iamo –iamo
voi –ate –ete –ite
loro –ano –ono –ono/–iscono

Imperfect

The imperfetto is a past tense used to describe events and actions that occur repeatedly in the past.

The Italian imperfetto can be seen in phrases like “We used to meet at the bar every Friday.”

Regular verbs in all three conjugations have the following endings for this tense:

–are –ere –ire
io –avo –evo –ivo
tu –avi –evi –ivi
lui, lei, Lei –ava –eva –iva
noi –avamo –evamo –ivamo
voi –avate –evate –ivate
loro –avano –evano –ivano

Remote past tense

The regular verbs endings in the three conjugations for the remote past tense (passato remoto) are listed below.

–are –ere –ire
io –ai –ei/–etti –ii
tu –asti –esti –isti
lui, lei, Lei –ò –é/–ette –ì
noi –ammo –emmo –immo
voi –aste –este –iste
loro –arono –erono/–ettero –irono

Simple future

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Below are the endings for the three conjugations in the simple future time (futuro semplice).

–are –ere –ire
io –erò –erò –irò
tu –erai –erai –irai
lui, lei, Lei –erà –erà –irà
noi –eremo –eremo –iremo
voi –erete –erete –irete
loro –eranno –eranno –iranno

Practice with Quizlet

Here's a set of flashcards and quizzes to practice this grammar topic.

Regular verbs in Italian: key points

As you can see, since they all follow the same grammatical rules, there is nothing difficult about regular Italian verbs.

And once you have mastered the regular verbs, move on to the Italian irregular verbs and remember:

La pratica rende perfetti.

Practice makes perfect.

Still translating in your head? Wanna speak Italian for real? Check out Stefano's courses to think directly in Italian and become fluent fast!

FAQs on Regular verbs in Italian: the 3 families

How do regular verbs work?

By following a consistent format and a regular pattern in tenses such as present indicative, imperfect indicative, remote past, and simple future.

What are the three verb families?

-are, -ere, -ire.

How can I use regular verbs in Italian in a sentence?

You can use regular verbs in Italian in a sentence by conjugating the verb according to the subject pronoun and the tense needed. For example, "Io mangio una pizza" (I eat a pizza) is a sentence using the regular verb mangiare (to eat) in the present tense with the subject pronoun io (I).

Maria

I was born in Italy but after graduating from University I decided to travel around the world. I loved Asia and that’s why I decided to move, first to South Korea and then to China where I am currently working as a teacher.

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