Italian Past Participle Some clues: Che: what/ nuovo: new/ bisogno: I need/ portesti: can you.

Parlare: parlato (spoken)
Credere: creduto (believed)
Partire: partito (gone)
-Sono Partito (I’m gone,
masculine)
lei è partita (she is gone)
Siamo partiti (we’re gone,
for men)
Sono stata a Roma (I’ve
been to Rome, a female talking) partito (gone) can also be partita/ partiti/
Siamo stati...(we have been..,for
men)
-Ho avuto il tempo per farlo
(I’ve had the time to do it)
Ho parlato al
telefono…(I’ve talked…)
Ha parlato (and not ha parlata) “essere”, mi sono lavato (I’ve
(she have spoken/ she spoke)
Abbiamo parlato (and not
parlati)
Regular Form: Simply add (~ato, ~uto, ~ito) Irregular Form:
to the stem of verbs, depending on the type memorize the verbs that
of verbs, if the verb in the infinitive ends take irregular forms in
with ~are, then add ~ato: parlato (the verb the past participle such
parlare), add ~uto to the verbs ending with as:
~are: creduto (the verb credere), and finally
add ~ito to the verbs ending in their infinitiveVerb/Past part/English
with ~ire: partito (the verb partire)
Fare: fatto (done)
Note that some verbs take their past
participle with the verb “avere”, while Aprire: aperto (opened)
some other verbs take their past participle
with the verb essere (usually motion verbs) Chiedere: chiesto
(asked)
Also note that the past participle of verbs
going with “essere” should agree with Chiudere: chiuso
the number and gender, so for example (closed)
partite. Coprire: coperto
(covered)
Verbs going with “avere” don’t
have to agree with the number and gender, Dare: dato (given)
look in the examples in the side.
Dire: detto (said)
Remember: to form the past participle with
verbs conjugated with “essere” the Leggere: letto (read)
gender and number matter, but not with verbs
conjugated with “avere”. Mettere: messo (put)
Past participle reflexive verbs go always withOffrire: offerto (offered)
washed myself), ci siamo lavati (we’ve Perdere: perso (lost)
washed ourselves).
Prendere:Â preso
(taken)

Ho detto (I’ve said) Scrivere: scritto (written)

Ha detto (he/she has said) Spendere: speso (spent)

Vedere: visto (seen)

Vivere:vissuto (lived)

Rompere: rotto (broken)

In Italian you can only make the past tense by combining (the auxiliary + the past participle), it’s not
that complicated, it’s almost like English, almost the same way you make the present perfect to
express something that happened in the past, you can say in English: I wrote a book, or I’ve written a
book, in Italian you can only say I’ve written the book.
 Italian Past Tense
Ho ~ato (with ~are verbs) Sono ~ato/a/i/e (with ~are verbs)

Hai Sei

Ha ~uto (with ~are verbs) È ~uto/a/i/e (with ~are verbs)

Abbiamo Siamo

Avete ~ito (with ~are verbs) Siete ~ito/a/i/e (with ~are verbs)

Hanno Sono

Prepositions in Italian

Prepositions are a little bit tricky because they change depending on the gender and number. Note that the
prepositions a, con, da, di, in, per and su have contracted forms with the definite articles:

Italian Prepositions
Simple prepositions: (di, a, da, in, su, con, per, tra, Prepositional contractions: for phonetic reasons, pre
fra) in, su, con) are contracted to the articles they precede
Un bicchiere di latte (a glass of milk) La puerta della casa (di + la= della) (the door of the h

Un tipo di musica (a kind of music) Regalo un libro al bambino (a + il = al) (I offer a book

Regalo un libro a Carlos (I offered a book to Carlos) Regalo un libro agli amici (a + gli = agli) (I offer a bo

Regalo un libro ad Antonio (ad is used before vowels) Dalla città alla campagna (da + la = dalla, a + la = al

Da Parigi a Roma (from Paris to Rome) (from the city to the village)

Scrivo con mi penna (I write with my pen) il latte è nella bottiglia (in + la = nella) (milk is in th

il regalo è per Rayan (the present is for Rayan) il libro sul tavolo (su + il = sul) (the book above the ta

L’aereo vola su Roma (the plane flies over Rome) l’uomo col berreto (con + il = col) (the man with

Un libro su Da Vinci (a book about Da Vinci) Easy right!

La penna fra le due libri è nera

(the pen between the two books is black)

La penna tra le due libri è grigia

(the pen between the two books is grey)

Italian Adjectives

Adjectives in Italian must agree in gender and number with the noun, if the noun is singular feminine then
the adjective should be singular feminine. Adjectives usually come after the noun.
Italian adjectives are different than the English ones, The Italian adjective take 4 forms, usually adjectives
take “o” at the end of the singular masculine, and “a” for singular feminine, for plural
masculine “i”, plural feminine take “e”

Italian Adjectives
Singular masculine Singular feminine Plural masculine Plural feminine
Small Piccolo Piccola Piccoli Piccole

Opened Aperto Aperta Aperti Aperte

However, it’s not always the case, some adjectives ending with “e” for example only change to
their plural, the feminine or masculine doesn’t matter to them.

Italian Adjectives
Singular masculine Singular feminine Plural masculine Plural feminine
Big Grande Grande Grandi Grandi

Interesting Interessante Interessante Interessanti Interessanti

Green Verde Verde Verdi Verdi

Other exceptions are:

Adjectives ending in ~co/~ca and ~go/~ga are spelt ~chi/~che and ~ghi/~ghe in the plural; these
modifications are made simply to maintain the same sound in the plural as well as the singular.

Italian Adjectives
Singular masculine Singular feminine Plural masculine Plural feminine
White Bianco Bianca Bianchi Bianche

Long Lungo Lunga Lunghi Lunghe

Gerund in Italian

The gerund is easy to form, for (~are) verbs just add ~ando to their stem, for (~ere, ~ire) verbs add ~endo
to their stem.

Parlare: parlando (talking), credere: credendo (believing), partire: partendo (going).

Present continuous/ Past continuous/ Future continuous can be formed easily with the verb “stare”
+ verb + gerund.

To form a continuous action you need to add the verb “stare” and not “essere”

Italian Gerund
Present continuous (I’m Past continuous (I was ...ing) Past continuous (I will be ...ing)
…ing)
sto pensando/ credendo stavo pensando/ credendo starò pensando/ credendo

stai pensando/ credendo stavi pensando/ credendo starai pensando/ credendo

sta pensando/ credendo stava pensando/ credendo starà pensando/ credendo

stiamo pensando/ credendo stavamo pensando/ credendo staremo pensando/ credendo

state pensando/ credendo stavate pensando/ credendo starete pensando/ credendo

stanno pensando/ credendo stavano pensando/ credendo staranno pensando/ credendo

Che cosa stavi pensando? non stavo pensando.(what were you thinking? I wasn’t thinking)

There are however some rare cases where the gerund is irregular like: dire (dicendo), fare (facendo), porre
(ponendo), tradurre (traducendo).

Che cosa stai facendo? Sto credendo (what are you doing? I’m talking).

Italian Imperative

It’s easy to form the imperative especially with “tu” and “Lei”, you just need to switch
them in the case of (~are) verbs, for example in the present tense we say:

“tu parli” informal of (you speak) and (Lei parla) formal of (you speak), in the imperative you just
need to switch them.

“parla!” means “speak!” informal, “parli!” means “speak!” formal.

For (~ere, ~ire) the affirmative second person singular is identical to the second person singular form of
the present tense.

For all conjugations (are/ere/ire), the second person plural (voi) is identical to the second person plural
form of the present tense.

Check out the table below, it will explain it all:

Italian Imperative
parlare vendere aprire finire
tu parla vendi apri finisci

Lei parli venda apra finisca

noi parliamo vendiamo apriamo finiamo

voi parlate vendete aprite finite

Negative commands are usually expressed in Italian with non followed by the infinitive verb. For
example: Don't eat! (non mangiare!)

No smoking! (non fumare!)

Adverbs in Italian (avverbi)

An adjective can be made into an adverb by simply adding -mente to the adjective example: veloce
"quick" becomes velocemente "quickly”.

There are exceptions that are easy to understand:

Adding “mente” to adjectives that their feminine singular is ending with “a”, example: lenta
"slow" becomes lentamente "slowly".Â

If an adjective ends in -ale, -ile, or -are, the adverb is formed with the root of the adjective plus the ending
-mente.

Italian Adverbs
Adjectives (general) Adjective (feminine) Adverb
veloce veloce velocemente (quickly)

lento lenta lentamente (slowly)

gentile gentile gentilmente (kindly)

facile facile facilmente (easily)

speciale speciale specialmente (specially)

The table below contains adverbs that don’t come from adjectives; they’re used very often so try
to memorize them.

List of Italian Adverbs

Above: sopra Behind: dietro Soon: presto

Against: contro Beyond: oltre Still: ancora

Already: già in, inside: dentro Then: dopo

Always: sempre Moreover: inoltre Together: insieme

Around: attorno Nearby: vicino Below: sotto

Badly: male Outside: fuori Well: bene

This is a list of some very important verbs in Italian:

Italian Expressions
to abandon oneself abbandonarsi
to accept accettare
to admit ammettere
to affirm affermare
to agree convenire
to agree accondiscéndere
to announce annunciare
to apply oneself to méttersi
to appreciate gradire
to ask chiedere
to ask domandare
to aspire aspirare
to assure assicurare
to attempt tentare
to avoid evitare
to avoid tralasciare
to be able to essere in grado
to be able to, can potere
to be about accèngersi
to be ashamed averevergogna
to be ashamed of vergognarsi
to be concerned with occuparsi
to be eager for anelare
to be exhausted non poterne più
to be happy essere lieto
to be happy essere contento
to be happy essere felice
to be in a hurry avere fretta
to be in the position of essere nella posizione
to be interested in interessarsi
to be late tardare
to be on the point of avviarsi
to be proud essere fiero
to be saddened dispiacersi
to be sorry dolersi
to begin iniziare
to believe credere
to believe ritenere
to carry on proseguire
to come venire
to communicate comunicare
to compel obbligare
to complain lamentarsi
to condemn condannare
to confess confessare
to confirm confermare
to consent acconsentire
to continue continuare
to convince persuadere
to dare osare
to dare arrischiarsi
to decide decidere
to decide decèdersi
to declare dichiarare
to defend sostenere
to delude oneself illudersi
to demonstrate dimostrare
to devote oneself darsi
to do one's best ingegnarsi
to doubt dubitare
to dream sognare
to encourage incoraggiare
to encourage incoraggiare
to end by finire
to establish stabilire
to exclude escludere
to expect aspettarsi
to fantasize fantasticare
to fantasize fantasticare
to fear avere paura
to feel avere l'impressione
to feel like sentirsela
to force costrèngere
to force obbligare
to forget dimenticare
to forget about something lasciar perdere
to get ready apprestarsi
to get ready dispórsi
to get tired of something stancarsi
to get tired of stancarsi
to get used to abituarsi
to go andare
to go back tornare
to go on seguitare
to guess indovinare
to have a good time divertirsi
to have difficulty stentare
to have in mind ripromettersi
to have the right avere il diritto
to have to dovere
to hazard azzardare
to hazard azzardarsi
to help aiutare
to hint accennare
to hope augurarsi
to hope sperare
to hurry up affrettarsi
to hurry up sbrigarsi
to ignore ignorare
to inform informare
to insist insèstere
to intend avere intenzione
to intend intendere
to invite invitare
to invite invitare
to know sapere
to know sapere
to learn apprèndere
to learn imparare
to limit oneself limitarsi
to long for ambire
to love amare
to narrate narrare
to need avere bisogno
to need, to feel like avere voglia
to negate negare
to neglect trascurare
to oblige costrèngere
to offer offrire
to pass passare
to persist ostinarsi
to persist persèstere
to plan proporsi
to prefer preferire
to prepare oneself acconciarsi
to prepare oneself prepararsi
to pretend fingere
to promise promettere
to propose proporre
to realize accòrgersi
to realize rendersi conto
to recognize riconoscere
to refuse rifiutarsi
to regret pentirsi
to regret rimpiangere
to remember ricordare
to remember ricordarsi
to renounce rinunciare
to repeat ripetere
to report riferire
to resign oneself rassegnarsi
to risk rischiare
to run córrere
to say dire
to scream spolmonarsi
to send mandare
to start attaccare
to start cominciare
to start incominciare
to start prèndere
to start over riprèndere
to stay stare
to stop smettere
to stop cessare
to stop smettere
to stop fermarsi
to stop, to end finire
to succeed riuscire
to suffer soffrire
to suppose supporre
to suspect sospettare
to swear giurare
to tell raccontare
to tend tèndere
to thank ringraziare
to think pensare
to think avere idea
to think of pensare
to threaten minacciare
to to be a question of trattarsi
to try cercare
to try provare
to try provarsi
to understand capire
to undertake intraprèndere
to value, to care tenérci
to wait attendere
to wait aspettare
to want volere
to wish desiderare
to wonder meravigliarsi
to wonder stupirsi
to worry preoccuparsi
to yearn for agognare