2.8: I verbi in -are, -ere, -ire al presente

Verbs ending in –are, –ere, –ire in the present tense

The present tense indicates activities that you normally do, i.e.: canto in un coro [I sing in a choir]. In Italian the present tense also indicates:

• Activities that are taking place right now, i.e.: mangio un panino [I’m eating a sandwich].
• Activities that will take place in the near future, i.e.: domani parto per la Svezia [Tomorrow I’m leaving for Sweden].

There are three groups of verbs in Italian:

Ordinare, prendere and aprire are in the infinitive form. The infinitive is the base form of the verb, the form that you would find in the dictionary (analogous to the English to order; to take; to open). To conjugate the verb according to the subject that performs the action, dropthe–are, –ere, or–ire from the infinitive form and add the following endings:

* Some –ire verbs add –isc– to the io, tu, lui, lei and loro forms: preferire [to prefer] capire [to understand] pulire [to clean] obbedire [to obey] restituire [to return something]

• Some verbs, like mangiare [to eat] and studiare [to study], have an i in the stem that is pronounced. You do not need an additional i in the tu and noi forms:

Sciare [to ski] is an exceptional case: it adds i in the tu form: tu scii.