Il presente

(The Present Tense)

First of all, we need the subject pronouns

Io I

tu you (singular)

lui/lei he/she

Lei you (formal)

noi we

voi you (plural)

loro they

In Italian the “Present Tense” is used for :

• repeated or habitual actions in the present

e.g. Mangiamo sempre frutta a pranzo

We always eat fruit at lunch

• Actions that take place at the moment of speaking

e.g. “Che cosa fai?” “Studio italiano”

“What are you doing?”I’m studying Italian”

• actions with a future meaning

e.g. Visitiamo Venezia domani

We are visiting Venice tomorrow

How to form the Present Tense

• The starting point is the infinitive

• In English you have “to” before the verbs in the infinitive

e.g. to sing to read to sleep

In Italian you have the ending “-are”, “-ere” or “-ire”

cantareleggere

dormire

Verbi in -are

Step 1

• Take off the –are ending

• parl – are to speak

becomes

PARL

Step 2

• Add the endings

io - o

tu

lui/lei/Lei

-i

-a

noi

voi

loro

-iamo

-ate

-ano

The verb becomes

io parlo

tu parli

parla

noi

voi

loro

parliamo

parlate

parlano

I speak

lui/lei

you speak

he/she speaks

we speak

you speak

they speak

Lei parla you speak (formal)