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)
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