Learn how to form the present tense of the third conjugation of Italian verbs
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| INTRODUCTION | |
| Consuelo: Ciao | |
| Marco: Marco here. Absolute Beginner Season 1 Lesson 10: How to Pass the Time in Italy. Hi, my name is Marco and I’m joined here by Consuelo. | |
| Consuelo: Ciao | |
| Marco: Ciao. In today’s class, we will focus on the present indicative of verbs ending in -ire. | |
| Consuelo: This conversation takes place on a street. | |
| Marco: The conversation is between Melissa and Alessio. | |
| Consuelo: The speakers are friends. Therefore, they will be speaking informally. | |
| Marco: Let’s listen to the conversation. | |
Lesson conversation |
|
|---|---|
| Melissa: Che bella gioielleria! A che ora apre? | |
| Alessio: Mmm. Alle undici, sono le dieci e trenta. Perché non beviamo un caffè mentre aspettiamo? | |
| Melissa: D'accordo! Buona idea, comunque io oggi preferisco un tè. | |
| Alessio: Come preferisci, andiamo al bar! | |
| Marco: Let’s here it slowly now. | |
| Melissa: Che bella gioielleria! A che ora apre? | |
| Alessio: Mmm. Alle undici, sono le dieci e trenta. Perché non beviamo un caffè mentre aspettiamo? | |
| Melissa: D'accordo! Buona idea, comunque io oggi preferisco un tè. | |
| Alessio: Come preferisci, andiamo al bar! | |
| Marco: And now with a translation. | |
| Melissa Che bella gioielleria! A che ora apre? | |
| Marco What a beautiful jewelry store! At what time does it open? | |
| Alessio Mmm. Alle undici, sono le dieci e trenta. Perché non beviamo un caffè mentre aspettiamo? | |
| Marco Mmm. At eleven; it's ten-thirty. Why don't we drink a cup of coffee while we're waiting? | |
| Melissa D'accordo! Buona idea, comunque io oggi preferisco un tè. | |
| Marco Okay! Good idea; however, today I prefer a cup of tea. | |
| Alessio Come preferisci, andiamo al bar! | |
| Marco As you prefer, let's go to the bar! | |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER | |
| Marco: What are the opening hours of shops in Italy? | |
| Consuelo: It depends on whether it is a big city or not. In the main tourist cities, shops usually open at ten-thirty or eleven in the morning and close at eight-thirty in the evening. In small towns, they usually close one or two hours for a lunch break, but in both cases, they're always closed on Monday mornings. | |
| Marco: Ah okay. And what about the restaurants? | |
| Consuelo: You know, Marco, Italians usually have lunch around one o'clock p.m. and dinner about eight o'clock p.m., so restaurants remain open from noon to three o'clock p.m. and from seven-thirty to eleven-thirty p.m. | |
| Marco: That's interesting, thank you, Consuelo! | |
| VOCAB LIST | |
| Marco: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we shall see is? | |
| Consuelo gioielleria [natural native speed] | |
| Marco jewelry store (jewellery store) | |
| Consuelo gioielleria [slowly - broken down by syllable] | |
| Consuelo gioielleria [natural native speed] | |
| Next: | |
| Consuelo aprire [natural native speed] | |
| Marco to open | |
| Consuelo aprire [slowly - broken down by syllable] | |
| Consuelo aprire [natural native speed] | |
| Next: | |
| Consuelo mentre [natural native speed] | |
| Marco while, whilst | |
| Consuelo mentre [slowly - broken down by syllable] | |
| Consuelo mentre [natural native speed] | |
| Next: | |
| Consuelo aspettare [natural native speed] | |
| Marco to wait | |
| Consuelo aspettare [slowly - broken down by syllable] | |
| Consuelo aspettare [natural native speed] | |
| Next: | |
| Consuelo idea [natural native speed] | |
| Marco idea, thought | |
| Consuelo idea [slowly - broken down by syllable] | |
| Consuelo idea [natural native speed] | |
| Next: | |
| Consuelo preferire [natural native speed] | |
| Marco to prefer | |
| Consuelo preferire [slowly - broken down by syllable] | |
| Consuelo preferire [natural native speed] | |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES | |
| Marco: Consuelo, which word are we studying today? | |
| Consuelo: That's the Italian expression "d'accordo." | |
| Marco: The English equivalent is "okay" or "all right." | |
| Consuelo: If you only say "d'accordo," that means "okay or all right," but if you add the verb "essere," meaning "to be," it takes the meaning of "to agree" with someone and it is followed by the preposition "con," meaning "with." | |
| Marco: For example? | |
| Consuelo: If you ask me "perché non mangiamo una pizza?" meaning "Why don't we eat a pizza?" I could just answer "d'accordo," meaning "okay." | |
| Marco: But if we want to use the word with the meaning of agreement, what should we say? | |
| Consuelo: "Sono d'accordo con te." | |
| Marco: "I agree with you." | |
| Consuelo: Exactly! | |
Lesson focus |
|
| Consuelo: Let's take a look at today's grammar point. | |
| Marco: In this lesson, we'll see the present indicative of verbs whose infinitive ends in "-ire." | |
| Consuelo: The "presente indicativo" of third conjugation verbs follows the same patterns used for the two conjugations we previously saw. | |
| Marco: In other words, take the infinitive of the verb. | |
| Consuelo: For example, let’s take the case of "aprire." | |
| Marco: Drop the ending "-ire" and you are left with "apr-." | |
| Consuelo: Take "apr-" and add the appropriate endings. | |
| Marco: Remember that the endings are different for each person. | |
| Consuelo: "Io" takes "-o," "tu" takes "-i," "lui/lei" takes "-e," "noi" takes "-iamo," "voi" takes "-ite," and "loro" takes "-ono." | |
| Marco: Let's see the regular verb "aprire," meaning "to open." | |
| Consuelo: "Io apro." | |
| Marco: "I open." | |
| Consuelo: "Tu apri." | |
| Marco: "You open." | |
| Consuelo: "Lui/lei apre." | |
| Marco: "He/She/It opens." | |
| Consuelo: "Noi apriamo." | |
| Marco: "We open." | |
| Consuelo: "Voi aprite." | |
| Marco: "You open." | |
| Consuelo: "Loro aprono." | |
| Marco: Other verbs that follow this rule are "partire," meaning "to leave," "offrire," meaning "to offer," "sentire," meaning "to hear/to listen to," and "dormire," meaning "to sleep." | |
| Consuelo: Now it gets tricky! | |
| Marco: Oh yes, a significant number of the third conjugation's regular verbs add the interfix! | |
| Consuelo: It's just a group of letters inserted between the stem of the verb and the ending. | |
| Marco: This interfix is "-isc-" in all the six persons, except for the first and second plural persons. | |
| Marco: In all the remaining cases, they follow the standard conjugation. To better explain this, let's see the verb "preferire," meaning "to prefer." | |
| Consuelo: "Io preferisco" | |
| Marco: "I prefer" | |
| Consuelo: "tu preferisci" | |
| Marco: "you prefer" | |
| Consuelo: "lui/lei preferisce" | |
| Marco: "he/she/it prefers" | |
| Consuelo: "noi preferiamo" | |
| Marco: "we prefer" | |
| Consuelo: "voi preferite" | |
| Marco: "you prefer" | |
| Consuelo: "loro preferiscono" | |
| Marco: "they prefer" | |
| Consuelo: This rule applies exclusively to the present indicative, present subjunctive, and imperative. | |
| Marco: Unfortunately, as far as grammar is concerned, there is no general rule to distinguish the verbs that need the interfix "-isc-" from those that follow the standard conjugation. | |
| Consuelo: What to do, what to do? | |
| Marco: The most efficient method to figure it out is to consult a good dictionary and start using them right away! | |
| Consuelo: Not a bad idea. | |
| Marco: Finally, here are some of the most widely used third conjugation irregular verbs… | |
| Consuelo: "Uscire" | |
| Marco: "to go out," "to exit," | |
| Consuelo: "venire" | |
| Marco: "to come," | |
| Consuelo: "morire" | |
| Marco: "to die," "to pass away," | |
| Consuelo: "udire" | |
| Marco: "to hear," | |
| Consuelo: "divenire" | |
| Marco: "to become," | |
| Consuelo: "aprire" | |
| Marco: "to open," | |
| Consuelo: "mentire" | |
| Marco: "to lie," and | |
| Consuelo: "salire" | |
| Marco: "to go upward," "to climb"That’s just about does it for today. Before we go, we want to tell you about a way to drastically improve your pronunciation. | |
| Consuelo: The voice recording tool. | |
| Marco: Yes, the voice recording tool in the premium learning center. | |
| Consuelo: Record your voice with a click of a button. | |
| Marco: And then play it back just as easily. | |
| Consuelo: So record your voice and then listen to it. | |
| Marco: Compare it to the native speakers. | |
| Consuelo: And adjust your pronunciation. | |
| Marco: This will help you improve your pronunciation fast. |
30 Comments
HideCiao Bill,
there's absolutely no need to apologize! That's actually a very useful way to practice verbs 😉
All the sentences are correct, keep up the great job!
Valentina
Team ItalianPod101.com
Io compro i giornali e li leggo, ma preferisco i libri.
Tu compri i giornali e li leggi, ma preferisci i libri.
Lui compra i giornali e li legge, ma preferisce i libri.
Lei compra i giornali e li legge, ma preferisce i libri.
Noi compriamo i giornali e li leggiamo, ma preferiamo i libri.
Voi comprate i giornali e li leggete, ma preferite i libri.
Loro comprano i giornali e li leggono, ma preferiscono i libri.
Sorry for the boring exercise, Valentina. I just wanted to practice the verbs ending in -are, -ere and -ire.
Hi Angela,
thanks for your question!
You're absolutely right, "sleeps/is sleeping" would be "dorme."
However, "nessun dorma" is actually an imperative, not Present indicative ("dorme" is present indicative).
The imperative takes the forms of the Subjunctive in the third person singular, hence the ending in -a.
"Nessun dorma" is an order: the speaker doesn't want anyone to sleep. It is sometimes translated as "no one is sleeping," but a closer translation would be "let no one sleep" or "none shall sleep."
I hope this helps!
Valentina
Team ItalianPod101.com
Re : dormire. The famous opera aria "Nessun Dorma" (in Puccini's Turandot) is typically translated as "No one sleeps", or "No one is sleeping". Why the "a" ending ... why not "Nessun dorme"?
Hi CG,
pregunta is Spanish, in Italian it's "domanda" 😉
The difference between TU and VOI is that TU means "you" (one person), VOI means "you (all)" (more than one person).
So if you're talking just to one person, and you want to ask "how are you", you'll say: come stai? (or, if you want to use formal language, "come sta?")
If you want to ask two or more people how they are, you'll say: come state?
Hope this helps!
Valentina
Team ItalianPod101.com
Ciao. Una pregunta(I think that is how you say it), what is the difference between tu and voi? Because tu means you. But voi state means YOU are. Right?
Hi Agathe,
thanks for your question.
Those irregular verbs all have their own conjugation, they do not follow the -isc conjugation.
Example: present of "uscire" (to go out)
io esco
tu esci
lui/lei esce
noi usciamo
voi uscite
loro escono
Hope this helps!
Valentina
Team ItalianPod101.com
Hey, thank you for the lesson.
I do not understand if the irregular words you mentioned all have to use the -isc part or they all have their own conjugaison type?
Hi Diego Pertuz,
Thank you for posting!
Let me answer your questions.
"Aprire" is regular in the indicative present, which is the topic of this lesson. That's why it was mentioned.
The verbs, listed at the end, are not examples of the verbs which need the -isc interfix. They are some of the most widely used third conjugation irregular verbs.
It's not necessary to learn all of them at once, but it's very important to know about them, to get started.
If you have more questions, please let us know.
Ofelia
Team ItalianPod101.com
On the other hand... wheconjugation"n marco states "... as far as grammar concerned, there is no general rule to distinguish the verbas that need the interfix "-isc" from those that follow the standard" could be interpreted as there are no other irregular verbs ending in -ire, but the fact is that almost every example shown in the transcript, such as "udire", "venire", "morire", "uscire", "divenire" and "salire" are irregular verbs in allthe proper word and do not present -isc in the conjugation.