La propagación de las vicisitudes de uno de los contratos, en los restantes dentro de un

bere, shortened from bevere

porre, shortened from ponere

-durre, shortened from -ducere

PRESENT TENSE — TEMPO PRESENTE

In English this tense looks like "he runs", "they live", "she is working", "we are talking"

These four examples all have pronouns — he, they, she, we, but in Italian the pronouns are not

necessary because the verb always has an ending to indicate what personal pronoun we want. the four English examples above would each be one single word in Italian.

Italian does have personal pronouns; you won't see them very often, but here they are: io I noi we

tu you voi you lui he loro they lei she

Lei you

The pronoun Lei (with a capital L) means you. It is different from the pronoun tu because Lei is formal: you would use it when politely addressing a stranger; if you speak to someone using a formal title like signore/signorina you should use Lei and even if you don't use the pronoun, the verb should be in the 3rd person singular.

Italian verbs fall into 3 types, depending on the vowel in the infinitive. The grammatical name is not type but conjugation and that's the name I'm going to use.

• Conjugation 1 contains verbs with an infinitive ending in -ARE • Conjugation 2 contains verbs with an infinitive ending in -ERE • Conjugation 3 contains verbs with an infinitive ending in -IRE

1 PARLARE 2 SCRIVERE 3 DORMIRE 3 CAPIRE 1st pers. sing. I parlo scrivo dormo capisco 2nd pers. sing. you parli scrivi dormi capisci 3rd pers. sing. he, she,

it parla scrive dorme capisce

1st pers. plur. we parliamo scriviamo dormiamo capiamo 2nd pers. plur. you parlate scrivete dormite capite 3rd pers. plur. they parlano scrivono dormono capiscono

Don't let a table like this put you off; look for all the similarities, not the differences; for example: All verbs use the ending -o for the first person singular — i.e. if you want to say I do something. All verbs use the ending -i for the second person singular — i.e. if you want to say you do something. All verbs use the ending -iamo for the first person plural — i.e. if you want to say we do something. English has three forms of the present tense and Italian has only one. In English we can say I speak or I am speaking but in Italian there is only the form parlo. To ask a question in English we would use the phrase do you speak? but in Italian you can only indicate a question by the tone of your voice or by writing a question mark — parli?

You'll see that there are two examples of a 3rd conjugation verb, dormire and capire and they behave differently. Most verbs behave like dormire but a small number insert the syllable -isc- before the

personal endings. There is no rule about which do and which don't, you just have to learn as you meet them. The commonest ones which insert -isc- are:-

finire (to finish) preferire (to prefer) pulire (to clean) punire (to punish) spedire (to send)

IRREGULAR VERBS — There are very few verbs which do not fit into the scheme shown in the table above, but two which are very important are the verb avere (to have) and the verb essere (to be) because as well as being very common verbs in their own right, they are also the auxiliary verbs which help to make the past tense (passato prossimo). Here they are:

avere to _have essere to be 1 ho I have sono I am 2 hai you

have sei

you are

3 ha he/she_{/it has} è he/she_{/it is} 1 abbiamo we

have siamo we are 2 avete

you

have siete you _are

3 hanno they

have sono

they are

There are twelve common verbs which are irregular in their present tense. They are in the table below. You have to learn them because you will not be able to find these forms in a dictionary.

avere = to have essere = to be

venire = to come

uscire = to go

out andare = to go dare = to give

ho sono vengo esco vado do

hai sei vieni esci vai dai

ha è viene esce va dà

abbiamo siamo veniamo usciamo andiamo diamo

avete siete venite uscite andate date

fare= to do; make

sapere = to

know stare = to stay;

be potere = can dovere = must volere = to want

faccio so sto posso devo voglio

fai sai stai puoi devi vuoi

fa sa sta può deve vuole

facciamo sappiamo stiamo possiamo dobbiamo vogliamo

fate sapete state potete dovete volete

fanno sanno stanno possono devono vogliono

THE FUTURE TENSE — IL FUTURO

The future tense in English is a compound (i.e. more than a single word) tense, made with the auxiliary verbs "shall" and "will".

In Italian, the future tense is a simple (i.e. single word) tense, made by adding six ending to the present infinitive:

singular plural

-ò = I shall ... -emo = we shall... -ai = you will ... -ete = you will ... -à = he/she will... -anno = they will...

These ending are attached to the present infinitive which loses the final -e. Look at the table below: parlare scrivere partire

parlerò scriverò partirò parlerai scriverai partirai parlerà scriverà partirà parleremo scriveremo partiremo parlerete scriverete partirete parleranno scriveranno partiranno Please note three things:

1. Verbs like parlare change the vowel in their infinitive from -a- to -e-

2. There are accents written on the First Person Singular and Third Person Singular in all verbs.

3. You will have to be careful with the spelling of some verbs when you put them into the Future Tense in order to preserve the sound in their infinitive. This will happen with verbs ending in -care and -gare, e.g.

pagare (to pay) I'll pay = pagherò

cercare (to look for) I'll look for = cercherò

cominciare (to begin) I'll begin = comincerò viaggiare (to travel) I'll travel = viaggerò

IRREGULAR VERBS: A few verbs don't quite follow the pattern above. You need to learn what they do:

The Future Tense of avere and essere is: avere essere avrò sarò avrai sarai avrà sarà avremo saremo avrete sarete avranno saranno

There are another ten common verbs which you need to learn:

andare dare fare stare sapere dovere potere volere vedere venire

andrò darò farò starò saprò dovrò potrò vorrò vedrò verrò andrai darai farai starai saprai dovrai potrai vorrai vedrai verrai andrà darà farà starà saprà dovrà potrà vorrà vedrà verrà andremo daremo faremo staremo sapremo dovremo potremo vorremo vedremo verremo andrete darete farete starete saprete dovrete potrete vorrete vedrete verrete andranno daranno faranno staranno sapranno dovranno potranno vorranno vedranno verranno Apart from the verb essere, only two verbs, volere and venire, are awkward and need careful attention.