Act #5: Comunicare, viaggiare e mangiare!

I. Italian Verbs in the First Conjugation

Italian verbs are divided into three different conjugations depending on their infinitive endings. Today we are going to look at regular verbs in the first conjugation.

First-conjugation verbs end in -are. For example, amare, which means to love.

To form the present indicative (indicativo presente), you drop the infinitive ending -are and add the appropriate ending to the stem. Take a look at the following table to see the verb amare conjugated. The stem of amare is am-. In the table, the conjugated endings are in bold.

io amo		noi amiamo
tu ami		voi amate
lui/lei/Lei ama		loro amano

In the following examples, you can see other verbs conjugated. The verb's infinitive form is given first, followed by an example sentence.

arrivare Il treno non arriva mai in orario. The train never arrives on time.

nuotare D’estate nuoto spesso. In the summer, I often swim.

lavorare Dove lavori? Where do you work?

insegnare Insegnano francese ai bambini della scuola elementare. They teach French to primary school children.

These verbs are all conjugated in the present indicative, as we mentioned above. This corresponds to three forms in English:

nuoto

→

I swim I am swimming I do swim

This form is also used to express an action in the future that is considered certain.

Arrivano tra due ore. They will arrive in two hours. Studio in Italia quest’estate. I’ll be studying in Italy this summer.

II. Definite Articles

The definite article (articolo determinativo) varies according to the gender, number, and the first letter of the word it precedes. In English, the equivalent is always the. Take a look at the following table.

	masculine singular	feminine singular	masculine plural	feminine plural
before a consonant	il	la	i	le
before s + consonant, z, and ps	lo	la	gli	le
before a vowel	l’	l’	gli	le

Examples:

il dottore → the doctor		i dottori → the doctors
la casa → the house		le case → the houses
lo studente → the student		gli studenti → the students
lo zoccolo → the clog		gli zoccoli → the clogs
lo psichiatra → the psychiatrist		gli psichiatri → the psychiatrists
la stagione → the season		le stagioni → the seasons
l’animale → the animal		gli animali → the animals
l’edicola → the newsstand		le edicole → the newsstands

III. The Italian Alphabet

The Italian alphabet consists of twenty-one letters: five vowels and sixteen consonants. In most cases, Italian is a phonetic language based on its own system of pronunciation rules. Following is the Italian alphabet, including the appropriate pronunciation for each letter. As in English, the letters may make different sounds depending on their context.

Letter	Pronunciation	Italian Examples
a	ah	padre, mamma, angelo
b	bee	buono, bello
c	ci (pronounced like the ch in the English chop)	cane,cipolla
d	dee	dimenticare, dimora
e	eh	lento, bene
f	effe	fame, fuori
g	gee (pronounced like the g in the English gentleman)	gatto,gelato
h	acca	ho, hai, ha
i	ee	ibisco
l	elle	latte, luna
m	emme	musica
n	enne	nonno, naso
o	oh	orologio
p	pee	padre, piede
q	cu	quattro, quindi
r	erre	Roma, rivale
s	esse	scala, sbaglio
t	tee	tacchino, tacco
u	uu	uomo, buco
v	vu	vino, Volterra
z	zeta	zio, ozio

The five additional letters of the alphabet appear in many foreign words, which are widely used in Italian. Following is a table showing their Italian pronunciation and some examples.

Letter	Italian Pronunciation	Examples
j	ee lunga	jolly, jazz
k	kappa	poker
w	doppia vu; vu doppio	Walter, sandwich
x	iks	taxi, box
y	ipsilon; ee greco	sexy, yoga