The infinitives of all regular verbs in Italian end in –are, –ere, or –ire and are referred to as first, second, or third conjugation verbs, respectively. In English the infinitive (l'infinito) consists of to + verb.

amare to love   temere to fear   sentire to hear

Verbs with infinitives ending in –are are called first conjugation, or –are, verbs. The present tense of a regular –are verb is formed by dropping the infinitive ending –are and adding the appropriate endings to the resulting stem.


There is a different ending for each person.

Characteristics of the First Conjugation

• Verbs ending in –care (cercare, caricare) and –gare (litigare, legare): add an h immediately after the root when declinations start with e or i to maintain the hard c or hard g sound.
• cercare
  tu cerchi
  noi cerchiamo
  io cercherò
  legare
  tu leghi
  noi leghiamo
  io legherò
  
• Verbs ending in –ciare (baciare), –giare (mangiare), and –sciare (lasciare): drop the i of the root when declinations start with e or i.
• cominciare
  tu cominci
  noi cominciamo
  io comincerò
  mangiare
  tu mangi
  noi mangiamo
  io mangerò
  
  strisciare
  tu strisci
  noi strisciamo
  io striscerò
  
• Verbs ending in –iare (inviare, studiare, gonfiare):
• the i of the root is conserved, except for the declinations –iamo and –iate, when the accent is tonic on the first person singular of the present indicative (io invìo).
• the i of the root is dropped when the declinations that start with i (–i, –iamo, –iate, –ino) when the accent is not tonic on the first person singular of the present indicative (io stùdio).

• espiare
  io espio
  che tu espii
  noi espiamo
  voi espiate
  studiare
  io studio
  che tu studii
  noi studiamo
  voi studiate
  
• Verbs ending in –gliare (tagliare, pigliare): drop the i of the root only before the vowel i.
• tagliare
  io taglio
  tu tagli
  noi tagliamo
  voi tagliate
  pigliare
  io piglio
  tu pigli
  noi pigliamo
  voi pigliate
  
• Verbs ending in –gnare are regular, therefore the i of the endings –iamo (indicative and present conjunctive) and –iate (present conjunctive) is maintained.
• regnare
  noi regniamo
  che noi regniamo
  che voi regniate
  sognare
  noi sogniamo
  che noi sogniamo
  che voi sogniate
  

Note! The second person plural of the present indicative is formed regularly.

voi regnate   voi sognate