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table of contents

 Italian Grammar Reference Help Contents

©1995-1996 Translation Experts Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Pronunciation

Stress, Accents & Capitalization

Verbs

Nouns

Articles

Adjectives

Adverbs

Pronouns

Prepositions

Conjunctions

Time & Numbers

Sentence Structure

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 Pronunciation

 Alphabet

Italian Letter	Pronunciation
a	father
e	pen
i	meet
o	polish
u	cool
ce/ci	chess
c + other letters	car
ge/gi	jet
gn	canyon
gli	million
g + other letters	rag
h	honor
r	river (strong sound as in Scottish)
s	sat
s (between two vowels)	rose
sce/sci	ship
sc + other letters	skip
z	pads / pits
nn	unnatural


 Stress, Accents & Capitalization

 Stress

As a general rule, Italian words are stressed on the last syllable unless there is a written accent indicating stress. There are, however, a number of exceptions to this rule.

 Accents

Two types of accents are used in Italian: acute (e.g. é) and grave (e.g. è). Accents are used in Italian for the purpose of:

1 Indicating a stressed final vowel, e.g. caffè;

2 Distinguishing two words that look and sound identical (e.g. è = is; e = and).

 Capitalization

Capital letters are used:

1 At the beginning of a sentence;

2 For names of people, places and institutions;

3 For some dates and festivals;

4 Sometimes for Lei, Loro and Voi (you), and related pronouns and adjectives.


 Verbs

Types of Verbs

Verb Tenses

Verb Moods

Verb Voices

The Infinitive

Conjugation


verb types

Types of Verbs

 Regular Verbs

There are three types of regular verbs which are recognized by their infinitive ending -- -are, -ere or -ire.

 Irregular verbs

Irregular verbs, in the main, are unique.

 -are verbs

There are only four irregular -are verbs:

Italian	English
andare	to go
dare	to give
fare	to make
stare	to stay

 -ere verbs

Many -ere verbs are irregular, some in the past tenses only, others in all tenses.

 -ire verbs

-ire verbs form the smallest group. In some tenses they subdivide into two groups.


 Verb Tenses

Present

Imperfect

Perfect

Pluperfect

Future

Future Perfect


verb moods and voices

Verb Moods & Voices

Moods

 Indicative

 Imperative

 Subjunctive

 Conditional

Voices

 Active

 Passive


verb infinitive

Infinitive

The form in which the verb is usually given in dictionaries is called the infinitive.


conjugation

 Verb Conjugation

Regular Verbs

Irregular Verbs


 Conjugation of Regular Verbs

Present

Imperfect

Perfect

Pluperfect

Future

Future Perfect

Past

Past Conditional

Past Anterior


Present Tense of Regular Verbs

The present tense is formed by adding the endings given below to the stem of the verb:

verb ending	-are	-ere	-ire(1)	-ire(2)
io	lavor-o	vend-o	part-o	cap-isco
tu	lavor-i	vend-i	part-i	cap-isci
lue/lei/Lei	lavor-a	vend-e	part-e	cap-isce
noi	lavor-iamo	vend-iamo	part-iamo	cap-iamo
voi	lavor-ate	vend-ete	part-ite	cap-ite
loro	lavor-ano	vend-ono	part-ono	cap-iscono


Imperfect Tense of Regular Verbs

The imperfect tense is formed by adding the endings given below to the stem of the verb:

verb ending	-are	-ere	-ire(1)
io	lavor-avo	vend-evo	part-ivo
tu	lavor-avi	vend-evi	part-ivi
lue/lei/Lei	lavor-ava	vend-eva	part-iva
noi	lavor-avamo	vend-evamo	part-ivamo
voi	lavor-avate	vend-evate	part-ivate
loro	lavor-avano	vend-evano	part-ivano


Perfect Tense of Regular Verbs

The perfect tense is formed by using the past participle with the present tense of avere or essere:

 Perfect Tense with avere

	-are	-ere	-ire
io	ho lavor-ato	ho vend-uto	ho cap-ito
tu	hai lavor-ato	hai vend-uto	hai cap-ito
lue/lei/Lei	ha lavor-ato	ha vend-uto	ha cap-ito
noi	abbiamo lavor-ato	abbiamo vend-uto	abbiamo cap-ito
voi	avete lavor-ato	avete vend-uto	avete cap-ito
loro	hanno lavor-ato	hanno vend-uto	hanno cap-ito

 Perfect Tense with essere

	-are	-ere	-ire
io	sono and-ato/-ata	sono cad-uto/-uta	sono part-ito/-ita
tu	sei and-ato/ata	sei cad-uto/-uta	sei parti-ito/-ita
lue/lei/Lei	è and-ato/ata	è cad-uto/-uta	è part-ito/-ita
noi	siamo and-ati/ate	siamo cad-uti/-ute	siamo part-iti/-ite
voi	siete and-ati/ate	siete cad-uti/-ute	siete part-iti/-ite
loro	sono and-ati/ate	sono cad-uti/-ute	sono part-iti/-ite


Pluperfect Tense of Regular Verbs

The pluperfect is formed by using the past participle together with the imperfect tense of avere or essere.

	with avere	with essere
io	avevo lavor-ato	ero part-ito/-ita
tu	avevi lavor-ato	eri part-ito/-ita
lui/lei/Lei	aveva lovar-ato	era part-ito/-ita
noi	avevamo lavor-ato	eravamo part-iti/-ite
voi	avevate lavor-ato	eravate part-iti/-ite
loro	avevano lavor-ato	erano part-iti/-ite


Future Tense of Regular Verbs

The future tense is formed by adding the ending to the stem of the verb:

verb ending	-are	-ere	-ire
io	lavor-erò	vend-erò	part-irò
tu	lavor-erai	vend-erai	part-irai
lue/lei/Lei	lavor-erà	vend-erà	part-irà
noi	lavor-eremo	vend-eremo	part-iremo
voi	lavor-erete	vend-erete	part-irete
loro	lavor-eranno	vend-eranno	part-iranno


future perfect of regular verbs

Future Perfect Tense of Regular Verbs

The future perfect is formed by using the future tense of avere or essere plus the past participle.

	with avere	with essere
io	avrò lavor-ato	sarò part-ito/-ita
tu	avrai lavor-ato	sarai part-ito/-ita
lui/lei/Lei	avrà lovar-ato	sarà part-ito/-ita
noi	avremo lavor-ato	saremo part-iti/-ite
voi	avrete lavor-ato	sarete part-iti/-ite
loro	avranno lavor-ato	saranno part-iti/-ite


simple past tense

Simple Past

The future tense is formed by adding the ending (given after the dash) to the stem of the verb:

verb ending	-are	-ere	-ire
io	lavor-ai	vend-ei/-etti	part-ii
tu	lavor-asti	vend-esti	part-isti
lue/lei/Lei	lavor-ò	vend-é	part-ì
noi	lavor-emmo	vend-emmo	part-immo
voi	lavor-este	vend-este	part-iste
loro	lavor-erono	vend-erono	part-irono


conditional past tense

Past Conditional

The past conditional is formed by using the past participle together with the simple conditional tense of avere or essere.

	with avere	with essere
io	avrei lavor-ato	sarei part-ito/-ita
tu	avresti lavor-ato	saresti part-ito/-ita
lui/lei/Lei	avrebbe lovar-ato	sarebbe part-ito/-ita
noi	avremmo lavor-ato	saremmo part-iti/-ite
voi	avreste lavor-ato	sareste part-iti/-ite
loro	avrebbero lavor-ato	sarebbero part-iti/-ite


past anterior tense

Past Anterior

The past anterior is formed by using the past participle together with the simple past tense of avere or essere.

	with avere	with essere
io	ebbi lavor-ato	fui part-ito/-ita
tu	avesti lavor-ato	fosti part-ito/-ita
lui/lei/Lei	ebbe lovar-ato	fu part-ito/-ita
noi	avemmo lavor-ato	fummo part-iti/-ite
voi	aveste lavor-ato	foste part-iti/-ite
loro	ebbero lavor-ato	furono part-iti/-ite


irregular verbs

 Conjugation of Irregular Verbs

The conjugation of irregular verbs varies according to the verb. Many such irregular conjugations are included in the dictionary.


 Nouns

Nouns are words, which refer to persons, animals, things or abstract ideas.

English	Italian	English	Italian
car	macchina	sister	sorella

Italian nouns are either masculine or feminine in gender. The nouns themselves normally do not show this but any preceding adjective or article "agrees" with the noun by having the appropriate ending showing its gender plus number and case.

Most Italian nouns are regular but some are not. The gender of regular nouns can most often be determined by their ending:

 Regular Nouns

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	-o	-i
Feminine	-a	-e
Masculine & Feminine	-e	-i


 Articles

Definite Article

Indefinite Article

Demonstratives

Possessives


Definite Article

In English, the definite article in English has one form -- the. In Italian there are several words for the definite article depending on the gender and number of the accompanying noun and the initial letter of the word which immediately follows the article:

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	il	i	before most consonants
	l'	gli	before vowels
	lo	gli	before z, s + consonant, ps, gn and x
Feminine	la	le	before consonants
	l'	le	before vowels


Indefinite Article

The indefinite article in English has only one form -- a/an. In Italian there are four forms of the indefinite article. The form depends on the gender of the accompanying noun and on the initial letter of the word which immediately follows the article:

Masculine	a) un before vowel and most consonants  b) uno before words beginning with: z, s+consonant, gn, ps or x
Feminine	a) una before a consonant b) un before a vowel


Demonstratives

In English, the demonstrative articles this (questo) and that (quello) always precede the noun they describe.

 Questo (this)

Questo has the same four forms as adjectives ending in -o:

Italian	English
in quest-o momento	at this moment
quest-a settimana	this week
quest-i ultimi giorni	these last few days
quest-e due settimane	these two weeks

Questo and questa can be shortened to quest before a vowel.

 Quello (that)

Quello has forms which are similar to the definite article:

	Italian	English
il	quel viaggio	that holiday
lo	quello sciopero	that strike
l	quellalbergo quellagenzia	that hotel that agency
la	quella serata	that evening
i	quei giorni	those days
gli	quegli ospiti	those guests
le	quelle persone	those people


Possessives

Possession is expressed in Italian by di (of), or with possessive adjectives like mio (my, mine), nostro (our, ours), loro (their, theirs).

 di -- used in place of the English 's:

Italian	English
la moglie di Paolo	Paolo's wife (the wife of Paolo)
la casa di Gina	Gina's house (the house of Gina)
 Possessive Adjectives & Possessive Pronouns -- In Italian, possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns are identical in form, mio translates into both my and mine, suo into your and yours, etc.

Singular	Plural
Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine	English
il mio	la mia	i miei	le mie	my/mine
il tuo	la tua	i tuoi	le tue	your/yours
il suo	la sua	i suoi	le sue	his/her/hers/your/yours
il nostro	la nostra	i nostri	le nostre	our/ours
il vostro	la vostra	i vostri	le nostre	our/ours
il vostro	la vostra	i vostri	le vostre	your/yours
il loro	la loro	i loro	le loror	their/theirs


 Adjectives

Adjectives are words that describe nouns. In Italian, adjectives must agree with both the gender (masculine or feminine) and the number (singular or plural) of the noun to which they apply. Italian adjectives are listed in the dictionary in the masculine singular form.

1 -o ending

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	modern-o	modern-a
Plural	modern-i	modern-e

2 -e ending

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	interessant-e	interessant-e
Plural	interessant-i	interessant-i

3 Adjectives Describing More Than One Noun

 has the masculine plural form if at least one noun is masculine

 has the feminine plural form is all nouns are feminine

4 Position of Adjectives

When adjectives and nouns adjoin one another, the adjective usually goes after the noun.

Italian	un viaggio piacevole
English	a pleasant journey
(bmc bullet.bmp} Adjectives which always go AFTER THE NOUN

(bmc bullet2.bmp} adjectives of color, shape and nationality

(bmc bullet2.bmp} adjectives used with an adverb (e.g. very, too, so)

(bmc bullet2.bmp} an adjective which normally goes after the noun can be placed before it for emphasis

(bmc bullet.bmp} Adjectives which usually go BEFORE THE NOUN

(bmc bullet2.bmp} demonstratives questo and quello

(bmc bullet2.bmp} possessives mio, tue, etc.

(bmc bullet2.bmp} ordinal numbers

Some Common Italian Adjectives:

Italian	English
bello	beautiful/nice
buono	good
lungo	long
grande	big
brutto	ugly/horrible
cattivo	bad
breve	short
piccolo	small


 Adverbs

Adverbs are words that add to the meaning of verbs, adjectives or other adverbs.

Formation of Adverbs

Use of Adverbs

Adverbs -- Word Order


Formation of Adverbs

1 Most Italian adverbs are formed by taking the feminine singular form of the adjective and adding -mente.

Adjective	Feminine Form	Adverb
Italian	English	Italian	Italian	English
rapido	quick	rapida	rapidamente	quickly
esatto	exact	esatta	esattamente	exactly
elegante	elegant	eleganta	elegantemente	elegantly
semplice	simple	semplice	semplicemente	simply
Adjectives ending wiht a vowel + le or a vowel+re drop the final e before adding -mente.

2 A few adverbs are very different from their corresponding adjective:

Adjective	Adverb
Italian	English	Italian	English
buono	good	bene	well
cattivo	bad	male	badly
migliore	better	meglio	better


usage of adverbs

Use of Adverbs

Adverbs supply information about verbs, adjectives and other adverbs by answering the questions:

1 how?

Italian	English
Può parlare lentamente?	Can you speak slowly?
Ha dormito bene?	Did you sleep well?

2 to what extent?

Italian	English
Siamo molto stanchi.	We are very tired.
Ho mangiato troppo.	I've eaten too much.

3 when?

Italian	English
Vado spesso in Italia.	I often go to Italy.
Attualmente il signor Parochelli è in vacanza.	At the present time Mr. Parochelli is on vacation.

4 where?

Italian	English
C'è una banca qui vicino?	Is there a bank near here?
È lontano?	Is it far?


adverbs: word order

Adverbs -- Word Order

1 Before Adjectives & Other Adverbs

Italian	English
Sono molto stanco.	I'm very tired.
È un po' tardi.	It's a little late.
Ho dormito abbastanza bene.	I slept quite well.

2 After Verbs

Italian	English
Magiamo sempre alle otto.	We always eat at eight o'clock.
C'è solo questo.	There is only one.
Ho cercato dappertutto.	I have looked everywhere.
Abbiamo speso troppo.	We have spent too much.


 Pronouns

Pronouns are words which can substitute for nouns. They are divided into:

Personal Pronouns

Reflexive Pronouns

Indefinite Pronouns

Relative Pronouns

Interrogative Pronouns


Personal Pronouns

Subject	Object	Indirect Object
Nominative	Accusative	Dative
English	Italian	English	Italian	English	Italian
I	io	me	mi	to me	mi
you	tu	you	ti	to you	ti
you (formal)	Lei	you (formal)	la	to you (formal)	le
he	lui	him/it	lo	to him/it	gli
she	lei	her/it	la	to her/it	le
we	noi	us	ci	to us	ci
you	voi	you	vi	to you	vi
they	loro	them (m)	li	to them	gli/loro
		them (f)	le


use of the nominative case

Use of the Nominative

Words which indicate who or what is performing an action (the subject of a verb) must be in the nominative case. The subject can be a noun or a subject pronoun which stands instead of a noun.


use of the accusative case

Use of the Accusative

Words which indicate who or what is being directly affected (him, not to him) by an action (the direct object of a verb) must be in the accusative case. The direct object can be a noun, or a pronoun which stands instead of a noun. Direct objects usually go before the verb.


use of the dative case

Use of the Dative

Words which indicate who or what is being indirectly affected (to him, not him) by an action (the indirect object of a verb) must be in the dative case. The indirect object can be a noun, or a pronoun which stands instead of a noun. Indirect objects usually go before the verb.


Reflexive Pronouns

English	Italian
myself	mi
yourself	ti
himself  herself itself yourself (formal)	si
ourselves	ci
yourselves	vi
themselves	si


Possessive Pronouns

Possessive pronouns which always agree with the object possessed are:

Singular	Plural
Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine	English
il mio	la mia	i miei	le mie	my/mine
il tuo	la tua	i tuoi	le tue	your/yours
il suo	la sua	i suoi	le sue	his/her/hers/your/yours
il nostro	la nostra	i nostri	le nostre	our/ours
il vostro	la vostra	i vostri	le nostre	our/ours
il vostro	la vostra	i vostri	le vostre	your/yours
il loro	la loro	i loro	le loror	their/theirs

Examples:

Italian	English
Roberto guida la sua macchina.	Roberto drives his car.
Paola guida la sua macchina.	Paola drives her car.


Relative Pronouns

Relative pronouns relate to a noun earlier in a sentence and introduce more information about that noun. In Italian, relative pronouns are used consistently and cannot be omitted as often happens in English.

Italian relative pronouns are:

Italian	English/Use
che	who/whom/which/that  (used for both people and things)
cui	used instead of che after prepositions
il quale la quale i quali le quali	can be used instead of che to agree with the noun they relate to
il cui la cui i cui le cui	whose
il che	which (a whole idea)


Interrogative Pronouns

Italian	English
come?	how?
dove?	where?
quando?	when?
perché?	why?
chi?	who?/whom?
di chi?	whose?
che?	what?
quale?	which?/what?
quanto?	how much?/how many?


 Prepositions

Prepositions are words which tell us about the relationship between the verb and the direct object or between the direct object and the indirect object.

Italian	English
a ad	to at in (a place) at (with expressions of time) until per after certain verbs
da	from (time and place) by since for 's place place as a (...)
di	of (made) of (created) by some any than (with numbers, pronouns or nouns) in (after superlatives)
in	in into to (place) in (time) by (means of transport)
per	for in order to (+infinitive) through along because of
su	on over
fra tra	between among in (time to come)
accanto a	next to
davanti a	in front of
fino a	until/as far as
di fronte a	opposite
insieme a	together with
intorno a	around
vicino a	near
invece di	instead of
prima di	before (time)


 Conjunctions

Conjunctions link words, phrases and clauses.

 Coordinating Conjunctions

Co-ordinating conjunctions link two similar words or groups of words (e.g. nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, phrases or clauses).

1 Main coordinating conjunctions:

Italian	ma	perchè	a causa di	o	e
English	but	because	because of	or	and

2 Conjunctions consisting of two parts:

Italian	English
	or else
	as well as
	as also/ like
	since
	whilst/ whereas
	while
	whereas/ at the time when
	seeing that
	even if


time and numbers

 Time & Numbers

The Time

Months, Days, Seasons & the Date

Numbers


time

The Time

 Full Hours

 Half Hours

 Quarter Hours

 Minutes

 a.m. & p.m.


days of the week; months; seasons;dates

Months, Days, Seasons & the Date

 Months

Italian	English
	January
febbraio	February
marzo	March
aprile	April
maggio	May
giugno	June
luglio	July
agosto	August
settembre	September
ottobre	October
novembre	November
dicembre	December

 Days of the Week

Italian	English
lunedì	Monday
	Tuesday
mercoledì	Wednesday
giovedì	Thursday
venerdì	Friday
sabato	Saturday
domenica	Sunday

 Seasons

Italian	English
primavera	spring
estate	summer
autunno	autumn/fall
inverno	winter

 The Date


 Numbers

Cardinal Numbers

Ordinal Numbers

Measurements

Currency


Cardinal Numbers

0	zero
1	uno
2	due
3	tre
4	quattro
5	cinque
6	sei
7	sette
8	otto
9	nove
10	dieci
11	undici
12	dodici
13	tredici
14	quattordici
15	quindici
16	sedici
17	diciassette
18	diciotto
19	diciannove
20	venti
21	venti
22	ventidue
23	vntitré
24	ventiquattro
25	venticinque
26	ventisei
27	ventisette
28	ventotto
29	ventinove
30	trenta
40	quaranta
50	cinquanta
60	sessanta
70	settanta
80	ottanta
90	novanta
100	cento
101	centouno
102	centodue
110	centodieci
150	centocinquanta
200	duecento
500	cinquecento
1,000	mille
1,100	millicento
1,500	millecinquecento
1,999	millenovecentonovantanove
10,000	diecimila
100,000	centomila
500,000	cinquecentomila
1,000,000	un milione
2,000,000	due milioni
1,000,000,000	un miliardo


Ordinal Numbers

Ordinal numbers from 1st to 10th have special forms. From 11th onward they are formed by dropping the final vowel of the cardinal number and adding -esimo:

1st	primo -------------	1º
2nd	secondo --------	2º
3rd	terzo -------------	3º
4th	quarto ------------	4º
5th	quinto ------------	5º
6th	sesto -------------	6º
7th	settimo ----------	7º
8th	ottavo ------------	8º
9th	nono --------------	9º
10th	decimo ----------	10º
11th	undic-esimo --	11º
12th	dodic-esimo --	12º
20th	vent-esimo ----	20º
23rd	ventire-esimo (loses accent)	23º
30th	trent-esimo ----	30º
100th	cent-esimo ----	100º
1 Ordinal numbers agree with the noun. In Italian ordinal numbers must agree with the noun they precede as adjectives do.

2 Ordinal numbers are used only for the first day of the month:

Italian	English
il primo novembre	1st November
il dodici gennaio	12th January
il ventidue agosto	22nd August


measurements

Measurement

Italy uses the metric system and therefore everything is measured in kilometres, meters, centimetres, millimetres, kilograms, grams, etc.


prices

Currency

The Italian currency is the Lira.


 Sentence Structure

Word Order

Negatives

Questions


Word Order

Simple Italian sentences follow the same basic word order of English:

Subject + Finite Verb (+ object(s)) (+ complement)


Negatives

Italian	English
non ... nessuno	nobody not ... anybody not ... any
non ... niente non ... nulla	nothing not .. anything
non ... mai	never not ... ever
non ... ancora	not ... yet
non ... più	no longer not ... any more
non ... affatto non ... niente	not ... at all
non ... neppure non ... neanche non ... nemmeno	not even
non ... né ... né	neither ... nor
non ... mica	not really hardly


Questions

Italian questions are formed by:

1 Using the appropriate tone of voice (e.g. the voice rises at the end of a question.

2 Adding a question expression:

Italian	English
vero? non è vero?	isn't it? don't we? aren't you? won't we?

3 Starting with a question word:

Italian	English
come?	how?
dove?	where?
quando?	when?
perché?	why?
chi?	who?/whom?
di chi?	whose?
che?	what?
quale?	which?/what?
quanto?	how much?/how many?