regular -ire verbs

If you want to say feel, sleep, leave, clean or understand in Italian, you'll need to learn today's tutorino grammar topic, the regular -ire verbs - your last main conjugation!

Remember "conjugating" a verb means changing the ending of its dictionary form to match the person doing it. A regular verb changes in a predictable formulaic way and the formula it follows is a "conjugation".

Regular verbs conjugate according to their "infinitive" (or dictionary form) ending. So far we've seen how -are and -ere verbs conjugate. The -ire verbs for the most part are similar. Here's an example.

partire - to leave

io parto

tu parti

Lei parte

lui/lei parte

noi partiamo

voi partite

loro partono

Notice only the voi form differs from the -ere conjugation.

Now the interesting thing about -ire verbs is that a small subset of them have a slightly different conjugation. You insert "isc" just before the endings listed above in all but the noi and voi forms. Here's an example.

capire - to understand

io capisco

tu capisci

Lei capisce

lui/lei capisce

noi capiamo

voi capite

loro capiscono

Now you know why guys named Guido and Lenny always say "capeesh" in mob movies.

There's no 100% iron-clad fool-proof way to tell from the -ire verb itself whether it belongs to the -isc- subset. But a rule of thumb that seems to work in the vast overwhelming majority of cases (almost all!) is...

If the stem ends in a single consonant, it's an -isc- verb. (e.g. capire, pulire, finire, preferire)
If it ends in multiple consonants (or consonant + vowel), it's not. (e.g. sentire, partire, mentire)

Exceptions include cucire (to sew) - a single-consonant stem ending but not an -isc- verb. And garantire - a double-consonant stem ending but an -isc- verb.

Special thanks to Vic from our Monday night group class at the Second Cup for spotting this pattern!

Check back tomorrow for some practice. Ciao!