• Menu
  • Skip to right header navigation
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Sos Italian – Learn Italian online

Online Italian lessons, Italian culture, Italian translation

  • About
    • Awards
  • Choose me
    • Online Italian Lessons
    • English > Italian Translations
    • Proofreading of Italian Texts
  • Resources
    • Teaching aids
    • Teaching and Learning
    • Translation
  • About
    • Awards
  • Choose me
    • Online Italian Lessons
    • English > Italian Translations
    • Proofreading of Italian Texts
  • Resources
    • Teaching aids
    • Teaching and Learning
    • Translation
  • Home
  • My Blog
  • Learn Italian
    • Test your Italian
    • Exercises
  • Italian books
    • Grammar books
  • Online Italian courses
  • Contacts
  • Subscribe
  • Home
  • My Blog
  • Learn Italian
    • Test your Italian
    • Exercises
  • Italian books
    • Grammar books
  • Online Italian courses
  • Contacts
  • Subscribe

Can you conjugate Italian verb forms in the right way?

Last Modified: March 4, 2020

Can you conjugate Italian verb forms in the right way?

Having doubts about how to conjugate Italian verb forms in the right way is normal. Even native Italians sometimes have some.

Today I’m going to help you solve some of these doubts.

PIACERE

One of the major doubts about how to conjugate Italian verb forms you might have, could be related to one of the most common Italian verbs: piacere.

I bet that one of the senteces with the Italian verb piacere you use the most is related to food, such as: mi piace la pizza – I like pizza.

But what if you wanted to say that someone likes you?

In this case you need the simple present of the verb piacere. Can you conjugate it?

Here’s a hint: it’s not a regular verb in the present tense.

The conjugation is:

Io piaccio
Tu piaci
Lui/lei piace
Noi piacciamo
Voi piacete
Loro piacciono

So, the sentence Marco likes me can be translated as Io piaccio a Marco/A Marco piaccio io.

PREMERE

Another doubt you might have about Italian verb forms could be related to the passato remoto of the verb premere.

Let’s say you want to translate the following sentence into Italian:

They were told it was the only way to save themselves, so they pressed the button.

What is the correct form of the passato remoto of the verb premere?

If your answer was premettero, congratulations, it’s the right answer. If, instead, your answer was premerono, well, then…congratulations, it’s the right answer as well.

Indeed premere is one of those Italian verbs that can have two forms in the passato remoto.

Here’s the conjugation:

Io premei/premetti
Tu premesti
Lui/lei premè/premette
Noi prememmo
Voi premeste
Loro premerono/premettero

So, the complete English sentece: They were told it was the only way to save themselves, so they pressed the button can be translated as Gli era stato detto che sarebbe stato l’unico modo per salvarsi, quindi premettero/premerono il bottone.

Sos Italian verbs

 

 

Do you want to master all the Italian verb tenses? Have a look at my book Sos Italian verbs.

 

 

 

SAPERE

Let’s keep talking about passato remoto. Do you know the passato remoto of the verb sapere?

If your answer is “Of course, it’s io sappi, tu sapesti, lui sappe…” and so on, nice try, but it’s not quite the right answer.

Here’s the complete conjugation for you:

Io seppi
Tu sapesti
Lui/lei seppe
Noi sapemmo
Voi sapeste
Loro seppero

SUCCEDERE

Finally, let’s talk about the Italian verb succedere. One of the main doubts about how to conjugate Italian verb forms someone might have can be related to the past participle of this verb.

Indeed, in Italian the verb succedere has two possible forms in the past participle: successo and succeduto.

However, these two forms do not carry the same meaning.

For example, I can’t say è succeduta una cosa inaspettata – something unexpected happened – but I have to say è successa una cosa inaspettata.

So, when do we use successo and when succeduto?

Well, successo usually means happened while succeduto usually means succeeded.

Examples:

a. Cos’è successo qui? Chi ha versato tutta quest’acqua?
What happened here? Who spilled all this water?

b. Enrico VI è succeduto a re Enrico V
Henry VI succeded King Henry V

What are some of the doubts you have about how to conjugate Italian verb forms? Let me know in the comments below.


Credits

Original image by Alexas_Fotos

Related Posts:

  • Are you beset by doubts when you use Italian verbs?
    Are you beset by doubts when you use Italian verbs?
  • How to use the verb piacere in Italian
    How to use the verb piacere in Italian
  • What do averla, aversela and avercela mean in Italian?
    What do averla, aversela and avercela mean in Italian?

Category: Grammar, Learn ItalianTag: Italian, Italian language, Italian verbs, learn Italian, Sos Italian

Previous Post: «Italian folklore characters – Il buffarello Italian folklore characters – Il buffarello
Next Post: Italian cold dishes to impress your friends in Summer Italian cold dishes to startle your friends in Summer»

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

six + 5 =

Primary Sidebar

Italian grammar: beginner to advanced

Newsletter

Join my newsletter and get a piece of Italy delivered right into your inbox!

Learn Italian with my online courses

Sos Italian - Online Italian classes

Categories

  • Culture
  • English-Italian texts
  • Grammar
  • Italian food and drinks
  • Italian Language Certifications
  • Learn Italian
  • Learning
  • Teaching
  • Translation
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized

Advertising

Archives

  • Popular

Footer

Terms and Conditions

© Copyright En

Privacy Policy

Termini e Condizioni

© Copyright It

P. Iva: 02736390028

Copyright © 2023

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings.

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookies should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.

3rd Party Cookies

This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages.

This website uses Pixel Facebook to better measure, optimize, and retarget our marketing campaigns.

This website uses AdSense to enable an analysis of the use of the website and to allow third party vendors, including Google, to use cookies to serve ads based on a user’s prior visits to this website or other websites.

Keeping these cookies enabled helps us improve our website.

Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!

Cookie Policy

More information about our Privacy and Cookie Policy

Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance