Present tense: verb patterns and high-frequency verbs
Green takes over. Three regular patterns and seven irregular workhorses.
Colours live this week
10 of 10 in playA thing, a person or a place.
An action or a state — what is happening.
Describes a noun.
Modifies a verb or an adjective.
the / a / some — and possessives like mon, ma.
Stands in for a noun — I, you, he, it.
Links words together — to, in, of, for.
Joins two parts of a sentence.
Opens a question — where, when, how, why.
Learn it whole. Do not take it apart.
The full palette has been live since Week 4. From here on nothing new is introduced — you simply use all nine.
The disappearing pronoun
Italian normally leaves out io, tu and lei, because the verb ending already says who is speaking. Parlo means I speak on its own. So blue appears far less often here than in French, and when a pronoun does turn up it is usually there for emphasis — io pago, I'll pay. The forms to produce are io, lei, lui/lei and noi. Tu and loro are recognition-only for now.
The three regular patterns
One model verb per group, and most Italian verbs follow. Note that the noi ending is -iamo for all three groups, which is one thing fewer to remember.
| Verb | ioreviewed | tu | lui / lei | noi | voi | loro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| parlareto speak (-are group) | parlo | parli | parla | parliamo | parlate | parlano |
| prendereto take (-ere group) | prendo | prendi | prende | prendiamo | prendete | prendono |
| dormireto sleep (-ire group) | dormo | dormi | dorme | dormiamo | dormite | dormono |
Only the io column becomes a review card. The rest are there to be recognised, not produced — which is what keeps a day inside its fifteen minutes.
Seven irregular verbs worth more than any others
These do not follow a pattern, and it does not matter — they turn up so often that repetition does the work.
| Verb | ioreviewed | tu | lui / lei | noi |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| essereto be | sono | sei | è | siamo |
| avereto have | ho | hai | ha | abbiamo |
| andareto go | vado | vai | va | andiamo |
| fareto do or make | faccio | fai | fa | facciamo |
| poterecan, to be able | posso | puoi | può | possiamo |
| volereto want | voglio | vuoi | vuole | vogliamo |
| venireto come | vengo | vieni | viene | veniamo |
Only the io column becomes a review card. The rest are there to be recognised, not produced — which is what keeps a day inside its fifteen minutes.
Chunks built from those verbs
- [sono]I am
- [ho]I have
- [vado]I'm going
- [può]you can / he can
- [c'è]there is
- [ci sono]there are
Italian keeps singular and plural apart here, where Spanish uses hay for both.
Sentence frames
- 1
Parlo un po' d'italiano.
I speak a little Italian.
The single most useful sentence you will learn all year.
- 2
Può ripetere, [per favore]?
Can you repeat, please?
- 3
Andiamo al bar.
We're going to the bar.
In Italy a bar is where you get coffee in the morning. It is not a pub.
Daily mini-tasks
Listening this week
Coffee Break Italian — the verb episodes
Season 1
Clear conjugation drills. Ideal for shadowing at 0.75× speed.