Italian Irregular Verbs
Italian irregular verbs are verbs that do not follow the regular -are, -ere or -ire patterns in at least one tense. They include the verbs you use most, such as essere, avere, fare, andare and volere.
A verb is irregular when one or more of its forms cannot be built from the infinitive with the regular endings. The irregular forms are rarely spread across the whole table. They usually appear in four places: the present tense, the past participle, the future and conditional, and the passato remoto. The imperfetto is almost always regular, so even andare gives andavo and venire gives venivo. Essere is the main exception: ero, eri, era.
In the present tense, many irregular verbs change their stem in the forms where the stem is stressed. Andare has vado, vai, va but andiamo, andate; uscire has esco but usciamo; dovere has devo but dobbiamo. Other verbs add a g in the io and loro forms: venire gives vengo and vengono, tenere gives tengo and tengono, and salire gives salgo and salgono. Many irregular verbs also have a short past participle that you must learn by heart, such as fatto (fare), detto (dire), rimasto (rimanere), scelto (scegliere) and morto (morire). Essere and stare share the participle stato: sono stato can mean I have been or I have stayed.
In the future and the conditional, some verbs drop the vowel of the infinitive: andare gives andrò, vedere gives vedrò, avere gives avrò, and potere gives potrò. Others drop the vowel too, and then the consonant before it becomes a second r: bere gives berrò, venire gives verrò, tenere gives terrò, volere gives vorrò and rimanere gives rimarrò. The conditional always uses the same stem as the future, so once you know andrò you also know andrei, and once you know verrò you know verrei. The passato remoto is the other tense with many irregular forms, such as feci, dissi, ebbi, fui, venni and volli.
Four verbs look strange for a historical reason: fare, dire, bere and tradurre are short forms of older, longer infinitives, facere, dicere, bevere and traducere. Most of their forms come from the long stem, which is why you say faccio, facevo and facendo; dico, dicevo and dicendo; bevo, bevevo and bevendo; traduco, traducevo and traducendo. If you remember the long infinitive, you can build those forms as if the verb were a regular -ERE verb. The short infinitive returns in the future: farò, dirò, berrò, tradurrò.
Core Irregulars
These ten verbs are among the most used in Italian, and each one is irregular in several tenses. Essere (sono, sei, è) and avere (ho, hai, ha) also form every compound tense, as in ho fatto and sono andata. Andare and uscire change their stem in the present (vado, andiamo; esco, usciamo), venire adds a g (vengo, vengono), and fare, dire and bere use their old long stems (faccio, dico, bevo). Dare and stare are short -ARE verbs with irregular forms like diedi and stetti in the passato remoto.
Modal Verbs
Volere, potere and dovere are usually followed directly by an infinitive, with no preposition: voglio partire, posso entrare, devo lavorare. Sapere works the same way when it means to know how to: so nuotare. All four have irregular presents (voglio, posso, devo, so; vogliamo, possiamo, dobbiamo, sappiamo) and short futures (vorrò, potrò, dovrò, saprò). In compound tenses, careful Italian uses the auxiliary of the infinitive that follows: ho dovuto lavorare, but sono dovuto partire.
Other Irregulars
These verbs are irregular in fewer forms, mostly in the present tense. Rimanere, salire and tenere add a g in the io and loro forms (rimango, salgo, tengo; rimangono, salgono, tengono), scegliere swaps gl for lg (scelgo, scelgono), riuscire changes u to e (riesco, riescono), and morire changes o to uo when the stem is stressed (muoio, muore). Rimanere and tenere also have futures with rr (rimarrò, terrò), and rimanere, scegliere and morire have irregular participles (rimasto, scelto, morto). Piacere doubles the c in some forms (piaccio, piacciono) and takes essere: mi è piaciuto.
-durre Verbs
Tradurre and the other verbs in -durre, such as produrre, ridurre and condurre, come from older infinitives in -ducere. They use the stem traduc- in most tenses, as if the infinitive were traducere: traduco, traduci, traducevo, traducendo, che io traduca. The future and the conditional use the short infinitive with rr (tradurrò, tradurrei). The past participle is tradotto and the passato remoto is tradussi, tradusse, tradussero.
Frequently asked questions
- What makes an Italian verb irregular?
- A verb is irregular when some of its forms do not follow the regular endings of its group. The changes usually affect the present tense stem (vado, esco, vengo), the past participle (fatto, detto, rimasto), the future stem (andrò, berrò, verrò) or the passato remoto (feci, dissi, venni).
- What are the most common Italian irregular verbs?
- The most common are essere, avere, fare, dire, andare, venire, dare, stare, uscire and bere, plus the modal verbs volere, potere, dovere and sapere. You need them from your first week of Italian.
- Why is the future of andare andrò and not anderò?
- Andare drops the vowel of the infinitive in the future, so the stem is andr- instead of the regular ander-. Avere (avrò), vedere (vedrò), potere (potrò), dovere (dovrò) and sapere (saprò) work the same way. The conditional uses the same stem: andrei, avrei, vedrei.
- Why does fare become faccio and facevo?
- Fare is a short form of the older infinitive facere. Most of its forms come from the long stem fac-: faccio, facevo, facendo, che io faccia. Dire (dicere), bere (bevere) and tradurre (traducere) work the same way: dico, bevo, traduco.
- Are irregular verbs irregular in every tense?
- No. Most irregular verbs have a regular imperfetto (andavo, volevo, venivo) and regular gerunds (andando, volendo). Essere is the main exception, with the imperfetto ero, eri, era. The verbs from older infinitives are regular if you start from the long stem: facevo, dicevo, bevevo.