La negazione - Negation

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OUR NEW NAME AND ADDRESS IS VIA OPTIMAE! {www.viaoptimae.com}

Didattichiamo! will slowly be phased out, so read this post on our new site and subscribe by email to receive our latest updates.

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After covering the simple tense of -ARE, -ERE, and -IRE verbs, you are able to conjugate a large number of regular verbs and express a large number of concepts.  

You may want to have your worksheets and conjugation practice handy from the previous lessons.  If you missed them, or need more review, start there first: 

UPDATE: all links redirect to the same post on the new site, VIA OPTIMAE
  (1) How Italian verbs work (Intro to verbs & grammar terms)
  (2) Italian present tense: -ARE verbs
  (3) Italian present tense: -ERE verbs
  (4) Italian present tense: -IRE verbs

For example, you know that "mangiare" means "to eat", and it's a regular -ARE verb, so "I eat" is:

Mangio

"Leggere" is a regular -ERE verb that means "to read", so "I read" is:

Leggo

"Dormire" is a regular -IRE verb that means "to sleep", so "I sleep" is:

Dormo

"Finire"  is a regular -IRE verb that takes -ISC- and means "to finish" so "I finish" is:

Finisco

So, collectively, we have:

Mangio, leggo, dormo e finisco.

I eat, I read, I sleep and I finish.

But how do you say…

I don't eat?

I don't read?

I don't sleep?

I don't finish?

Luckily for us, Italian negation is much simpler than English… you just add "non" before the verb.

So, "I don't eat" is:

Non mangio

"I don't read" is:

Non leggo

"I don't sleep" is:

Non dormo

and "I don't finish" is:

Non finisco

Easy right?  

(Hear "non" pronounced by native speaker PhoenixLo at Forvo.com: )

Looking at some of the conjugation tables that you completed in previous lessons, try repeating each verb aloud, adding the negation "non" to each.



Double negatives
In English, we are taught that double negatives are bad… "I don't never eat" sounds at best confusing, and at worst just plain wrong.

In Italian, however, double negatives are required.  Let's see how that works:


"Never", in Italian, is: 

mai

never

(sounds a bit like the English "my"...hear it pronounced thanks to Heracleum at Forvo.com!)

So to say "I never do something" you must use both "non"  and "mai" as follows:

So "I never eat" is:

Non mangio mai.

I never eat.

Using the above, try translating the following:

(highlight below each to reveal answers)

I never read.

Non leggo mai.

I never sleep.

Non dormo mai.

I never finish...

Non finisco mai...

Again, review your conjugation tables and try saying each verb out loud, adding the formula "non" (verb) "mai"… 

I made a worksheet, with a quick summary of the concepts discussed as well as practice exercises, available as a free downloadable PDF: 

UPDATE: the worksheet can now be accessed from this post on the new site VIA OPTIMAE

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La negazione- Negation Worksheet PDF

(UPDATE: redirects to this post on the new site VIA OPTIMAE)

  

That's it! I leave you now with one more example:

Non mi stanco mai di studiare.

I never get tired of studying.

E tu?

-Alex

P.S. Feel free to submit your answers to didattichiamo (@) gmail.com for free corrections! UPDATE: viaoptimae {@gmail.com}

Ready to move on to the next lesson in this series?

TRY:  Ogni quanto? Quante volte?: The Simple Present Tense & Expressions of Frequency UPDATE: redirects to the same post on the new site, VIA OPTIMAE

Italian present tense: -ARE verbs

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OUR NEW NAME AND ADDRESS IS VIA OPTIMAE! {www.viaoptimae.com}

Didattichiamo! will slowly be phased out, so read this post on our new site and subscribe by email to receive our latest updates.

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As I said in: How Italian verbs work, (Start there if you missed it!— UPDATE: redirects to same post on the new site, Via Optimae) Italian verbs are all about knowing how to identify the stem, and add the appropriate ending for each subject/tense.  

Today, we're going to look at the Simple Present Tense and in particular, -ARE verbs: 

[We'll cover -ERE and -IRE forms at a later date —Again, review How Italian verbs work (redirects you to the same post on the new site, Via Optimae) in case you're not sure what that means]

To conjugate -ARE verbs in the simple present tense, just drop the -ARE from the infinitive form, and add one of the following endings:

So, if I wanted to conjugate the regular verb: 'parlare' in the first person singular or 'io' it would look like this:

Parlo 

I speak

Parlo l'italiano.

I speak Italian.

Applying the same conjugation process to all the other subjects, I end up with this chart:

↓

-Parli l'italiano?

Do you speak Italian?

-Sì, parlo l'italiano.

Yes, I speak Italian.

-Parlano l'italiano?

Do they speak Italian?

-No, parlano l'inglese.

No, they speak English.

Using the above examples as clues, how would you say:  "We speak Italian." ? ("We" is "noi", review subject pronouns if needed in: How Italian Verbs Work)

[Highlight below to reveal answer]

Parliamo l'italiano.

Here are some other regular -ARE verbs:

portare - to bring

amare - to love

arrivare - to arrive

trovare - to find

Can you write out the present tense conjugations for each?  

↓

~ I recommend writing them out in a two column, three row table format so that you can refer back to them easily…   You can also use one of the following free printable PDFs… Choose either blank or with a quick summary:

UPDATE:  Worksheet links will redirect you to this post on the new site, Via Optimae

Blank conjugation tables
(Blank so you can use them to practice any tense conjugation)

-or-

Italian simple present tense -ARE Summary and tables 
(A summary of this lesson next to blank tables to help you practice.)

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You can verify your answers or look up the conjugation for any verb/tense in Word Reference's handy conjugator:

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The simple present tense is the first column of the first row labeled "presente."

Spell-change verbs

There are other verbs that are regular, except when you add the regular endings, it creates weird letter combinations or sounds in Italian.  These are called Spell-change verbs.

One example is mangiare.  If you simply drop the -ARE as you are supposed to and conjugate, you will get the following forms:

io mangio✓

tu mangii ✗ (why so many i's?, should be mangi)

lui/lei mangia ✓

noi mangiiamo ✗ (again, why so many i's? should be mangiamo)

voi mangiate ✓

loro mangiano ✓

To avoid the "too many i's syndrome", you just drop one of them… A quick spelling change so that you're left with normal forms:

Other Spell-change verbs add an "h" to some of the forms so that the verb maintains its original sound.  This is because of how "c" and "g" are pronounced depending on the vowel that follows.

"C" when followed by an "o", "a", or "u" makes a hard sound, like a "k" in English:

giocare  /dʒoˈkare/  (listen to pronunciation on wordreference) 

to play

"C" when followed by an "i" or an "e" makes a sound like "ch" in English:

cinque /ˈtʃinkwe/ (listen to pronunciation on wordreference)

five

When you conjugate 'giocare' in the present tense following the normal rules, you'll get the following:

io gioco✓  (the "c" maintains its "k" sound)

tu gioci ✗ (oops the "c" is like "ch" we need an h! giochi✓)

lui/lei gioca ✓

noi giociamo ✗ (again, our "c" is now "ch" we need an h! giochiamo✓)

voi giocate ✓

loro giocano ✓

The "h" in the above examples tells readers: "Say this like a k!"  By adding the "h" we maintain the original sound of the verb.  All the correct forms:

Now with the "h" all the forms maintain the same "k" sound as the original infinitive "giocare"

Similarly, "g" also makes a "hard" sound (like the "g" in "great) when followed by "a", "o", or "u":

pagare /paˈgare/ (listen to pronunciation on wordreference)

to pay

When followed by a "e" or "i" the "g" becomes "soft" like the "j" in English 'judge'.

giusto     /ˈdʒusto/    (listen to pronunciation on wordreference)

just, fair

When you conjugate 'pagare' in the present tense following the normal rules, you'll get the following:

io pago✓  (the "g" maintains its hard sound)

tu pagi ✗ (oops the "g" is now like "j" of judge we need an h! paghi✓)

lui/lei paga ✓

noi pagiamo ✗ (again, our "g" has changed, we need an h! paghiamo✓)

voi pagate ✓

loro pagano ✓

The "h" in the "tu" and "noi" forms tells us to keep the hard sound, so now all the forms have the same "g" sound as the original infinitive:

Here are some more spell-change -ARE verbs.  Using the rules above, can you conjugate and incorporate the appropriate spelling changes?

[Again, you can use either the blank conjugation tables or the conjugation tables plus -ARE present tense review as worksheets, if desired.]

elogiare   [check your answers]

to praise 

mancare  [check your answers]

to be missing 

legare     [check your answers]

to tie, fasten

That's it for now on -ARE verbs... keep practicing until the forms become natural to you.  Use the words in the image at the beginning of the post- they're all regular or spell-change -ARE verbs!

Happy Conjugating!

-Alex

Ready to move on to the next lesson in this series?

TRY:  Italian Present Tense: -ERE verbs (redirects you to new site, Via Optimae)

Try this free online -ARE verb conjugation exercise:

Conjuguemos: Italian -ARE verbs

How Italian verbs work

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OUR NEW NAME AND ADDRESS IS VIA OPTIMAE! {www.viaoptimae.com}

Didattichiamo! will slowly be phased out, so read this post on our new site and subscribe by email to receive our latest updates.

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Grammar books throw around terms like infinitive, person, conjugation, tense, regular and irregular all the time... but what do they really mean?  

All those terms are related to verbs and can be useful to understanding how Italian verbs work, so let's break them down:

INFINITIVE

Infinitive refers to the most basic form of the verb, the general verb that tells us nothing of tense (when it occurs)  or person (who did it.)

In English, infinitives have the word "to" in front of them.

to speak

to eat

to read

to write

to sleep

to finish

As you can see in the above examples, these have a very general meaning.  They refer to the action itself, and have no subject or time.

In Italian, infinitive verbs always end with one of three endings:  -ARE  -ERE  or -IRE.

parlare

mangiare

leggere

scrivere

dormire

finire

These are the same verbs from the English infinitives, and have the same meaning- they refer to the action itself and have no person or time.

PERSON

Person refers to the subject or the one doing the action. In Italian and English, they are:

If you hear somebody say "1st person singular" just know that's a fancy way of saying "I" or "io." If you hear third person plural, that's just "they" or "loro."  Easy right?

CONJUGATION

Verb endings are very important in Italian because they contain a lot of information about the tense (when the action occurred) and the subject (who did it.)  As we saw before, infinitives always have one of three endings: -ARE, -ERE or -IRE and the rest of the verb is what we call the stem or root:

To express another time or tense, you change the infinitive ending (again -ARE, -ERE, or -IRE) with the ending for that tense and subject.  

In the following example, I want to conjugate parlare in the 1st person (io) present tense, so the ending I use is 'o':

Here, I've CONJUGATED the verb parlare 'to speak' into the first person present tense: parlo 'I speak'.  As you can see, all the information is in the verb ending.

TENSE

Learning a new tense in Italian means learning new sets of verb endings.  In general, there are different endings for each verb group (-ARE, -ERE or -IRE) and for each person (io, tu, lui/lei, noi, voi, loro)

(This may seem like a lot, but the variations from one group to the next become quite intuitive once you've learned one of them!)

Let's look at the simple present tense endings for -ARE verbs:

TIP: When learning a new tense, write out all the conjugations in a two column, three line chart like the one above.  That way, the subjects will be clear without having to write them out every time.

Given the above endings and the fact that the root of 'parlare' is 'parl-' we can write out the present tense conjugations of 'parlare':

REGULAR/IRREGULAR

If a verb is Regular, that means it follows the predictable conjugation pattern.  'Parlare' in the example above, is regular: drop -ARE and add the present tense endings, and those are the present tense forms.

There are many regular verbs, so once you've learned how to conjugate one, you can figure out the conjugations of many others.

For example, 'fermare' 'to stop'  is also a regular verb.  Use the -ARE ending chart above if needed, write out the present tense conjugations of 'fermare': 

(Highlight the space below to reveal the answers)

io fermo               noi fermiamo

tu fermi               voi fermate 

lui/lei ferma         loro fermano

IRREGULAR verbs are ones that don't follow the predictable patterns above.  A very common irregular verb is 'essere' 'to be'  You cannot drop the -ERE and add endings, instead you must memorize each conjugation: (This verb is used so frequently, you'll have it memorized in no time, don't worry!)

We'll cover the -ERE and -IRE present tense conjugations in a later post (stay tuned!) but in the meantime...

How are we feeling?  Are all these grammar terms starting to make sense? Anything you're still not sure about?  Feel free to comment to this post or email me using the email form on the righthand side of the page... I'm happy to help!

Happy Studying!

-Alex

Ready to move on to the next lesson in this series?

TRY:  Italian Present Tense: -ARE verbs

Neffa - Quando Sorridi: Song Meaning, Lyrics & Present Tense Italian Verbs

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OUR NEW NAME AND ADDRESS IS VIA OPTIMAE! {www.viaoptimae.com}

Didattichiamo! will slowly be phased out, so read this post on our new site and subscribe by email to receive our latest updates.

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The upbeat tune and the simple, straightforward lyrics make Neffa's Quando Sorridi (When you smile) the perfect song to work on your Italian pronunciation as well as see the simple present tense of some common Italian verbs in use.

First, familiarize yourself with the song using this video which includes the lyrics:

(As always, I recommend singing along when you can! It will improve your pronunciation, cadence, and rhythm  so you sound more natural, plus it will help commit vocabulary and expressions to memory!)

Now, let's take a look at the verbs in the song, all of which are in the simple present tense or the infinitive (the unconjugated form of the verb, roughly corresponding to "to + verb" in English and ending in -are, -ere or -ire in Italian.)

I've underlined verbs in the simple present tense.. for each, what is the infinitive form? is it a regular or irregular verb? what is the subject of the verb? (Remember, in Italian the subject is rarely expressed with the subject pronoun, and most often determined by the verb ending!)

Ognuno ha un peso da portare con sé 

non dirmi che tu non lo sai 

Ma più ci pensi e più succede che poi 

finisce che non ce la fai 

Sospesi in volo su una grande giostra al suono della musica 

giriamo io e te 

giriamo io e te 

La stessa vita così amara qualche istante fa 

se solo tu vuoi poi diventa più dolce che mai 

Non lo sai che quando sorridi 

è un attimo 

E così i pensieri più tristi 

svaniscono 

A che serve farsi la vita difficile 

se alla fine è già complicata così com'è 

Ognuno ha un po' amore dentro si sé 

non dirmi che tu non ce l'hai 

Ma più ne chiedi e più non serve perché 

dipende da quanto ne dai 

E poi lasciarti andare fino in fondo alla tua solitudine 

se è quello che vuoi 

se è quello che vuoi 

Ma finché al mondo c'è qualcuno che ci tiene a te 

ricorda se puoi quello è il bene più grande che hai 

Non lo sai che quando sorridi 

è un attimo 

e così i pensieri più tristi 

svaniscono 

a che serve farsi la vita difficile 

se alla fine è già complicata così com'è x3

Thanks to angolotesti.it for the song lyrics!

Compare your answers to my list of verbs (complete with the full present tense conjugations and meanings) here:

Verbs di Quando Sorridi da Neffa on Google docs

(document link only available through the same post on the new site, Via Optimae)

Now, listen to the song again- paying close attention to the verbs.  Do you have a better idea of what is being said and who the singer is "talking" to?

Now let's look at my rough translation of the lyrics in English.  Once you've read through them, listen to the song again and see if you can associate the Italian words with the English translation.  In some cases, you'll see that they correspond word for word, in other cases, the wording changes quite a bit.  Do you agree with the translation?  Anything you would have translated differently?

Neffa- Quando Sorridi Lyrics in English:


Everybody has a weight to carry along
Don't tell me that you don't know
But the more you think about it, the more it happens that
It ends up that you can't handle it.

Suspended on a big merry-go-round to the sound of the music
You and I go around
You and I go around
The same life, that was so bitter just a second ago
becomes sweeter than ever if you just want it to…

Don't you know that when you smile
It takes just a second
And all you're saddest thoughts
Disappear
What's the point of making life difficult
When it's already complicated enough, just as it is

Everybody has a bit of love inside themselves
Don't tell me that you don't have it.
But the more you ask for it the more it doesn't work because
It depends on how much of it you give.
And then you let yourself go to the very depths of your loneliness
If that's what you want
If that's what you want
But as long as in the world there is somebody who cares about you
Remember if you can, that that's the biggest asset you have.

Don't you know that when you smile
It takes just a second
And all you're saddest thoughts
Disappear
What's the point of making life difficult
When it's already complicated enough, just as it is.

Is the song a little clearer?  More meaningful?  What is the message of the song?  Do you agree with it?

To me, the song is a simple reminder that how you react to situations and events in life is important and choosing to smile is a powerful way to instantly improve everything. Life can be difficult at times, but remembering what really counts can provide a little perspective and make even life's complications more enjoyable.

So, keep pressing play.. and Sorridi!

-Alex

*At the time of posting, this song was not available on amazon.com (where I generally buy all of my music) but they do have another, recent Neffa hit: "Molto Calmo" which I also recommend!