Learn the top 25 verbs
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
| Desiree: Hi guys, here we are today with the top 25 Italian verbs. Let’s go see them |
| Essere “To be” |
| to be or not to be one. essere is just the plain form that we are going to change for every person that we use. So in the case of me, I can say Io sono Desiree. which means I am Desiree but the verb is still essere to be. |
| Avere “To have” |
| Avere means to have but be careful because in Italian, it’s not the same as in English. So for example, to say I am 20 years old, you don’t say essere, so you don’t use to be but you say I have 20 years old. Io ho vent’anni. |
| Fare “To do” |
| Basically fare it’s a general verb like you can use it with a lot of things. We have the specific verbs but if you go with fare it’s safe. You can use it any time. fare a cake, fare a discussion. Everything it’s fare. |
| Dire “To say” |
| About dire there is a fun phrase that we use, or maybe our grandmas, anyway. And it goes like, Tra il dire e il fare c’è di mezzo il mare, that means “from saying to doing, there is the sea in between”. So the meaning is it’s not so easy to go from saying to doing things. |
| Potere “Can” |
| Potere means can and it’s really useful because you can use it to ask permission. So Posso usare il bagno? “Can I use the bathroom?” Potere as a verb means can but potere with the article before, that is, il potere means “the power”. Puoi passarmi lo zucchero per favore? means “Can you pass me the sugar, please?” Sugar because I like sweet things. |
| Volere “Want” |
| Volere means want but it’s kind of a strong way to say things. So if you want to say I would like to it’s Volere. There is a famous phrase with volere, that is Volere è potere, and it means if you really want to do something, you can do it, you can manage somehow. |
| Sapere “To know” |
| When you are wrong and you tell people that you know that you are wrong, somehow they are happy. So if you are in Italy and you are late, and it always happens to me at least, you can say I know, I know, I know I am late… Lo so, lo so, so di essere in ritardo... and that will calm things. Like people will be like ok, ok vi aspetto okay, okay I am waiting but anyway for us it’s kind of normal to be late. So don’t worry too much if you are late. |
| Stare “To stay” |
| And you can use it with a location or with a condition. Do you want to go out tonight? Vuoi uscire stasera? you can say, no I am staying home. No, sto a casa. but it can also mean a condition. So if people ask you hey how are you Sto male means I am not good. I feel sick. Also you can use that to say that you are doing something. You are in the process of doing something Sto studiando. I am studying now. Something that’s right now. |
| Dovere “Must” |
| So if you have to work or if you have to do homework and people ask you ey again, do you want to go out tonight? No I can’t Devo studiare Devo lavorare. I have to study, I have to work. |
| Prendere “To take” |
| Prendere means to take. You can take a bus prendere un pullman take the underground prendere la metro. Be careful because we don’t use prendere for example with the bath or a shower. We don’t take a shower but we do a shower. So fare una doccia. |
| Vedere “To see” |
| Vedere means to see and it’s something that you can see, you can spot but you can also use it as meeting, like, Cosa fai stasera? What are you doing tonight? or I am seeing my mother or vedo mia mamma. That means I am going to meet her, probably have dinner together but it’s something planned. It’s something that I know already I am going to do. |
| Andare “To go” |
| So in case you really, really want to go to the sea, you can say Voglio andare al mare, vieni con me? I want to go to the sea, do you want to come with me? |
| In my case, it would be I would really like to go to Australia, do you want to come with me? Voglio veramente andare in Australia, vuoi venire con me? |
| Venire “To come” |
| In fact venire means to come and when you invite someone, you can say do you want to come tonight Vuoi venire stasera? |
| Dare “To give” |
| Can you give me some advice please Puoi darmi un consiglio, per favore? or when a baby is crying and you are like here, here look what I am giving you Guarda, guarda cosa ti do! So that’s a way of giving. |
| Parlare “To talk” |
| We don’t have the verb to speak. So we use parlare for both of them. I am talking to you Sto parlando con te. or I speak Japanese Io parlo giapponese. Agli Italiani piace parlare molto. Italians like to talk a lot. Can you say that? |
| Trovare “To find” |
| Trovare and it means to find. So you can say something like I find this book really interesting Trovo questo libro molto interessante. or I can’t find my pen anymore Non trovo piu la mia penna. or to me, I never find my passport anymore in front of the checking gates and I am like can you please help me and then I find it again. So yes, Ho trovato il passaporto. |
| Sentire “To hear” |
| Like I can hear people screaming. Sento gente urlare. but it’s not the same as saying listening to music for example. That would be ascoltare la musica. |
| Lasciare “To leave” |
| Leave a comment Lasciare un commento. also there are some teenagers that say a lot of time Lasciantemi il mio spazio. and that means leave my space. |
| Guardare “To look” |
| Guardare that means to look and it would be like ey look at me while I am talking to you. So Guardami mentre parlo. or can you have a look at these Puoi guardare un attimo questo? like if you want to ask for some advice or even maybe watching television, we would say Guardare la televisione. or even a movie Guardare un film. like I really like to watch horror movies. So Io guardo film horror. |
| Mettere “To put” |
| Mettere that means to put. So you can put your bag on the table Puoi mettere la tua borsa sul tavolo. or can you put away those games please Puoi mettere via quei giochi, per favore? |
| Pensare “To think” |
| I think that horror movie wasn’t scary Penso che quel film non fosse spaventoso per niente. or I think you can do better Penso che tu possa fare di meglio. |
| Passare “To pass” |
| Passare That means to pass. So can you please pass me the salt Puoi passarmi il sale, per favore? or oh I passed the exam Ho passato l’esame. |
| Credere“To believe” |
| Credere means to believe but in Italian, we don’t use that much to believe like ah I believe I can do that. Of course you can say it and people will understand you but that’s more I think I can do it. So Penso di farcela. more than Credo di farcela. I believe credere is more about leisures meeting. |
| Portare “To bring” |
| Portare that means to bring. So if I am inviting you to my party tonight and I ask you, can you bring the wine Puoi portare il vino? bring the Gelato, bring the ice cream. |
| Mangiare “To eat” |
| Mangiare that means to eat. So you can’t go to Italy and not eat anything. So you need to know this verb. |
| Yeah that’s it for the top 25 Italian verbs. Remember to subscribe and see you soon. |
Comments
Hide