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.3Moods and tenses of verbsIn this section, we look at each mood and tense of verbs individually, with a briefillustration of their use.2.3.1Infinitive mood (Infinito)The infinitive is the basic form of verbs, and the one used as dictionary entry (inother words, the name of the verb).It is the infinitive form (-are, -ere, -ire or -rre) that tells us which conjugation a verb belongs to.The infinitive has a present and a past tense.The past is formed by the pastparticiple and the infinitive avere or essere.When formed with essere, the pastinfinitive changes form to agree with the verb subject (see examples below).Present Pastandare to go essere andato/a/i/e to be gonevivere to live essere vissuto/a/i/e to have livedsentire to hear avere sentito to have heard50 MODERN ITALIAN GRAMMARIrregular infinitivesThere are two groups of 2nd conjugation verbs with an irregular infinitive (i.e.not ending in the usual -ere form):(a) Verbs with infinitive in -urreSeveral verbs have an infinitive in -urre, which is a contracted form of theoriginal infinitive *-ucere (*producere, etc.).In fact several of the tenses arebased on the original stem in *-duc- (see 2.3.3 below for the present indicativeforms).produrre `to produce' introdurre `to introduce, insert'condurre `to conduct, lead' tradurre `to translate'and a few more�(b) Verbs with infinitive in -orreSeveral verbs have an infinitive in -orre.In their present indicative, these verbsfollow the -go pattern shown below (2.3.3).Their infinitive is a contracted formof the original *ponere:porre `to place, put' proporre `to propose' supporre `to suppose'Some uses of the infinitiveVerbs used in the infinitive generally depend on another verb:Dobbiamo partire alle 7.We must leave at 7 o'clock.Sai usare il computer?Can you use the computer?Penso di avere capito.I think I have understood.Non riesco a sentire la tua voce.I can't hear your voic e.In most cases the infinitive is linked to preceding verbs by a preposition such asdi or a (see the last two examples above and Chapter 4 Prepositions).However withthe verbs potere, dovere, volere, sapere, preferire, desiderare, amare, osare,no preposition is needed.In Italian the subject of the infinitive must be the same as that of the verb onwhich it depends.Otherwise two separate finite verbs must be used, usuallylinked by che.So English sentences such as `I want you to come soon' cannot betranslated directly as *voglio tu venire presto, but have to be translated asSTRUCTURES 51voglio che tu venga presto, in order to make clear that the two different verbshave different subjects.An exception to this is when the main verb of the clause is fare or lasciare:Fammi passare.Let me pass.Lasciali parlare.Let them speak.Ho fatto entrare i signori.I allowed the gentlemen to come in.Infinitive as imperative: The infinitive can be used by itself, without dependingon another verb, when it is used to tell somebody not to do something, i.e.as anegative imperative, in the second person singular (see 21.2):Zitto, non parlare.Be quiet, don't speak.Non sporgersi dal finestrino.Don't lean out of the window.Here something that was originally the imperative of a verb used reflexively nonti scordare& `do not forget�!' has now become the name of a flower:Nontiscordardim� `Forget-me-not'Infinitive as a noun: Infinitive verbs are often used instead of nouns, sometimespreceded by the definite article, in the masculine singular form:Lavorare stanca.Work is tiring.Mangiare � necessario per vivere.Eating is necessary for life.Il sapere degli antichi si trasmette di generazione in generazione.The wisdom of the ancients is handed down from generation togeneration.52 MODERN ITALIAN GRAMMAR2.3.2Indicative mood: introductionThe indicative mood is used to express straightforward statements of facts,objective descriptions, real and definite situations, etc.We shall look here at the eight tenses of the indicative mood, both regular andirregular forms, with a brief reference to their use, covered in detail in Part B.2.3.3Present indicative (Indicativo presente)The forms of the present indicative of the three regular conjugations are shown inthe verb tables above (2.2).In addition to avere, essere, dovere, potere, volere shown in the verb tables,some common verbs with an irregular present indicative are illustrated below.Irregular present indicatives: 1st conjugation Some verbs in the 1stconjugation present potential difficulties of spelling [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]