Lesson 11: Guardo la TV di sera. I watch TV in the evening.

In this lesson we’ll look at regular verbs ending in -are. We’ll also look at some time expressions.

Parlo italiano.

Let’s start with some common verbs in the io (I) form. Notice that they all end in –o.

• Parlo italiano ed inglese.  
  I speak Italian and English.
• Studio l’italiano.
  I study Italian.
• Abito in campagna.
  I live in the countryside.
• Lavoro in città.
  I work in the city.
• Ascolto un podcast.
  I listen to a podcast.
• Guardo la TV di sera.
  I watch TV in the evening.
• Non mangio molto di mattina.
  I don’t eat a lot in the morning.
• Viaggio in Italia l’anno prossimo.
  I’m traveling to Italy next year.

NOTE: Notice that e (and) becomes ed when the next word begins with a vowel. The only time this is technically required is when the next word begins with an –e. But you’ll hear many speakers use ed before e, i, and sometimes even other vowel sounds. Also remember that you can negate a verb by putting non in front of it: Non mangio molto di mattina. (I don’t eat a lot in the morning.) Here are some expressions that you can use to say when you do something.

• di mattina in the morning
• di pomeriggio in the afternoon
• di sera in the evening
• di notte at night

GRAMMAR NOTE

Many common Italian verbs are irregular, meaning that their forms are not completely predictable, so you have to memorize them. You’ve seen two very common examples already: essere (to be) and avere (to have).

Luckily, most Italian verbs are regular, so you only need to learn a simple pattern in order to conjugate them. There are three categories of regular Italian verbs, named after the ending of their infinitive (to form). The biggest category is –are verbs, and you’ve just seen several examples: parlare (to speak), studiare (to study), abitare (to live), lavorare (to work), guardare (to watch), mangiare (to eat), and viaggiare (to travel).

Parlo, Parli, Parla

To conjugate a regular –are verb, take off the -are ending, which leaves you with the stem (parl-, studi-, lavor-), then add the endings –o, -i, -a, -iamo, -iate, -ano. (If the stem already ends in -i, as in studiare, don’t add a second -i in the tu and noi forms.)

Congratulations!

You’ve completed the lesson. Go back and review if you’d like, or take the practice quizzes to test yourself. If you’d like to set up a live practice lesson with an instructor, email us at info@thelanguagegarage.com, or enroll in live online lessons here. Some quick links you may want to use:

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