Basic Italian: A Grammar and Workbook

Some verbs ending in -ire add -isc-, as in the present indicative (see Unit 5): In the first person plural, the meaning is more ...

4 Verbs ending in -iare have only one -i in the second person singular and the first and third persons plural: Forms of some irr ...

The second person singular of these verbs has two forms: the form with the apostrophe is normally used with unstressed pronouns ...

In the plural, as usual, the second person is more commonly used than the third: Negative form 9 For the second person singular, ...

Position of unstressed pronouns 10 When the imperative is used in an affirmative sentence with an unstressed pronoun (direct obj ...

Exercise 1 Supply the imperative of the verb in brackets. Example: (tu pagare) il conto: paga Exercise 2 Supply the polite form ...

Exercise 4 Change the imperatives into the affirmative. Examples: Non parlate!: Parlate! Non mi guardare: Guardami! Exercise 5 C ...

UNIT TWENTY-TWO The pronoun si The pronoun si is used as an impersonal subject, either in sentences without a specified subject, ...

Si in sentences with a passive meaning 3 Si is also used as an impersonal subject in sentences which have a passive meaning, lik ...

Negative form 4 The negative is formed by putting non before the pronoun: Si used with the auxiliary essere 5 When si occurs wit ...

Exercise 1 Complete the sentences with the correct form of the verb. Examples: Dal balcone si (vedere) le montagne: vedono; A Na ...

Exercise 3 Change the sentences into impersonal form by using the pronoun si. Examples: Non devi mangiare con le mani: Non si ma ...

UNIT TWENTY-THREE The present conditional Use of the present conditional 1 The present conditional expresses an action which dep ...

Be sure not to confuse the spelling of these endings (all with -emmo) with the corresponding ones of the future (all with -emo) ...

3 Verbs ending in -care and -gare add h before the endings of the present conditional in order to keep the hard sound of c and g ...

6 Dare, fare and stare follow the same pattern as essere: 7 Andare, cadere, dovere, potere, sapere, vedere and vivere follow the ...

The present conditional of volere is often used to expresses wishes and requests in a polite form, corresponding to the English ...

Exercise 2 Rewrite the sentences, changing the italicised verbs into the present conditional. Example: Veniamo volentieri: Verre ...

Key to exercises UNIT 1 Exercise 1 1m 2f 3m 4f 5f 6m 7m 8m 9m 10m/f 11m 12f 13 m/f 14 m 15 f 16 f 17 m/f 18 m 19 m 20 f Exercise ...

11 un’ 12 uno 13 una 14 un’ 15 uno 16 un 17 uno 18 un 19 uno 20 un’ Exercise 3 1lo 2una 3le 4un’ 5la 6il 7un’ 8l’, un 9 il 10 lo ...