The Italian present tense (presente) is happening right now. It's a simple tense—that is, the verb form consists of one word only. The present tense of a regular Italian verb is formed by dropping the infinitive ending and adding the appropriate endings to the resulting stem.
The present tense of a regular -are verb is formed by dropping the infinitive ending -are and adding the appropriate endings to the resulting stem (-o, -i, -a, -iamo, -ate, -ano). See the table below for a sample conjugation of amare (to love).
PRESENT TENSE CONJUGATION OF AMARE (TO LOVE)
PERSON
SINGULAR
PLURAL
I
(io) amo (I love)
(noi) amiamo (we love)
II
(tu) ami (you love, familiar)
(voi) amate (you love, familiar)
III
(Lei) ama (you love, formal)
(Loro) amano (you love, formal)
(lui/lei) ama (he/she loves)
(loro) amano (they love)
The infinitive of first-conjugation Italian verbs (those ending in -are) and the conjugated forms of the present tense are pronounced like most Italian words: the stress falls on the next-to-last syllable. The one exception is the third person plural form amano, which is pronounced AH-mah-noh, with stress falling on the first syllable. A few first-conjugation verbs are listed in the following table.
COMMON FIRST-CONJUGATION VERBS
accendere
to put out, extinguish
arrivare
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