Di with Verbs (verb + di + infinitive)

This page is a memorization-focused reference for the Italian verbs that take di + infinitive. There are roughly 40 high-frequency verbs in this category, and learners must memorize them one by one — there is no semantic rule that predicts which verbs take di and which take a. The arbitrariness is real and acknowledged: cercare (to try) takes di, provare (also to try) takes a; finire takes di, iniziare takes a; decidere takes di, but aiutare a decidere takes a. There is no logical shortcut. What this page offers instead is a careful grouping by semantic field, which makes the list easier to absorb because related verbs cluster together, and the patterns within each cluster are usually consistent.

By the end of this page you will know the major di + infinitive verbs by heart, you will know which categories tend to behave together, and you will know the parallel A-list (verbs that take a + infinitive) so that the contrast is sharp rather than confusing.

1. The pattern: verb + di + bare infinitive

The pattern is: conjugated verb + di + infinitive (the bare -are, -ere, -ire form). No further preposition between di and the infinitive; no conjunction; no article.

A small detail visible in the third example: when negating the embedded action, the non sits between di and the infinitive: spero di non arrivare (I hope not to arrive). It does not move outside the di.

If the embedded action is in the past (referring to something that has already happened), the infinitive becomes a past infinitive (aver + past participle): credo di aver capito (I believe I've understood), spero di aver fatto bene (I hope I did well). The preposition di still sits between the conjugated verb and the infinitive.

2. Group A: aspectual / temporal verbs

Verbs of finishing, stopping, ceasing — all the verbs that mark the end or interruption of an action — take di.

Note the asymmetry: verbs of starting (cominciare, iniziare) take a, not di. There is no semantic logic to this — it is a brute fact of Italian.

3. Group B: effort and attempt

Verbs of trying — except provare — take di.

The trap: provare a also means "to try" but takes a. The two verbs are near-synonyms but cannot share a preposition. Cerco di + infinitive and provo a + infinitive mean essentially the same thing in modern Italian, with subtle nuance: cercare di suggests sustained effort, while provare a suggests a single attempt or experiment.

4. Group C: decision, intention, planning

Verbs that express the formation or expression of a plan: decidere, pensare (in the planning sense), promettere, progettare, proporre.

The verb pensare di deserves special attention because it has two meanings depending on what follows:

• Pensare di + infinitive = to plan to, to be thinking of (intention): Penso di partire = I'm thinking of leaving.
• Pensare a + noun/pronoun = to think about (someone/something): Penso a te = I think about you.

Confusing the two is one of the most common errors. Penso di te is wrong (should be penso a te — "I think about you") and penso a partire is also unidiomatic when you mean "I plan to leave" (should be penso di partire).

5. Group D: memory and awareness

Verbs of remembering, forgetting, realizing, and noticing.

A peculiarity of this group: the verbs of awareness — accorgersi, rendersi conto — are almost always followed by a past infinitive (aver + past participle) when the realization is about something already happened.

The reflexive form dimenticarsi di and the non-reflexive dimenticare di are essentially synonymous in modern Italian, with dimenticarsi slightly more colloquial. Same for ricordare di / ricordarsi di. Both forms are correct.

6. Group E: mental state and belief

Verbs of believing, thinking (in the cognitive sense), hoping, fearing.

Note that credere a and credere in also exist with different meanings: credere a qualcuno (to believe what someone says), credere in Dio (to believe in God). Credere di + infinitive is specifically about the speaker's belief about their own action: credo di aver ragione = I believe I'm right.

7. Group F: need, desire, fear (with avere expressions)

Italian uses the structure avere + abstract noun + di for many states that English handles with be-adjective constructions: avere bisogno di (to need), avere voglia di (to feel like), avere paura di (to be afraid of), avere intenzione di (to intend).

This group is large because Italian relies heavily on avere + noun + di where English uses verbal predicates. Ho voglia di (I feel like) has no clean English equivalent and is one of the most useful patterns in everyday Italian.

8. Group G: emotion (be + adjective + di)

Many Italian adjectives that describe emotional states take di + infinitive. This shades into the territory of Di with Nouns and Adjectives, but several common patterns belong in any verb-list because they appear with essere so often.

The pattern is: essere + adjective + di + infinitive (or noun, see the next page). All these adjectives take di — there is no essere contento a or essere stanco con. Memorize the adjective with its preposition.

9. Group H: emotional reactions (reflexive di-verbs)

A particularly Italian construction: many reflexive verbs of emotional reaction take di. Each describes a feeling triggered by an action or fact.

Several of these can take a noun rather than an infinitive: fidarsi di Marco (trust Marco), innamorarsi di Maria (fall in love with Maria), occuparsi dei bambini (take care of the kids). The di persists across both contexts. The contraction with a definite article happens automatically: occuparsi dei bambini (di + i = dei).

The contrast with preoccuparsi per is worth noting. Preoccuparsi di tends to mean "to take care to (do something), see to it," while preoccuparsi per means "to worry about (someone or something)." Both are common; the prepositions are not interchangeable.

• Si preoccupa di chiudere bene la porta — He takes care to close the door properly.
• Si preoccupa per il figlio malato — He worries about his sick son.

10. Group I: speaking and reporting

A small but high-frequency group: verbs of telling, asking, ordering — when they introduce an indirect order or request via the infinitive.

These verbs have a recipient (an indirect object pronoun or a a + person phrase) and the di + infinitive clause specifies what the recipient is being told/asked/ordered to do.

11. The contrast with verbs that take a + infinitive

To stop yourself confusing the two patterns, here is the high-frequency a-verb list — every Italian learner needs to keep these two columns mentally separate.

Some natural contrasts in the same sentence:

A useful reminder: when a verb appears in a sentence with both an a-pattern and a di-pattern, both prepositions appear in their correct slots. The two systems coexist.

12. Verbs that take a bare infinitive (no preposition)

A third pattern: some verbs take no preposition at all before the infinitive. These are mostly modal and perception verbs.

This third class is small but extremely high-frequency. The modals (volere, dovere, potere, sapere) are the four most common verbs in spoken Italian after essere and avere, and they all take a bare infinitive.

The contrast: voglio andare (no preposition) vs. cerco di andare (di) vs. comincio ad andare (a). Three patterns; three different lexical groups.

13. The arbitrariness, examined

To drive the point home: there is no semantic principle that explains why these particular verbs take di. Consider these near-synonymous pairs:

• cercare di (try, sustained effort) vs. provare a (try, single attempt)
• finire di (finish doing) vs. smettere di (stop doing) — same preposition, but starting verbs (cominciare, iniziare) take a
• decidere di (decide to) vs. scegliere di (choose to) — both take di; but English-style deciding and choosing are not what controls the assignment, just the lexicon
• dimenticare di (forget to) vs. ricordare di (remember to) — both take di (memory verbs cluster), but their semantic opposites
• credere di (believe one is doing) vs. credere a (believe what someone says) vs. credere in (believe in, religious sense) — same root verb, three different prepositions for three different meanings

The clusters in this page (effort, decision, memory, emotion, need) are real — when you encounter a new verb in one of these semantic fields, it is more likely to take di than a. But "more likely" is not "always." Provare is in the effort cluster but takes a; cominciare is in the temporal cluster but takes a. The clusters are tendencies, not rules.

The realistic strategy:

1. Learn the high-frequency verbs in this page by heart. Each verb is one item to memorize: cercare di, decidere di, finire di. Treat the preposition as part of the verb.
2. Do not try to derive the preposition from the meaning. If you have not seen a verb before, look it up in a dictionary, learn it together with its preposition.
3. Read enough Italian that the right preposition starts to "sound right" before you can articulate why. This auditory familiarity is what eventually replaces conscious memorization.

14. The compound-verb rule

When a compound verb is built on a verb that takes di, the compound usually inherits the preposition.

This pattern is more obvious in noun-governed di constructions than verb + infinitive, but the principle holds: prefixed forms generally inherit the preposition of their base.

15. A representative paragraph: di-verbs in real prose

Here is a paragraph that uses several di + infinitive verbs in succession — a realistic, idiomatic chunk of Italian:

This density of di-verbs is normal in everyday Italian. Once you have the list internalized, paragraphs like this become trivial to read and produce.

16. Common mistakes

The transfer errors English speakers make most often.

17. The full di + infinitive checklist

Here is the consolidated list — the high-frequency Italian verbs that take di + infinitive. Use it as a reference and a drill list.

That is roughly 50 verbs. Memorize them in groups — they cluster well — and the di + infinitive pattern will become natural.

Where to go next

• Di with Nouns and Adjectives — the parallel page for di-governing nouns and adjectives, including the obligatory qualcosa di + adjective pattern.
• The Preposition A: Overview — the a + infinitive verb list, the natural counterpart to this page.
• The Preposition Di: Overview — the broader picture of di's twelve uses.
• Prepositions: Overview — the architectural map of the entire Italian preposition system.