Aprire: Full Conjugation

Aprire (to open) is the natural antonym of chiudere and one of the most-used -ire verbs in Italian. You open doors, windows, eyes, mouths, books, files, accounts, restaurants, conversations, exhibitions, possibilities, and your heart. The verb is regular through almost the whole paradigm — it belongs to the pure -ire subgroup (no -isc- infix, like partire and dormire, unlike capire and finire). The only place where aprire bends is in the past participle, which is aperto — irregular and worth memorising on day one.

The participle ending -rto isn't a one-off. It's the signature of a small but very high-frequency family of -ire verbs: offrire → offerto, coprire → coperto, soffrire → sofferto, scoprire → scoperto, riaprire → riaperto. Once you've made peace with aperto, the others come at almost no extra cost. There is also a less common strong alternative for the passato remoto (apersi / aperse / apersero) that you'll meet in literary texts; the regular forms (aprii / aprì / aprirono) are by far the more usual choice.

Indicativo presente

A perfectly regular pure -ire present — no -isc- infix. Stress falls on the stem in the singular and 3pl (àpro, àpri, àpre, àprono) and shifts to the ending in noi and voi (apriàmo, aprìte). Compare finire → finisco, finisci, finisce, finiscono: aprire does not behave that way.

Imperfetto

Standard -ire imperfect endings (-ivo, -ivi, -iva, -ivamo, -ivate, -ivano) on the regular stem apr-. Used for habitual past opening — the bakery that used to open at five, the window your grandmother would always open in the morning, an action interrupted in progress.

Passato remoto

Two parallel paradigms, both grammatical. The regular forms (aprii, aprì, aprirono) are the contemporary default and the only forms most speakers would produce. The strong alternative (apersi, aperse, apersero) — built on the same -rs- root that gives the participle aperto — is literary, found in older novels and poetry, almost never used in speech. You should recognise aperse in a 19th-century text without flinching, but produce aprì.

Note the grave accent on aprì (3sg): without it the form collapses into the imperative/2sg-present apri, and the meaning shifts entirely. The double m in aprimmo distinguishes the passato remoto from the present apriamo.

Futuro semplice

Regular -ire future, built from aprir- + the standard endings. The 1sg and 3sg take a mandatory grave accent: aprirò, aprirà.

Condizionale presente

Hypothetical or polite "would open." The orthographic trap is the usual one: apriremmo (conditional, double m) versus apriremo (future, single m).

Congiuntivo presente

The three singulars collapse into apra. Note that apriamo does triple duty — it serves as the present indicative noi, the present subjunctive noi, and the noi imperative ("let's open"). Context resolves which one you're hearing.

Congiuntivo imperfetto

Standard imperfect-subjunctive endings on the regular stem. Note that the voi form apriste is identical to the passato remoto apriste — context disambiguates.

Imperativo

Heavily used in everyday Italian. Apri! is the single word you say when someone's at the door; aprite il libro is what every Italian schoolteacher says fifty times a week. Negative tu, as always, takes the infinitive: non aprire (never non apri).

Forme non finite

The participle aperto is the only major irregularity in this verb. It belongs to the -rto family of irregular -ire participles:

These six together cover essentially every -rto participle a learner is likely to need. Memorise them in a single sweep.

Compound tenses (auxiliary: avere)

Aprire is transitive and takes avere as its auxiliary. The participle aperto stays invariable unless a direct-object pronoun precedes the verb, in which case it agrees with that pronoun.

Intransitive uses and aprirsi

Aprire is also used intransitively with a shop, museum, or institution as the subject — the bakery opens at six. Even in this intransitive use it takes avere in compound tenses.

The reflexive aprirsi describes something opening on its own, or — figuratively — a person opening up emotionally. Reflexives take essere, and the participle agrees with the subject.

Set phrases worth memorising

• aprire la porta a qualcuno — to let someone in (literally and figuratively, to give someone an opening)
• aprire un conto — to open a (bank) account
• aprire bottega — to set up shop
• aprire bocca — to open one's mouth (often non aprire bocca, "to keep one's mouth shut")
• aprire gli occhi (a qualcuno) — to open someone's eyes (to a truth)
• aprire le danze — to start the dancing, to kick things off
• aprire una parentesi — to open a parenthesis, to digress briefly
• a occhi aperti / a bocca aperta — wide-eyed / open-mouthed (with surprise)

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

1. Pure -ire verb (no -isc-): apro, apri, apre, apriamo, aprite, aprono. Same group as partire, dormire, sentire; opposite to capire, finire, preferire.

2. Irregular -rto participle: aperto. Memorise it as part of a small family — offerto, coperto, scoperto, sofferto, riaperto — and you've covered the whole template.

3. Two passato-remoto paradigms: regular aprii / aprì / aprirono (default modern usage) and literary apersi / aperse / apersero (recognise but don't produce).

4. Three voices: transitive (apro la porta), intransitive (il bar apre alle sei), reflexive (la porta si è aperta da sola; si è aperto con me).

The mandatory companion verb is chiudere. Drilling them as antonyms — apro/chiudo, ho aperto/ho chiuso, aprirò/chiuderò — is the fastest way to make both stick permanently.