Volere (to want, to wish, to be willing) is the modal verb of desire, intention, and will. It is the second of the three Italian modals, alongside potere and dovere, and shares with them the bare-infinitive complement, the absence of an imperative, and the auxiliary-matching rule in compound tenses. Volere is also the verb that gives Italian its single most useful polite formula: vorrei ("I would like"), which replaces voglio in any context where bluntness should be softened.
The paradigm is genuinely irregular. The presente shuffles between three stems — vogl- (io, loro), vuo- (tu, lui), and vol- (noi, voi) — a Latin inheritance that requires straight memorisation. The passato remoto features the unusual double ll (volli, volle, vollero) shared by a small family of irregular -ere verbs. The future and conditional are heavily contracted to vorr-, with double r — write vorrò, never volerò.
Indicativo presente
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| io | voglio |
| tu | vuoi |
| lui / lei / Lei | vuole |
| noi | vogliamo |
| voi | volete |
| loro | vogliono |
Three stems, no shortcut: vogl- in io and loro (with the gli sound spelled with gl before i), vuo- in tu and lui (the same Latin stress diphthong as in può, puoi), vol- in noi and voi. The gli in voglio and vogliono is the palatal lateral [ʎ] — like the lli in English million, but stronger and held longer.
Voglio un caffè macchiato, per favore.
I want a macchiato, please. (direct, can sound abrupt)
Vuoi venire al cinema con noi stasera?
Do you want to come to the cinema with us tonight?
Mio figlio non vuole mangiare le verdure.
My son refuses to eat his vegetables.
Vogliamo prenotare un tavolo per quattro.
We'd like to book a table for four.
Cosa volete fare nel weekend?
What do you guys want to do this weekend?
I vicini vogliono vendere la casa.
The neighbours want to sell the house.
Imperfetto
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| io | volevo |
| tu | volevi |
| lui / lei / Lei | voleva |
| noi | volevamo |
| voi | volevate |
| loro | volevano |
The imperfetto is fully regular and built on vol-. Beyond simple past desire, volevo… is also the standard polite opener for shop-counter requests in spoken Italian, on a par with vorrei: Volevo un etto di prosciutto ("I'd like a hundred grams of ham") sounds completely natural at the deli, even though grammatically it's a past tense.
Da piccola volevo fare la veterinaria.
As a little girl I wanted to be a vet.
Volevo chiederti una cosa, hai un attimo?
I wanted to ask you something — do you have a moment?
Passato remoto
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| io | volli |
| tu | volesti |
| lui / lei / Lei | volle |
| noi | volemmo |
| voi | voleste |
| loro | vollero |
A textbook "1-3-3" passato remoto pattern: io, lui, and loro share the irregular stem voll- (with the characteristic Italian double l from Latin volui); tu, noi, and voi take the regular stem vol- with regular endings. Volle and vollero are easy to mix up with volli — keep an eye on the final vowel.
Volle leggere la lettera prima di firmare.
He insisted on reading the letter before signing.
Futuro semplice
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| io | vorrò |
| tu | vorrai |
| lui / lei / Lei | vorrà |
| noi | vorremo |
| voi | vorrete |
| loro | vorranno |
The future stem vorr- is doubly contracted: the unstressed e of voler- drops, and the resulting l assimilates to r, producing the double rr. This is the same process that gives berr- from bevere/bere and terr- from tenere. Don't write volerò or volrò — both are non-forms.
Vorrò tutti i dettagli quando torni.
I'll want all the details when you get back.
Vorranno sapere come è andata la riunione.
They'll want to know how the meeting went.
Condizionale presente
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| io | vorrei |
| tu | vorresti |
| lui / lei / Lei | vorrebbe |
| noi | vorremmo |
| voi | vorreste |
| loro | vorrebbero |
This is the most-used conditional in Italian, full stop. Vorrei softens any request, expression of preference, or wish from a demand into a polite ask. Vorresti is the standard "would you like…?" opener. The double m in vorremmo follows the same rule as avremmo, saremmo, potremmo — single-m vorremo is the future, double-m vorremmo is the conditional.
Vorrei un tavolo per due, vicino alla finestra.
I'd like a table for two, by the window.
Vorresti venire con noi al mare domenica?
Would you like to come with us to the seaside on Sunday?
Vorremmo ringraziarvi per la bellissima serata.
We'd like to thank you for the wonderful evening.
Congiuntivo presente
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| (che) io | voglia |
| (che) tu | voglia |
| (che) lui / lei | voglia |
| (che) noi | vogliamo |
| (che) voi | vogliate |
| (che) loro | vogliano |
The three singular forms collapse into voglia — context and explicit pronouns disambiguate. The noi form vogliamo is identical to the indicative.
This subjunctive becomes essential after volere che with a different subject (see the Volere che + congiuntivo section below): Voglio che tu venga ("I want you to come").
Spero che tu voglia restare ancora un po'.
I hope you want to stay a bit longer.
Non credo che vogliano vendere la casa davvero.
I don't think they really want to sell the house.
Congiuntivo imperfetto
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| (che) io | volessi |
| (che) tu | volessi |
| (che) lui / lei | volesse |
| (che) noi | volessimo |
| (che) voi | voleste |
| (che) loro | volessero |
These forms appear in hypotheticals with se: se volessi ("if I wanted to"), se volessero ("if they wanted to"). Also in past-tense subordinate clauses after volevo che: Volevo che tu venissi ("I wanted you to come").
Se volessi davvero, potresti smettere di fumare.
If you really wanted to, you could quit smoking.
Pensavo che tu volessi venire con noi.
I thought you wanted to come with us.
Imperativo
Like all three Italian modals, volere lacks an imperative. You cannot command someone to want something — desire isn't subject to direct command. (A handful of solemn or archaic uses of vogliate in formal correspondence — Vogliate gradire i nostri saluti — exist as a fossilised polite formula, but they are not part of living spoken Italian.)
Forme non finite
| Form | Italian |
|---|---|
| Infinito presente | volere |
| Infinito passato | avere voluto / essere voluto/a |
| Gerundio presente | volendo |
| Gerundio passato | avendo voluto / essendo voluto/a |
| Participio passato | voluto |
The participio passato voluto is regular. The fixed phrase volendo ("if one wanted, optionally") is a useful conversational filler: Volendo, possiamo anche prendere il treno ("If we wanted, we could also take the train").
Compound tenses and the modal auxiliary rule
When volere is used as a modal (followed by an infinitive), the prescriptive rule is the same as for potere and dovere: the auxiliary matches the infinitive. With essere, the past participle voluto agrees with the subject in gender and number.
| Underlying verb | Compound with volere | English |
|---|---|---|
| vedere (avere) | ho voluto vedere | I wanted to see |
| partire (essere) | sono voluto/a partire | I wanted to leave |
| fare (avere) | ho voluto fare | I wanted to do |
| andare (essere) | sono voluto/a andare | I wanted to go |
When volere takes a direct object (a noun, not an infinitive), the auxiliary is always avere: Ho voluto un caffè ("I wanted a coffee").
Ho voluto provare quel ristorante di cui parlavi.
I wanted to try that restaurant you were talking about.
Maria è voluta tornare a casa presto.
Maria wanted to go back home early. (essere because of tornare)
Avrei voluto avvisarti, ma non avevo il tuo numero.
I would have wanted to warn you, but I didn't have your number.
Volere che + congiuntivo
When volere is followed by che with a different subject in the subordinate clause, the verb after che must be in the subjunctive. The logic: you are expressing a desire about someone else's action — the action isn't a fact, it's something you want to become true.
Voglio che tu mi dica la verità.
I want you to tell me the truth.
Non voglio che ti preoccupi per me.
I don't want you to worry about me.
Volevano che restassimo a cena.
They wanted us to stay for dinner.
When the subject is the same, you do not use che — you use the bare infinitive: Voglio andare ("I want to go"), never Voglio che vada.
Ci vuole / ci vogliono (impersonal use)
A high-frequency idiomatic use: ci vuole + singular noun / ci vogliono + plural noun expresses the time, money, effort, or ingredients needed for something. The ci is impersonal; the verb agrees with the noun that follows.
Ci vuole un'ora per arrivare in centro.
It takes an hour to get to the centre.
Ci vogliono due uova per la ricetta.
The recipe needs two eggs.
Per imparare bene una lingua, ci vuole pazienza.
To learn a language well, you need patience.
This construction is impersonal — there's no specific subject. It contrasts with metterci ("to take time, of a person"): Ci metto un'ora means "I take an hour" (specifically me, with travel or a task), while Ci vuole un'ora means "an hour is needed" (in general).
Common mistakes
❌ Voglio un caffè.
Grammatically correct but pragmatically rude in a café — sounds like a demand.
✅ Vorrei un caffè.
Correct register — vorrei is the polite default for any request.
❌ Voglio che tu vieni con noi.
Incorrect — volere che triggers the subjunctive, not the indicative.
✅ Voglio che tu venga con noi.
Correct — venga is the congiuntivo presente.
❌ Voglio che io vada al mare.
Incorrect — same subject, you don't use che + subjunctive.
✅ Voglio andare al mare.
Correct — same subject takes the bare infinitive.
❌ Domani noi vorremmo andare al mare, è deciso.
Incorrect for a definite plan — vorremmo (double m) is the conditional 'we'd like'.
✅ Domani noi vorremo andare al mare, è deciso.
Correct — vorremo (single m) is the simple future. (Even more natural: 'andremo'.)
❌ Ci vuole due ore per arrivare.
Incorrect — vuole agrees with singular, but ore is plural.
✅ Ci vogliono due ore per arrivare.
Correct — the verb agrees with the noun that follows.
Key takeaways
Volere is the modal of desire, intention, and will. Memorise the presente first — voglio, vuoi, vuole, vogliamo, volete, vogliono — internalising the three competing stems (vogl-, vuo-, vol-). Then drill the conditional, especially vorrei, which you will use constantly.
Three points to internalise:
Vorrei beats voglio in any polite context. Voglio asserts will; vorrei makes a request. Use vorrei by default in shops, restaurants, and any interaction with strangers.
Volere che + subjunctive when the subject changes. Voglio che tu venga, never che tu vieni. Same subject takes a bare infinitive: Voglio venire.
Ci vuole / ci vogliono is the standard impersonal way to say "it takes" (time, ingredients, effort). The verb agrees with what follows.
Once volere is solid, drill potere and dovere in parallel — the three modals share auxiliary behaviour and complement structure, and the polite conditionals (potrei, vorrei, dovrei) form the spine of natural-sounding Italian requests.
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Open the Italian course →Related Topics
- Potere: Full ConjugationA1 — Complete paradigm of potere (can, may, to be able to) — the modal verb of ability and permission, with contracted future, double-s present, and the modal-specific auxiliary rule.
- Dovere: Full ConjugationA1 — Complete paradigm of dovere (must, to have to) — the modal of obligation and likelihood, with parallel devo/debbo forms, contracted future, and the counterfactual avrei dovuto.
- Essere: Full ConjugationA1 — Complete paradigm of essere (to be) across every tense and mood — the most irregular and one of the two most-used verbs in Italian.
- Avere: Full ConjugationA1 — Complete paradigm of avere (to have) across every tense and mood — the most-used verb in Italian and the auxiliary for the majority of compound tenses.
- Auxiliary Selection: Essere vs Avere (The Critical Decision)A1 — The single grammatical decision that determines how every Italian compound tense works — when to use essere, when to use avere, and how to predict the right answer for any verb.