In Italian, every conjugated verb form encodes both the person of its subject (1st, 2nd, 3rd) and the number (singular, plural). Get the form wrong and the sentence breaks immediately — parla (he/she speaks) and parlano (they speak) differ by only two letters but they are not interchangeable. This is a much heavier system than English, where almost the only present-tense agreement is the third-person -s (she speaks) versus everything else.
Most agreement decisions are obvious, but Italian has a handful of cases that English speakers find surprising — collective nouns, "the majority of," existential c'è / ci sono, and the strange behaviour of the formal Lei. This page handles all of them.
The basics: six forms for every tense
Every Italian tense has six forms — one for each combination of person (1st, 2nd, 3rd) and number (singular, plural). Whichever subject pronoun could go in the slot, the verb must take the matching ending.
| Person | Singular pronoun | Plural pronoun |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | io | noi |
| 2nd | tu | voi |
| 3rd | lui / lei / Lei | loro |
For parlare in the present indicative:
| Subject | Form |
|---|---|
| io | parlo |
| tu | parli |
| lui / lei / Lei | parla |
| noi | parliamo |
| voi | parlate |
| loro | parlano |
Because the ending alone is enough to identify the subject, Italian routinely drops the subject pronoun (see Dropping Subject Pronouns). Whether or not you say io, the verb form must still agree with the implied subject.
(Io) lavoro a Milano, ma (loro) lavorano a Roma.
I work in Milan, but they work in Rome.
Andiamo al mare ogni estate.
We go to the sea every summer. (1pl ending alone tells you the subject is noi)
Compound subjects with "and"
When two singular subjects are joined by e (and), the verb takes the plural form, just as in English.
Marco e Giulia abitano a Bologna.
Marco and Giulia live in Bologna.
Mio fratello e io andiamo in vacanza insieme.
My brother and I are going on holiday together.
When the compound subject mixes persons, Italian follows the standard hierarchy: 1st person beats 2nd person beats 3rd person. So tu e Marco (you and Marco) takes the 2pl form parlate (you all speak), and io e Marco takes the 1pl form parliamo.
Tu e tuo fratello dovete pulire la cucina.
You and your brother have to clean the kitchen. (tu + lui = voi)
Io e Lucia abbiamo deciso di sposarci.
Lucia and I have decided to get married. (io + lei = noi)
Collective nouns: singular by default
Collective nouns — la gente (people), la famiglia (family), la squadra (team), la maggioranza (the majority), la coppia (the couple), il pubblico (the audience) — take singular agreement in standard Italian, even when their meaning is plural. This is different from British English, where the team are playing well and the family have arrived are perfectly normal.
La gente dice che il film è bellissimo.
People say the film is wonderful. (la gente takes singular dice, not dicono)
La mia famiglia abita a Torino.
My family lives in Turin.
La squadra ha vinto la partita.
The team won the match.
Il pubblico ha applaudito a lungo.
The audience applauded for a long time.
The mistake la gente dicono is one of the most reliable markers of an English speaker who has not yet internalised this rule. La gente is grammatically singular, full stop.
"La maggior parte di" + plural noun: agreement is flexible
There is one important exception. With la maggior parte di, un mucchio di, un sacco di, una serie di, un paio di + a plural noun, both singular and plural agreement are acceptable. Educated standard tends toward singular agreement (matching la maggior parte), but plural agreement (matching the noun) is extremely common in everyday speech and is now considered fully correct.
La maggior parte degli italiani pensa che sia un buon governo.
Most Italians think it's a good government. (singular agreement with maggior parte)
La maggior parte degli italiani pensano che sia un buon governo.
Most Italians think it's a good government. (plural agreement with italiani — also acceptable)
Un mucchio di persone sono arrivate in ritardo.
A bunch of people arrived late. (plural agreement is the natural choice here)
Un sacco di amici mi hanno scritto per il compleanno.
A ton of friends wrote to me for my birthday.
The pattern is: when the head noun is grammatically singular but semantically plural (because of the prepositional phrase that follows), Italian increasingly lets the verb agree with the semantic plural. This is called "agreement ad sensum" (agreement according to meaning) and is well-established in Italian grammar.
Existential constructions: c'è / ci sono
The Italian equivalent of English there is / there are is c'è (singular) and ci sono (plural). The verb agrees with what follows, not with the dummy ci or c'.
C'è un problema con il computer.
There is a problem with the computer.
Ci sono molti turisti in piazza.
There are a lot of tourists in the square.
Sul tavolo c'è un libro e ci sono due penne.
On the table there is a book and there are two pens.
This works in every tense: c'era (there was), c'erano (there were), ci sarà (there will be), ci saranno (there will be — pl.).
Ieri c'erano almeno trenta persone alla riunione.
Yesterday there were at least thirty people at the meeting.
Domani ci sarà un temporale.
Tomorrow there will be a thunderstorm.
For more on these existential structures and other uses of ci, see The ci Particle: Locative and Impersonal Constructions with ce.
The formal Lei: third-person singular agreement
Italian's formal address pronoun is Lei (capitalised in writing to distinguish it from lei meaning "she"). It takes third-person singular verb agreement, regardless of the gender of the person you are addressing. This is one of the things that surprises learners the most: when speaking formally to a man, you use what is grammatically a feminine pronoun and a 3sg verb form.
Lei è molto gentile, signor Rossi.
You are very kind, Mr Rossi. (Lei + 3sg è, addressing a man formally)
Mi scusi, signora, dove abita Lei?
Excuse me, ma'am, where do you live? (Lei + 3sg abita)
Professore, Lei ha letto il mio articolo?
Professor, have you read my article? (Lei + 3sg ha letto)
The historical explanation: Lei originally referred to vostra Signoria ("your Lordship"), a feminine noun, and the agreement froze around that. The grammar is feminine and singular even when the referent is a male; only the past participle in compound tenses adjusts to the actual gender of the addressee.
Signor Bianchi, Lei è arrivato in tempo.
Mr Bianchi, you have arrived on time. (Lei + 3sg è, but participle arrivato is masculine to match the male addressee)
Signora Bianchi, Lei è arrivata in tempo.
Mrs Bianchi, you have arrived on time. (same Lei + 3sg è, but arrivata is feminine here)
The pronoun Lei itself is invariably feminine in form, but the past participle in compound tenses respects the actual gender of the person. For more on the formal address system, see Tu vs Lei: Formal and Informal Address.
Plural formal: Loro or voi
In modern Italian, the polite plural is just voi + 2pl verb (Voi siete molto gentili). The historical formal plural Loro + 3pl verb (Loro sono molto gentili) survives in very formal contexts — high-end restaurants, official letters, courtroom address — but is rare in everyday speech.
Signori, voi siete i nostri ospiti d'onore.
Gentlemen, you are our guests of honour. (modern: voi + 2pl)
Cosa desiderano (Loro)?
What would you like? (very formal restaurant register: Loro + 3pl)
Quantity expressions: numbers and percentages
When a quantity expression is the subject, the verb generally agrees with the noun being counted, not with the number itself.
Tre studenti sono assenti oggi.
Three students are absent today.
Il cinquanta per cento degli italiani vota alle elezioni.
Fifty percent of Italians vote in elections. (singular agreement with cento, common)
Il cinquanta per cento degli italiani votano alle elezioni.
Fifty percent of Italians vote in elections. (plural agreement with italiani, also accepted)
With numero / numeri, the verb usually agrees with whatever is more semantically prominent:
Un gran numero di persone è venuto / sono venute alla festa.
A large number of people came to the party. (both forms occur)
How English and Italian compare
English subject-verb agreement is almost trivial: in the present indicative, the verb takes -s in the third-person singular and is bare otherwise; in the past, was and were differ; be in the present has three forms (am, is, are). That is essentially the entire system.
Italian, by contrast, marks every person and number distinctly in every tense — six different endings per tense, dozens of tenses. This makes the verb form much more informative and is exactly what allows Italian to drop subject pronouns. The downside for learners: every time you produce a verb, you must make six-way agreement decisions on the fly.
The good news is that the patterns are extremely consistent across tenses. Once you know that parlare takes -iamo in the 1pl present, it takes -iamo in the 1pl imperfect (parlavamo), the 1pl future (parleremo), the 1pl conditional (parleremmo), and so on. The set of person endings is largely the same across the system.
Common mistakes
❌ La gente dicono sempre la stessa cosa.
Incorrect — la gente takes singular agreement in standard Italian.
✅ La gente dice sempre la stessa cosa.
People always say the same thing.
❌ Mio fratello e io andiamo a Roma. Andate al cinema dopo?
Incorrect mid-conversation switch — addressing a single person should be 2sg.
✅ Mio fratello e io andiamo a Roma. Vai al cinema dopo?
My brother and I are going to Rome. Are you going to the cinema after?
❌ C'è molti problemi nel sistema.
Incorrect — with a plural noun, use ci sono.
✅ Ci sono molti problemi nel sistema.
There are many problems in the system.
❌ Signor Rossi, Lei sei arrivato in orario.
Incorrect — Lei takes 3sg agreement, not 2sg.
✅ Signor Rossi, Lei è arrivato in orario.
Mr Rossi, you arrived on time.
❌ Tu e Marco devi venire alla festa.
Incorrect — tu + lui = voi, so use 2pl dovete.
✅ Tu e Marco dovete venire alla festa.
You and Marco have to come to the party.
Key takeaways
- Italian verbs agree with their subject in person and number — six forms per tense.
- Compound subjects with e take a plural verb; mixed-person subjects follow the hierarchy 1 > 2 > 3.
- Collective nouns (la gente, la famiglia, la squadra) take singular agreement in standard Italian.
- With la maggior parte di / un mucchio di / un sacco di
- plural noun, both singular and plural agreement are acceptable, with plural becoming dominant in everyday speech.
- Existentials use c'è (sg) / ci sono (pl), agreeing with what follows.
- The formal Lei takes 3sg agreement regardless of the addressee's gender, but the past participle adjusts to actual gender.
Now practice Italian
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Open the Italian course →Related Topics
- The Italian Verb System: OverviewA1 — A high-level map of Italian verbs: three conjugation classes, seven simple tenses, seven compound tenses, and the moods that bring them all to life.
- The Three Conjugation Classes: -are, -ere, -ireA1 — How Italian verbs sort into prima, seconda, and terza coniugazione — and why the -ire class splits in two.
- Dropping Subject Pronouns (Pro-Drop)A1 — Why Italian leaves out io, tu, noi, and voi most of the time — and the few cases where you should keep them.
- Tu vs Lei: Informal vs Formal AddressA1 — The single most important sociolinguistic decision in Italian — when to use familiar tu, when to use polite Lei, how to switch between them, and the cultural signals each carries.
- C'è and Ci Sono: Saying There Is and There AreA1 — The Italian existential construction — how to say something exists, with all its tenses and idioms.
- Presente Indicativo: OverviewA1 — How Italian's most-used tense covers everything English splits between simple present and present progressive — and why 'sto facendo' is not the default.