L'Infinito: Overview

The infinito is Italian's non-finite verb form — the form that does not carry person, number, or (usually) tense marking. It is the form you find in the dictionary: parlare (to speak), credere (to believe), dormire (to sleep). But to think of it only as a "dictionary form" is to miss most of what makes the infinitive interesting. In Italian, the infinitive is one of the most versatile pieces of the verbal system — it shows up in at least six different syntactic roles, and in each one it does something English handles in a completely different way.

This page maps the whole landscape. The dedicated pages for each construction (after prepositions, perfect infinitive, infinitive as noun, clitic attachment) go deeper.

The two tenses of the infinito

The infinito has two tenses, not one.

The presente describes an action simultaneous with or following the main clause: Voglio parlare con te (I want to speak with you). The passato describes an action completed before the main clause: Penso di aver capito (I think I've understood). The infinito passato is covered in detail on its own page.

The three classes of regular infinitive

Every regular Italian verb belongs to one of three conjugation classes, identified by its infinitive ending:

The infinitive ending tells you which set of conjugation endings to apply across all the finite tenses. About two-thirds of all Italian verbs are -are; -ere is the smallest and most irregular class; -ire is regular but splits into two subgroups (with and without -isc-).

Function 1 — the citation form

The infinitive is the form Italians use to name a verb. When you ask "how do you say to eat in Italian?" the answer is mangiare. Dictionaries list verbs by their infinitive. Verb tables, vocabulary lists, language apps — everything indexes by the infinitive.

Function 2 — the second verb in verb chains

When two verbs combine in Italian, the second one is almost always an infinitive. This is the most common use of the infinitive in everyday speech. Modal verbs (volere, potere, dovere, sapere) and a long list of other verbs (preferire, amare, desiderare, sperare, cominciare, finire) all chain with an infinitive.

Note: English handles this with two different patterns — "want to go" (with "to") versus "can go" (bare infinitive). Italian has only one pattern: the infinitive, period. Whether the linking verb takes a preposition before the infinitive (see Function 3) is a separate, lexical matter.

Function 3 — after prepositions

Italian prepositions take an infinitive (never a gerund, as in English). This is one of the most important contrasts between the two languages.

English uses the gerund (the -ing form) after prepositions: without saying, before leaving, after eating. Italian uses the infinitive: senza salutare, prima di partire, dopo aver mangiato. Translating "without saying" as senza dicendo is one of the most common English-speaker errors — it sounds completely wrong to a native ear. See infinitive after prepositions for the full preposition list and the verb-specific preposition choices.

Function 4 — as a noun

The infinitive can be used as a noun, often (but not always) preceded by the masculine definite article il (or l' before a vowel). The result is grammatically masculine singular and refers to the activity expressed by the verb.

This is where Italian and English diverge sharply. English makes nouns out of verbs by using the gerund (walking, speaking); Italian uses the bare infinitive with an article. See infinitive as noun for the full treatment, including when modern Italian prefers a derived abstract noun (la parola, l'arrivo) instead.

Function 5 — the negative tu imperative

This is one of the strangest-looking but most useful infinitive constructions. To tell someone don't do X in the informal singular (tu form), you use non + infinitive. There is no special "negative imperative" form in Italian — the infinitive does double duty.

Function 6 — in causative constructions

The infinitive appears as the second verb in causative constructions with fare (to make/have someone do something) and lasciare (to let someone do something).

This is structurally parallel to the English causative ("have it fixed, make me eat, let him talk") but with very different word order rules. The fare + infinitive construction has its own dedicated coverage elsewhere in the grammar.

How clitics attach

When a clitic pronoun (mi, ti, lo, la, gli, le, ci, vi, ne, si) joins an infinitive, it attaches to the end of the infinitive, and the infinitive's final -e drops:

This enclitic attachment is one of Italian's most distinctive structures — see clitic attachment to infinitive for the full mechanics, including double clitics and clitic climbing with modal verbs.

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

The infinito is not just the dictionary form. It is:

1. The second verb in any verb chain — voglio mangiare, posso venire, so nuotare.
2. The form after every preposition — senza parlare, prima di partire, dopo aver mangiato. English uses -ing here; Italian never does.
3. A noun-equivalent — il parlare, l'andare, plus a million proverbs.
4. The negative tu command — non parlare!
5. The host for enclitic pronouns — vederlo, dirmi, alzarsi.

It also has two tenses: the infinito presente (parlare) and the infinito passato (avere parlato), the latter for actions completed before the main clause.

Once you internalize that the infinitive does all this work — and that English uses different forms for each of these jobs — Italian sentence structure starts to feel much more predictable.