Congiuntivo Presente: Regular Verbs | Italian Grammar

The congiuntivo presente is the entry point to the subjunctive system. The good news: it has only one set of endings per conjugation class, and the regular paradigms are clean. The catch: the io, tu, and lui/lei forms are identical — which forces a change in how you handle subject pronouns. This page covers the regular forms; irregulars and essere/avere follow.

The endings — two patterns to memorize

There are two endings sets: one for -are verbs, one for -ere and -ire verbs (which share endings entirely).

Person	-are endings	-ere / -ire endings
io	-i	-a
tu	-i	-a
lui / lei / Lei	-i	-a
noi	-iamo	-iamo
voi	-iate	-iate
loro	-ino	-ano

Two key things to notice. First: the noi form (-iamo) is identical to the indicative — parliamo in the indicative is also parliamo in the subjunctive. Second: the three singular persons are identical — io, tu, and lui/lei share one form. We'll come back to this point because it has serious consequences for your speech.

Parlare — the -are model

Drop -are to get parl-, then add the -are endings.

Person	parlare
che io	parli
che tu	parli
che lui / lei	parli
che noi	parliamo
che voi	parliate
che loro	parlino

Penso che tu parli benissimo italiano.

I think you speak Italian very well.

Voglio che parliate più piano, per favore.

I want you (plural) to speak more slowly, please.

È strano che parlino sempre dello stesso argomento.

It's odd that they always talk about the same topic.

The convention of writing che before the verb in conjugation tables reminds you that the subjunctive almost always lives inside a che-clause. It isn't part of the verb itself; it's just the typical environment where you'll see it.

Credere — the -ere model

Drop -ere to get cred-, then add the -ere/-ire endings.

Person	credere
che io	creda
che tu	creda
che lui / lei	creda
che noi	crediamo
che voi	crediate
che loro	credano

Spero che mi creda.

I hope he/she believes me.

Dubito che credano alla sua versione dei fatti.

I doubt they believe his version of events.

È importante che voi crediate in voi stessi.

It's important that you believe in yourselves.

Dormire — the -ire model (without -isco)

Drop -ire to get dorm-, add the same -ere/-ire endings.

Person	dormire
che io	dorma
che tu	dorma
che lui / lei	dorma
che noi	dormiamo
che voi	dormiate
che loro	dormano

Bisogna che il bambino dorma almeno dieci ore.

The child needs to sleep at least ten hours.

Pare che dormano profondamente.

It seems they're sleeping deeply.

Capire — the -isco subgroup

Verbs that take -isco in the indicative (capire, finire, preferire, pulire, spedire, costruire, and so on) keep the -isc- infix in the subjunctive in the same persons as in the indicative: io, tu, lui/lei, and loro. The noi and voi forms drop it.

Person	capire
che io	capisca
che tu	capisca
che lui / lei	capisca
che noi	capiamo
che voi	capiate
che loro	capiscano

Spero che tu capisca quello che voglio dire.

I hope you understand what I mean.

È necessario che finiscano il progetto entro venerdì.

It's necessary that they finish the project by Friday.

Bisogna che pulisca la cucina prima di uscire.

I need to clean the kitchen before going out. (impersonal use)

💡

The shortcut for any -ire verb: take its loro form in the indicative, swap the final -ono for -ano, and you have the loro form in the subjunctive. Capiscono → capiscano. Dormono → dormano. The shapes match across the two moods almost mechanically.

The big consequence: subject pronouns come back

Italian usually drops subject pronouns because the verb ending uniquely identifies the subject. The subjunctive breaks this pattern: in che parli you cannot tell from the verb alone whether the subject is io, tu, or lui/lei — they all look like parli.

Italians solve this the obvious way: they retain the subject pronoun when ambiguity would otherwise arise.

Penso che parli bene.

I think you/he/she speaks well. (ambiguous)

Penso che tu parli bene.

I think you speak well. (clear — second person)

Penso che lui parli bene.

I think he speaks well. (clear — third person masculine)

You will notice this in any subjunctive sentence with a non-third-person subject: the tu or io is almost always present in real speech. Train yourself to insert it instinctively — it's a tell of competent Italian.

Spelling adjustments — same as the indicative

The orthographic subclasses behave the same way as in the indicative, with one twist worth noting.

-care and -gare verbs

Insert h before the -i endings of the singular and the -iamo of noi, to keep the c/g hard. All persons except loro get an h.

Person	cercare	pagare
che io	cerchi	paghi
che tu	cerchi	paghi
che lui / lei	cerchi	paghi
che noi	cerchiamo	paghiamo
che voi	cerchiate	paghiate
che loro	cerchino	paghino

È meglio che tu paghi adesso.

It's better that you pay now.

-ciare and -giare verbs

Drop the silent i of the stem before any -i ending. So cominciare → cominci, cominci, cominci, cominciamo, cominciate, comincino. One i, never two.

Person	cominciare	mangiare
che io	cominci	mangi
che tu	cominci	mangi
che lui / lei	cominci	mangi
che noi	cominciamo	mangiamo
che voi	cominciate	mangiate
che loro	comincino	mangino

Voglio che mangi tutto, non lasciare niente nel piatto.

I want you to eat everything, don't leave anything on your plate.

È ora che cominci a studiare seriamente.

It's time you started studying seriously.

Common mistakes

❌ Penso che tu parla bene.

Wrong — parla is the indicative third-person singular, not the subjunctive second-person.

✅ Penso che tu parli bene.

Correct — -are subjunctive ends in -i for all three singular persons.

❌ Voglio che creda a me.

Ambiguous — without a pronoun, creda could be io/tu/lui/lei. The hearer can't tell who you want to believe you.

✅ Voglio che lei creda a me.

Correct — keep the subject pronoun in the subjunctive to disambiguate the identical singular forms.

❌ È necessario che capiamo.

Ambiguous — capiamo is also the indicative noi form, so without the subject pronoun this looks like a normal indicative.

✅ È necessario che noi capiamo.

Correct — pronoun retained for clarity, even though the form is identical to the indicative.

❌ Spero che tu finiscono presto.

Wrong — finiscono is the loro form, not the tu form. Tu takes finisca.

✅ Spero che tu finisca presto.

Correct — the -isc- infix appears, but with the singular ending -a.

❌ Bisogna che tu pagi.

Wrong — without the h, pagi would be pronounced /PA-dji/ with a soft g, like 'page'.

✅ Bisogna che tu paghi.

Correct — the silent h preserves the hard /g/.

❌ Penso che mangii bene.

Wrong — the silent i of the stem drops before another i. Result: *mangi*, not *mangii*.

✅ Penso che tu mangi bene.

Correct — one i, with the subject pronoun included to disambiguate.

Key takeaways

The regular congiuntivo presente has two ending sets: -i, -i, -i, -iamo, -iate, -ino for -are verbs, and -a, -a, -a, -iamo, -iate, -ano for -ere and -ire verbs. The -isco subgroup keeps the -isc- infix in the same persons as in the indicative.

The three singular persons (io, tu, lui/lei) are identical — so Italian retains the subject pronoun to disambiguate. Train yourself to insert io, tu, lui, lei with subjunctive verbs, even though you'd drop them in the indicative.

The noi form is identical to the indicative noi form. The voi form (-iate) is the only voi form in Italian that ends in -iate; if you see it, you know you're in the subjunctive (or in the rare case of abbiate, siate, sappiate, etc., which are also subjunctive).

Spelling adjustments — h in -care/-gare verbs, dropped i in -ciare/-giare verbs — work the same way as in the indicative.

Once these are solid, move on to irregular verbs. The single rule there — the subjunctive stem comes from the io form of the indicative — turns dozens of irregular subjunctives into regular ones.

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