Thought Verbs: Complete Reference | Italian Grammar

The Italian thought-verb family spans three overlapping domains: opinion (pensare, credere, ritenere, immaginare, supporre, ipotizzare), memory and knowledge (sapere, conoscere, ricordare, dimenticare, intuire), and reasoning (decidere, concludere, dedurre, convincere). They share a small set of syntactic frames, but the choice of frame depends on the meaning, the subject, and whether the proposition is being framed as fact or as belief.

This page collects all fifteen in one place so you can predict the construction without memorizing each verb separately. The deep rule that ties the page together: opinion triggers the congiuntivo; certainty triggers the indicativo; same subject triggers di + infinito.

The five core frames

Frame	Meaning	Example
verb + che + indicativo	Knowledge / certainty	So che è vero.
verb + che + congiuntivo	Opinion / doubt	Penso che sia vero.
verb + di + infinito	Same subject	Penso di sapere.
verb + a + thing	Mental focus	Penso a Marco.
verb + direct object	Knowledge / acquaintance	Conosco Marco.

The fifteen verbs at a glance

Verb	che + indic.	che + cong.	di + inf.	direct obj.
pensare	—	yes	yes (plan)	—
credere	—	yes	yes (belief)	—
ritenere	—	yes (formal)	yes	yes (consider X to be Y)
immaginare	—	yes	yes	yes (imagine X)
supporre	—	yes	yes	—
ipotizzare	—	yes	yes	yes
ricordare	yes	—	yes	yes
dimenticare	yes	—	yes	yes
sapere	yes	—	yes (know how)	yes (a fact)
conoscere	—	—	—	yes (be acquainted)
intuire	yes	yes (with doubt)	yes	yes
decidere	—	—	yes	yes
concludere	yes	—	yes	yes
dedurre	yes	—	—	yes
convincere	—	yes	yes (a + person + di + inf.)	yes (a person)

Opinion verbs: pensare, credere, ritenere, immaginare, supporre, ipotizzare

These six verbs all express opinion or hypothesis, and they all trigger the congiuntivo when followed by che. With same subject, they take di + infinito.

Penso che tu abbia ragione.

I think you're right.

Credo di averlo già visto, ma non ne sono sicuro.

I think I've seen him before, but I'm not sure.

Ritengo che la situazione sia complicata.

I consider the situation to be complicated. (formal)

Immagino che siate stanchi dopo il viaggio.

I imagine you're tired after the trip.

Suppongo che abbiano già cenato.

I suppose they've already had dinner.

Gli scienziati ipotizzano che il virus sia mutato.

Scientists hypothesize that the virus has mutated.

For the full breakdown of these six verbs, including the pensare a vs pensare di trap, see the overview and the pensare a vs di page.

Memory verbs: ricordare, dimenticare

Ricordare ("to remember") and dimenticare ("to forget") report mental events as factual, so they take che + indicativo, not the subjunctive. With same subject they take di + infinito.

Ricordo che da bambino abitavamo vicino al mare.

I remember that as a child we lived near the sea.

Mi sono dimenticato di chiamarti, scusami.

I forgot to call you, sorry.

Ricordati di chiudere la porta a chiave.

Remember to lock the door.

Hai dimenticato che oggi è il compleanno di tua madre?

Did you forget that today is your mother's birthday?

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The reflexive forms ricordarsi di and dimenticarsi di are more common in everyday speech than the plain forms — especially with infinitives. Mi sono dimenticato di farlo is more natural than Ho dimenticato di farlo, though both are correct.

Knowing: sapere vs conoscere

This is one of the great vocabulary distinctions of Italian, paralleled in French (savoir/connaître) and Spanish (saber/conocer) but absent from English.

Verb	Meaning	Frame
sapere	know a fact, know how to do	che / + infinitive / + direct fact
conoscere	be acquainted with (people, places)	direct object only

So che è in vacanza.

I know he's on vacation. (sapere + fact)

Sai nuotare?

Do you know how to swim? (sapere + infinitive = know how)

Conosco Marco da dieci anni.

I've known Marco for ten years. (conoscere + person)

Conosci un buon ristorante in zona?

Do you know a good restaurant nearby? (conoscere + place/thing — being acquainted)

A subtle point: in the passato prossimo, both verbs shift meaning. Ho saputo = "I found out" (the moment I came to know), and Ho conosciuto = "I met" (the moment I made the acquaintance). See lexical aspect for the full explanation.

L'ho saputo solo ieri.

I only found out yesterday.

Ho conosciuto Sara a Roma nel 2020.

I met Sara in Rome in 2020.

Intuire: hunches and intuitions

Intuire ("to sense, to figure out intuitively") sits between knowing and guessing. It can take che + indicativo when reporting a confident intuition, but che + congiuntivo is also possible when the intuition is hedged.

Ho intuito subito che c'era qualcosa che non andava.

I immediately sensed that something was off.

Intuisco di non essere benvenuto qui.

I sense that I'm not welcome here.

Reasoning verbs: decidere, concludere, dedurre

These verbs report the outcome of reasoning. Concludere and dedurre take che + indicativo because what is concluded is presented as fact, not opinion. Decidere is different: it almost always takes di + infinito (when the deciding subject also performs the action) and only marginally takes a finite che clause.

Abbiamo deciso di vendere la casa.

We decided to sell the house. (decidere + di + infinito — the standard pattern)

Ho concluso che non valeva la pena insistere.

I concluded that it wasn't worth insisting. (concludere che + indicativo)

Da quello che ha detto, ho dedotto che era arrabbiato.

From what he said, I deduced that he was angry. (dedurre che + indicativo)

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Decidere rarely takes che + finite verb. It almost always takes di + infinito when the deciding subject is also the doer. *Ho deciso di partire* sounds completely natural; *Ho deciso che parto* is unusual outside very specific contexts (e.g., announcing a firm decision).

Convincing: convincere

Convincere is the only verb on this page with a person as direct object plus a sentential complement. The complement is introduced by a + infinito (most common) or by che + verb. With che, both moods are attested: the indicativo treats the embedded clause as factual ("I convinced him that X is the case"), while the congiuntivo treats it as a position adopted ("I convinced him to consider X"). The indicativo is more common in modern usage.

L'ho convinto che era una buona idea.

I convinced him it was a good idea. (factual — indicativo)

Ho convinto Marco a venire con noi.

I convinced Marco to come with us. (a + infinito — the most idiomatic frame)

Mi sono convinto di aver sbagliato.

I became convinced that I had made a mistake. (reflexive — same subject, di + infinito)

The reflexive convincersi di + infinito is how you express "to become convinced that one has done X" — a useful pattern.

The certainty test: indicative or subjunctive?

When deciding the mood of the embedded clause, ask: does the speaker commit to the truth of the proposition?

Yes (sapere, ricordare, concludere, dedurre, intuire confidently) → indicativo.
No (pensare, credere, ritenere, immaginare, supporre, ipotizzare) → congiuntivo.

So che è qui.

I know he's here. (commitment to truth — indicativo)

Penso che sia qui.

I think he's here. (no commitment — congiuntivo)

Ricordo che era estate.

I remember it was summer. (factual memory — indicativo)

Immagino che sia stanca.

I imagine she's tired. (hypothetical — congiuntivo)

Common mistakes

❌ So che lui sia qui.

Incorrect — sapere reports a fact and takes the indicative.

✅ So che lui è qui.

Correct — sapere che + indicativo.

❌ Conosco che Roma è bella.

Incorrect — conoscere does not take a sentential complement; use sapere.

✅ So che Roma è bella.

Correct — for facts, use sapere.

❌ Ho dimenticato a chiamarti.

Incorrect — dimenticare takes di + infinito, not a + infinito.

✅ Ho dimenticato di chiamarti.

Correct — dimenticare di + infinito.

❌ Ho deciso che parto domani.

Marginal — decidere typically takes di + infinitivo when the subject decides about its own action.

✅ Ho deciso di partire domani.

Correct — decidere di + infinito.

❌ Ritengo che la situazione è complicata.

Substandard — ritenere is formal and traditionally requires the subjunctive.

✅ Ritengo che la situazione sia complicata.

Correct — ritenere che + congiuntivo.

Key takeaways

The fifteen verbs above cover almost every mental-state situation in Italian. Three points to internalize:

Mood follows certainty. Sapere, ricordare, concludere, dedurre → indicativo (you commit to the truth). Pensare, credere, immaginare, supporre, ipotizzare → congiuntivo (you don't).
Same subject = di + infinitivo. Across the entire family, when the thinker is also the doer of the embedded action, the infinitive construction is obligatory: penso di sapere, ricordo di averlo visto, ho deciso di partire.
Sapere vs conoscere is a deep distinction. Sapere is for facts and skills; conoscere is for acquaintance with people and places. Both shift meaning in the passato prossimo: ho saputo = "I found out," ho conosciuto = "I met."

For the opinion-verb family in particular, see the overview and the pensare a vs di page. For the broader subjunctive logic, see the subjunctive with verbs of opinion. The companion family is the communication verbs, which follow many of the same patterns.

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