Italian Verb Conjugations: 'Amare'

Crooner Dean Martin sang about it in "That's Amore," though he used the word as a noun in the Academy Award-nominated song. But, even as a verb, amare (to love) is perhaps one of the most famous Italian words. Amare is a regular, first conjugation verb and it is transitive, so it takes a direct object. Learn to conjugate this verb of passion, and soon you'll be saying Ti Amo (I love you) like a native speaker.

Conjugating Amare

The table gives the pronoun for each conjugation—io (I), tu (you), lui, lei (he, she), noi (we), voi (you plural), and loro (their). The tenses and moods are given in Italian—presente (present), passato prossimo (present perfect), imperfetto (imperfect), trapassato prossimo (past perfect) passato   remoto (remote past), trapassato remoto (preterite perfect), futuro semplice (simple future), and futuro anteriore (future perfect)—first for the indicative, followed by the subjunctive, conditional, infinitive, participle, and gerund forms.

INDICATIVE/INDICATIVO

SUBJUNCTIVE/CONGIUNTIVO

CONDITIONAL/CONDIZIONALE

IMPERATIVE/IMPERATIVO

INFINITIVE/INFINITO

Presente: amare

Passato: avere amato

PARTICIPLE/PARTICIPIO

Presente: amante

Passato: amato

GERUND/GERUNDIO

Presente: amando

Passato: avendo amato

"Amare" as an Imperative

Italian, of course, derives originally from Latin, and there are some interesting similarities between amare in Italian and Latin. The passive imperative singular in Latin is amare and the passive imperative plural is amamini. Both passive imperatives translate as "be loved." For deponent verbs (verbs that are passive in form and active in meaning), the imperative is passive although the meaning is active. The future imperatives for amare are amato, in the singular, and amatote, in the plural.