Italian Verb Conjugations: 'Morire' (to Die)

The Italian verb morire means to die, fade, come to an end, or vanish. It is an irregular third-conjugation verb. Morire is an intransitive verb, meaning it does not take a direct object.

Conjugating "Morire"

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: morire

Passato: essere morto

PARTICIPLE/PARTICIPIO

Presente: morente

Passato: morto

GERUND/GERUNDIO

Presente: morendo

Passato: essendo morto

"Voglio Morire!" Suicide in Italian Literature

Suicide was a widespread theme in 19th-century Italian literature. A book titled "Voglio Morire! Suicide in Italian Literature, Culture, and Society 1789-1919" provides the details about this dark theme. Voglio morire! literally transelates as "I want to die, and the publisher's description notes that suicide was a popular topic with Italian writers from the time of the French Revolution until the outbreak of World War II:

"A number of writers, intellectuals, politicians, and artists wrote about suicide, and a very high number of people killed themselves. ... In Italy, once a very traditional, Catholic country, where suicide was very uncommon and rarely treated as a subject of moral theology or literature, it suddenly became extremely widespread."

Such Italian writers as Ugo Foscolo, Emilio Salgari, Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo, Giacomo Leopardi, and Carlo Michelstaedter thoroughly examined the verb morire, and the idea it represented, in their varied works.

Source

Unknown. "Voglio Morire! Suicide in Italian Literature, Culture, and Society 1789-1919." Hardcover, Unabridged edition edition, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, March 1, 2013.