Italian Verb Conjugations: 'Pensare'

Pensare is a regular, first-conjugation (-are) verb meaning to think, believe, realize, imagine, guess, or intend or plan (to). It can be a transitive verb, which takes a direct object, or an intransitive verb, which does not take a direct object. Pensare is conjugated with the auxiliary verb avere, which means to have, own, obtain, hold, wear, or receive.

Conjugating "Pensare"

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 (presentperfect), 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

Presente

Imperfetto

Passato Remoto

Futuro Semplice

Passato Prossimo

Trapassato Prossimo

Trapassato Remoto

Future Anteriore

​

SUBJUNCTIVE/CONGIUNTIVO

Presente

Imperfetto

Passato

Trapassato

CONDITIONAL/CONDIZIONALE

Presente

Passato

IMPERATIVE/IMPERATIVO

Presente

• pensa
• pensi
• pensiamo
• pensate
• pensino

INFINITIVE/INFINITO

• Presente: pensare
• Passato: avere pensato

PARTICIPLE/PARTICIPIO

• Presente: pensante
• Passato: pensato

GERUND/GERUNDIO

• Presente: pensando
• Passato: avendo pensato 

Understanding First-Conjugation Verbs

First-conjugation Italian verbs like pensare are the easiest to learn and conjugate. Verbs with infinitives ending in -are are called first conjugation, or -are, verbs. To conjugate the present tense of a regular -are verb, for example, simply drop the infinitive ending -are and add the appropriate endings to the resulting stem.

So, to form the first-person present tense of pensare, drop the -are and add the correct ending (o) to the stem, pens-, to get penso, which means "I think." Use the above tables to learn conjugations for pensare in other tenses and moods.