Volere (to will, to wish, to want) is regular except for the present, past, absolute, and future tenses.

Present tense: voglio, vuoi, vuole, vogliamo, volete, vogliono

Past absolute: volli, volesti, volle, volemmo, voleste, vollero

Future: vorrò, etc.

Learn the expression voler dire, “to mean.” The verb volere changes in form to agree with the subject and to fit the tense, but dire remains in the infinitive: Che vuol dire questo? –“What does this mean?”

Potere (to be able, can, may) is regular except for the present and future tenses.

Present tense: posso, puoi, può, possiamo, potete, possono

Future: potrò, etc.

VOCABULARY A

VOCABULARY B

The endings of the conditional are the same for all verbs. They are –ei, –esti, –ebbe, –emmo, –este, –ebbero. They are added to the same stem as that used for the future.

parlare                                                          fare

parlerei           parleremmo                    farei       faremmo

parleresti        parlereste                       faresti     fareste

perlerebbe      parlerebbero                  farebbe    farebbero

The following are some of the irregular stems used for the future and the conditional; note that these irregular stems all end in r.

Infinitive        irregular stem                1st sing. future, conditional

andare                  andr-                       andrò, andrei

avere                    avr-                         avrò, avrei

essere                  sar-                         sarò, sarei

potere                  potr-                        potrò, potrei

sapere                 sapr-                        saprò, saprei

vedere                 vedr-                        vedrò vedrei

venire                  verr-                         verrò, verrei

volere                  vorr-                         vorrò, vorrei

The conditional translates “should”² or “would” plus the meaning of the verb: parlerei– “I should (would) speak”; avreste– “you would have.” The conditional perfect, which is formed by adding the past participle of the main verb to the conditional of the auxiliary (avere or essere), translates “should have” or “would have” plus the meaning of the past participle: avrebbero parlato– “they would have talked.” Compare the future with the conditional in the following examples:

parleremo (future)                  parleremmo (conditional)

parlerete (future)                  parlereste (conditional)

²This is not “should” in the sense of “ought to,” but rather as it is used in such sentences as “I should like to know… (to go, to see, to do, etc.).”

VOCABULARY