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Italian grammar is the study of grammar of the Italian language.

Contents 1 Nouns 1.1 Irregular plurals 2 Articles 2.1 The definite article (the) 2.2 The indefinite article (a) 2.3 The only irregular article 3 Pronouns 3.1 Declension 4 Adjectives 4.1 Possessive adjectives 5 Tenses 5.1 Notes 6 Verbs 6.1 Compound tense auxiliary verbs 6.2 The past participle 6.3 Regular conjugations 6.3.1 Indicative mood 6.3.2 Subjunctive mood 6.3.3 Conditional mood 6.3.4 Imperative mood 6.3.5 Non-finite forms 7 Irregular verbs 7.1 essere (to be, an auxiliary) 7.2 avere (to have, an auxiliary) 7.3 potere (to be able to, can, could (conditional); a modal) 7.4 dovere (to have to, must, should (conditional); a modal) 8 Adverbs 9 Sentences and word order 9.1 Object pronouns 9.2 The tense relationship in subordinate sentences 10 References 11 External links

Nouns in Italian have gender (masculine or feminine, but no neuter), and number (singular or plural). The gender and number is always shown by the leading article (definite or indefinite), and usually by the final vowel. Many nouns derive from Latin, or from a Latinization of foreign words, so:

• Feminine singular in -a, plural in -e (first declension in Latin)
  • la rosa / le rose (the rose / the roses)
• Masculine singular in -a, plural in -i (first declension in Latin)
  • il poeta / i poeti (the poet / the poets)
• Masculine singular in -o, plural in -i (second declension in Latin)
  • il magistrato / i magistrati (the magistrate / the magistrates)
• Masculine singular in -e, plural in -i (third declension in Latin)
  • il cane / i cani (the dog / the dogs)
• Feminine singular in -e, plural in -i (third declension in Latin)
  • la parete / le pareti (the wall / the walls)
• Feminine singular in -o, plural in -i (fourth declension in Latin)
  • la mano / le mani (the hand / the hands)
• Feminine singular in -ie, plural in -ie (fifth declension in Latin)
  • la specie / le specie (the species / the species)

Many scientific words, from Greek:

• Masculine singular in -a, plural in -i
  • il problema / i problemi (the problem / the problems)
• Feminine singular in -i, plural also in -i
  • la crisi / le crisi (the crisis / the crises)

Any other noun, both those from Latin with an unusual ending and those derived from other languages than Latin or Greek, and not latinized (cifra - meaning "digit" - and ragazzo/ragazza - meaning "boy/girl" - are from Arab, but they are Latinized), is not declinable, so:

• • la città / le città (the town(s))
  • il re / i re (the king(s))
  • il caffè / i caffè (the coffee(s))
  • il film / i film (the film(s))

There are certain words (neuter in Latin) that are masculine in the singular and feminine or masculine in the plural:

• il braccio / le braccia or i bracci (the arm / the arms)
• il ginocchio / le ginocchia or i ginocchi (the knee / the knees)
• il sopracciglio / le sopracciglia or i sopraccigli (the eyebrow / the eyebrows)
• l'uovo / le uova (the egg / the eggs)

These nouns' endings derive regularly from the Latin neuter endings of the second declension, but there are some from third declension: e.g. il gregge / le greggi (flock(s), but i greggi works too); the tradition of calling them "irregular" or "mobile gender" (genere mobile) would come from the paradigm that there are very so few nouns of this kind that the existence of neuter can be considered vestigial. The use of one or other of plurals is sometimes left to the user, while in some case there are differences of meaning:

• sometimes, for body parts, the neuter/feminine plural denotes the literal meaning while the masculine one denotes a figurative meaning: il braccio (m) / le braccia (f) / i bracci (m) (the arm / the arms / the isthmuses/inlets/figurative uses of "arm"); il corno (m) / le corna (f) / i corni (m) (the horn / the horns / the horns [as musical instruments, of a dilemma etc.]);
• sometimes, especially in poetic and old-fashioned Italian, the masculine plural denotes several distinct items, while the neuter/feminine ones denotes an undifferentiated set: il cervello (m) / i cervelli (m) / le cervella (f) (the brain / [more than one single] brains / cerebral matter); l'anello (m) / gli anelli (m) / le anella (f) (the ring / the rings [jewels] / ringlets).

The soft/hard nature of Italian c and g leads to a few spelling/pronunciation rules (and lacking of them) in certain cases:

• Words in -cio and -gio form plurals in -ci and -gi.
• Words in -co and -go:
  • The situation is quite irregular: "the grammarians are sceptical about any attempt at giving a ruling about this area"^[1]. There are only partial, empirical rules of the thumb: usually plurals end in -ci and -gi if the final letter before the suffix is a vowel: il medico, i medici (physician(s)), il comico, i comici (comedian(s)), against il fungo, i funghi (mushroom), and lo stecco, gli stecchi (stick), but the plural of baco (silkworm) is bachi, not baci, which is the plural of bacio (kiss). As well, the plural of mago (magician) is maghi, not magi, unless we are referring to Three Kings in Gospel, who are called "i re magi" ("the Magi Kings"). The plural of fuoco (fire) is fuochi, the plural of gioco (game, play) is giochi. Another (more strict, though breakable) rule is this: if the stress is on penultimate syllable, the plural is -chi or -ghi (antico, antichi (ancient)), when not, it's -ci or -gi. The main exceptions are amico-amici (friend), greco-greci (Greek), valico-valichi (mountain pass) and carico-carichi (cargo, loadful).
  • In words ending with -logo suffix, the plural is usually in -gi when -logo means "expert" or "student", corresponding to English -logist (e.g. archeologo/archeologi "archaeologist"), while it is in -ghi when it means "speech", "reasoning", corresponding often to English -logue/-log (e.g. catalogo/cataloghi "catalogue").
  • In any other case, when in doubt, a dictionary will give the correct answer.
• Words in -cia and -gia:
  • Form plurals in -cie and -gie if the final letter before the suffix is a vowel: la camicia, le camicie (shirt(s))
  • Form plurals in -ce and -ge if the final letter before the suffix is a consonant: la frangia, le frange (fringe(s))
  • When the "i" is stressed, it always remains in plural: la farmacia, le farmacie (chemist's shop), la nevralgia, le nevralgie (neuralgia).

There are very few truly irregular plurals in Italian. Four of these are:

• l'uomo / gli uomini (man/men)
• il dio / gli dei (god/gods)
• il bue / i buoi (ox/oxen)
• il tempio / i templi (temple/temples)

• Masculine singular: il (lo before an impure consonant sound, l' before a vowel)
• Masculine plural: i (gli before a vowel or impure consonant sound)
• Feminine singular: la (l' before a vowel)
• Feminine plural: le

Impure consonant sounds are z, gn, pn, ps, x or s+consonant (sp, st, etc). See also Italian sounds.

• Masculine: un (uno before an impure consonant sound)
• Feminine: una (un' before a vowel)

The plural of "il dio" (the god) is "gli dei" instead of "i dei".

	First Person		Second Person		Third Person
	Singular	Plural			Masculine		Feminine			Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative			io	noi	tu	voi	lui (egli, esso)	loro (essi)	lei (ella, essa)	loro (esse)
Accusative	mi	ci	ti	vi	lo	li	la	le
Dative	mi	ci	ti	vi	gli	loro	le	loro
Prepositional	me	noi	te	voi	lui	loro	lei	loro

Notes:

• In Italian, personal pronouns in nominative case are very rarely pronounced. Verbs' conjugation usually is enough, unless some emphasis is needed.
• egli/ella are fading, esso/essa/essi/esse are rare neuter forms.
• 2nd person nominative pronoun is tu for informal. For formal use the 3rd person form Lei is used since the Renaissance^[1]: it's used like "Sie" in German, "usted" in Spanish and "você" in Portuguese (previously and still in some regions - Campania, mostly - of Italy, voi is used as a formal singular, as in French usage). lei (third person singular) and Lei (second person singular formal) are pronounced the same but written as shown. Formal Lei/Loro take third-person conjugations. The formal plural person is rarely in use in Italian: the informal form is widely used, instead (e.g. "Gino, lei è un bravo ingegnere. Marco, lei è un bravo architetto. Insieme, voi sarete una gran bella squadra" "Gino, you are a good engeneer. Marco, you are a good architect. Together, you'll be a great good team").
• Accusative mi, ti, lo, la, ci, and vi become me, te, lui, lei, noi, and voi when emphasized ("uccidimi" (kill me) against "uccidi me, non lui" (kill me, not him)).
• Accusative lo and la elides to l' before a vowel or h ("l'avevo detto" (I had told it), "l'ho detto" (I have told it).
• Dative mi, ti, ci, and vi become me, te, ce, and ve when preceding an accusative pronoun ("dammelo" (give it to me)) or developed as a me, a te, a noi and a voi when emphazised ("dallo a me" (give it TO ME)).
• Dative gli combines with accusative lo, la, li, le and ne (partitive, meaning "of it" or "of them") to form glielo, gliela, glieli, gliele and glie ne. These combinations are used for feminine and plural too ("Maria lo sa? Gliel'hai detto?" (Does Maria know it? Have you said it to her?)).
• Dative gli, le, loro (commonly gli) can be developed into a lui, a lei, a loro, when emphasized ("lo sai solo tu: a loro non l'ho detto" (only you know it: I haven't told them))
• Lui and lei are accusative cases in formal and written Italian, while in the spoken language and modern written language practically always replace egli and ella in the subject pronoun role. The same thing happens with loro/essi.
• In modern, mostly spoken Italian, dative gli (to him) is used commonly even as plural (to them) instead of classical loro. So: "Conosci Luca: gli ho sempre detto di stare lontano dalle cattive compagnie" (You know Luca: I've always told him to stay away from bad companies"). And: "Conosci Luca e Gino: gli ho sempre detto..." (...I've always told them...) instead of "... ho sempre detto loro di stare...".

Adjectives, like nouns, have two genders and two numbers.

In general, for adjectives:

• Masculine in -o, plural in -i
• Feminine in -a, plural in -e

Or:

• Masculine in -e, plural in -i
• Feminine in -e, plural in -i

• Masc. sing.: mio, tuo, suo, nostro, vostro, loro
• Masc. pl.: miei, tuoi, suoi, nostri, vostri, loro
• Fem. sing.: mia, tua, sua, nostra, vostra, loro
• Fem. pl.: mie, tue, sue, nostre, vostre, loro

In most cases the possessive adjective is used with an article, usually the definite article:

• Ho perso la mia penna. (I've lost my pen.)
• Mi piace il mio lavoro. (I like my job.)
• Hanno rubato la mia automobile! (They've stolen my car!)

And with the indefinite article:

• Un mio amico mi ha detto che... (A friend of mine told me that...)
• Ho visto una sua foto. (I've seen a photograph of him/her.)
• Luca è un mio amico. (Luca is a friend of mine.)

The only exception is when the possessive refers to an individual family member:

• Sara è mia sorella (Sarah is my sister.)
• Questa penna è di mia zia. (This pen is my aunt's.)

• Simple tenses (examples in first person)

Present	Presente	do, am doing1	faccio, sto facendo
Imperfect	Imperfetto	was doing, used to do	facevo
Future	Futuro	will do	farò
Preterite	Passato remoto	did2	feci

• Compound tenses

Recent Past	Passato Prossimo	have done	ho fatto
Recent Pluperfect	Trapassato Prossimo	had done3	avevo fatto
Remote Pluperfect	Trapassato Remoto	had done	ebbi fatto
Future Perfect	Futuro Anteriore	will have done	avrò fatto

• Special forms

Infinitive	Infinito	to do	fare
Past Participle	Participio Passato	done	fatto
Present participle/Gerund	Participio Presente/Gerundio	doing	facente/facendo
Imperative	Imperativo	do!	fai! / fa'!

¹Present continuous in Italian is similar to that in English but not as frequently used. Italian usually uses the simple present instead, except when emphasizing the ongoing nature of the action.

²The preterite is becoming obsolete in spoken Italian. It is still used in Southern Italy but becoming less common there too. It is however very common in literature, even modern literature.

³The Trapassato Prossimo (Recent Pluperfect) and the Trapassato Remoto (Remote Pluperfect) are separate tenses in Italian though not in English.

Italian verb infinitives have one of three endings, either -are, -ere, or -ire. Exceptions are porre "to place" (from Latin ponere), and a few verbs ending in -urre or -arre, most notably tradurre (Latin traducere) "to translate".

In Italian, compound tenses are formed with an auxiliary verb (either essere "to be" or avere "to have"). Most verbs use avere as their auxiliary verb. The exceptions are reflexive verbs, verbs in the passive voice, and unaccusative verbs (typically non-agentive verbs of motion and change of state, i.e. involuntary actions like cadere (to fall) or morire (to die)).

The distinction between the two auxiliary verbs is important for the correct formation of the compound tenses and is also essential to the agreement of the past participle. Some verbs use both, though, like vivere (to live): in recent past tense you can say io ho vissuto or io sono vissuto (I've lived).

The past participle is used in Italian as both an adjective and to form many of the compound tenses of the language. The past participle conjugated with essere (for unaccusative verbs et al) follows the usual adjective agreement rules.

For the intransitive essere verbs, the past participle always agrees with the subject: lui è partito; lei è partita. This is also true for reflexive verbs, the impersonal si construction, and the passive voice, which also use essere.

The past participle when conjugated with avere never changes to agree with the subject. It agrees with the object though, in sentences where a pronoun replacing the object is proceeding (e.g. Hai mangiato la mela? - Si, l'ho mangiata (Have you eaten the apple? - Yes, I have eaten it)).

	Present			Preterite			Imperfect			Future
	First Conj.	Second Conj.	Third Conj.	First Conj.	Second Conj.	Third Conj.	First Conj.	Second Conj.	Third Conj.	First Conj.	Second Conj.	Third Conj.
io	parlo	leggo	parto	parlai	lessi	partii	parlavo	leggevo	partivo	parlerò	leggerò	partirò
tu	parli	leggi	parti	parlasti	leggesti	partisti	parlavi	leggevi	partivi	parlerai	leggerai	partirai
egli	parla	legge	parte	parlò	lesse	partì	parlava	leggeva	partiva	parlerà	leggerà	partirà
noi	parliamo	leggiamo	partiamo	parlammo	leggemmo	partimmo	parlavamo	leggevamo	partivamo	parleremo	leggeremo	partiremo
voi	parlate	leggete	partite	parlaste	leggeste	partiste	parlavate	leggevate	partivate	parlerete	leggerete	partirete
essi	parlano	leggono	partono	parlarono	lessero	partirono	parlavano	leggevano	partivano	parleranno	leggeranno	partiranno

The infinitive of first conjungation verbs end in -are, that of second conjungation verbs in -ere, and that of third conjungation verbs in -ire.

Some third conjugation verbs such as capire insert -isc- between the stem and the endings in the present, e. g. capisco, capisci, capisce, etc. It is impossible to tell from the infinitive form which verbs exhibit this phenomenon, though it tends to be the shorter verbs. In some grammatical systems, "isco" verbs are considered a fourth conjugation, often labelled 3b. There are also certain verbs that end in -rre, namely trarre, porre, (con)durre and derived verbs with different prefixes (such as attrarre, comporre, dedurre, and so forth). They are derived from earlier trahere, ponere, ducere and are conjugated as such.

	Present			Past			Imperfect			Past Perfect
	1st Conj.	2nd Conj.	3rd Conj.	1st Conj.	2nd Conj.	3rd Conj.	1st Conj.	2nd Conj.	3rd Conj.	1st Conj.	2nd Conj.	3rd Conj.
che io	parli	legga	parta	abbia parlato	abbia letto	sia partito	parlassi	leggessi	partissi	avessi parlato	avessi letto	fossi partito
che tu	parli	legga	parta	abbia parlato	abbia letto	sia partito	parlassi	leggessi	partissi	avessi parlato	avessi letto	fossi partito
che egli	parli	legga	parta	abbia parlato	abbia letto	sia partito	parlasse	leggesse	partisse	avesse parlato	avesse letto	fosse partito
che noi	parliamo	leggiamo	partiamo	abbiamo parlato	abbiamo letto	siamo partiti	parlassimo	leggessimo	partissimo	avessimo parlato	avessimo letto	fossimo partiti
che voi	parliate	leggiate	partiate	abbiate parlato	abbiate letto	siate partiti	parlaste	leggeste	partiste	aveste parlato	aveste letto	foste partiti
che essi	parlino	leggano	partano	abbiano parlato	abbiano letto	siano partiti	parlassero	leggessero	partissero	avessero parlato	avessero letto	fossero partiti

• Third conjugation verbs like capire mentioned above insert -isc- in the first, second, and third persons singular and third person plural of the present.
• Compound forms (past and past perfect) are made by adding the past participle (eg. parlato) to the corresponding auxiliary form (as "abbia") in the present and imperfect tenses.

	Present			Past
	1st Conj.	2nd Conj.	3rd Conj.	1st Conj.	2nd Conj.	3rd Conj.
io	parlerei	leggerei	partirei	avrei parlato	avrei letto	sarei partito
tu	parleresti	leggeresti	partiresti	avresti parlato	avresti letto	saresti partito
egli	parlerebbe	leggerebbe	partirebbe	avrebbe parlato	avrebbe letto	sarebbe partito
noi	parleremmo	leggeremmo	partiremmo	avremmo parlato	avremmo letto	saremmo partiti
voi	parlereste	leggereste	partireste	avreste parlato	avreste letto	sareste partiti
essi	parlerebbero	leggerebbero	partirebbero	avrebbero parlato	avrebbero letto	sarebbero partiti

From the table we can see that the verbs each take their own root, from their class of verb, -are becomes -er-, -ere becomes -er-, and -ire becomes -ir-, the same roots as used in the future indicative tense. Onto this root all verbs add on the same ending, depending on the conjugation.

Some verbs do not follow this pattern, but take irregular roots, these include: Andare (to go) ~ Andr-, Avere (to have) ~ Avr-, Bere (to drink) ~ Berr-, Dare (to give) ~ Dar-, Dovere (to have to) ~ Dovr-, Essere (to be) ~ Sar-, Fare (to make/do) ~ Far-, Godere (to enjoy) ~ Godr-, Potere (to be able to) ~ Potr-, Rimanere (to remain) ~ Rimarr-, Sapere (to know) ~ Sapr-, Sedere (to sit) ~ Sedr-, Stare (to be/feel) ~ Star-, Tenere (to hold) ~ Terr-, Vedere (to see) ~ Vedr-, Venire (to come) ~ Verr-, Vivere (to live) ~ Vivr-, Volere (to want) ~ Vorr- etc.

The Italian conditional mood is a mood that refers to an action that is possible or likely, but is prohibited by a condition.

E.g. Io andrei in spiaggia, ma fa troppo freddo.

I would go to the beach, but it is too cold.

It can be used in two tenses, the present, by conjugation of the appropriate noun, or the past, using the auxiliary conjugated in the conditional, with the past participle of the appropriate noun.

E.g. Mangerei un sacco adesso, se non stessi provando ad impressionare queste ragazze.

I would eat a lot now, if I wasn't trying to impress these girls.

Io sarei andato in città, se avessi saputo che loro stavano andando.

I would have gone to the city, if I had known that they were going.

Many Italian speakers often use imperfect instead of conditional and subjunctive. While incorrect, this is somewhat tolerated in spoken Italian (not in written Italian).

E.g. Se lo sapevo, andavo al mare.

If I had known it, I would have gone to the beach.

The conditional can also be used in Italian to express "could", with the conjugated forms of potere (to be able to), or "should", with the conjugated forms of dovere (to have to)

E.g. Lui potrebbe leggere un libro.

He could read a book.

Lei dovrebbe andare a letto.

She should go to bed.(informal)/You should go to bed.(formal)

	First Conj.	Second Conj.	Third Conj.
(tu)	parla!	leggi!	parti!
(Lei)	parli!	legga!	parta!
(noi)	parliamo!	leggiamo!	partiamo!
(voi)	parlate!	leggete!	partite!
(Loro)	parlino!	leggano!	partano!

Verbs like capire insert -isc- in all except the noi and voi forms.

• Gerund: -ando, -endo, -endo
• Participle: -ato, -uto, -ito

While the majority of Italian verbs are regular, many of the most commonly used ones are irregular. In particular, the auxiliary verbs essere and avere, and the common modal verbs potere (ability, to be able to), dovere (duty, to have to), sapere (knowledge, to know how to) and volere (will, to want to) are all irregular.

As a matter of fact, virtually every verb, not of first conjugation (infinitive in -are, those are luckily the most, but some are irregular too), not among the handful of verbs of second conjugation (infinitive in -ere: second conjugation IS the core of Italian irregular verbs!) and largest part of third conjugation (infinitive in -ire, but they are so few), IS an irregular verb.

Most verbs are only irregular in the passato remoto (preterite) tense, which resembles the Latin Perfect tense. The 110 most used irregular verbs are conjugated here.

	Indicative				Subjunctive		Conditional
	Present	Preterite	Imperfect	Future	Present	Imperfect
io	sono	fui	ero	sarò	sia	fossi	sarei
tu	sei	fosti	eri	sarai	sia	fossi	saresti
egli	è	fu	era	sarà	sia	fosse	sarebbe
noi	siamo	fummo	eravamo	saremo	siamo	fossimo	saremmo
voi	siete	foste	eravate	sarete	siate	foste	sareste
essi	sono	furono	erano	saranno	siano	fossero	sarebbero

	Indicative				Subjunctive		Conditional
	Present	Preterite	Imperfect	Future	Present	Imperfect
io	ho	ebbi	avevo	avrò	abbia	avessi	avrei
tu	hai	avesti	avevi	avrai	abbia	avessi	avresti
egli	ha	ebbe	aveva	avrà	abbia	avesse	avrebbe
noi	abbiamo	avemmo	avevamo	avremo	abbiamo	avessimo	avremmo
voi	avete	aveste	avevate	avrete	abbiate	aveste	avreste
essi	hanno	ebbero	avevano	avranno	abbiano	avessero	avrebbero

	Indicative				Subjunctive		Conditional
	Present	Preterite	Imperfect	Future	Present	Imperfect
io	posso	potei	potevo	potrò	possa	potessi	potrei
tu	puoi	potesti	potevi	potrai	possa	potessi	potresti
lui	può	poté	poteva	potrà	possa	potesse	potrebbe
noi	possiamo	potemmo	potevamo	potremo	possiamo	potessimo	potremmo
voi	potete	poteste	potevate	potrete	possate	poteste	potreste
loro	possono	poterono	potevano	potranno	possano	potessero	potrebbero

	Indicative				Subjunctive		Conditional
	Present	Preterite	Imperfect	Future	Present	Imperfect
io	devo	dovetti	dovevo	dovrò	debba	dovessi	dovrei
tu	devi	dovesti	dovevi	dovrai	debba	dovessi	dovresti
lui	deve	dovette	doveva	dovrà	debba	dovesse	dovrebbe
noi	dobbiamo	dovemmo	dovevamo	dovremo	dobbiamo	dovessimo	dovremmo
voi	dovete	doveste	dovevate	dovrete	dobbiate	doveste	dovreste
loro	devono	doverono	dovevano	dovranno	debbano	dovessero	dovrebbero

An adjective can be made into an adverb by adding -mente (from Latin "mindly", ablative of "mens" (mind), feminine noun) to the ending of the feminine singular form of the adjective. E.g. lenta "slow (feminine)" becomes lentamente "slowly". Adjectives ending in "-re" or "-le" lose their "e" before adding -mente (facile "easy" becomes facilmente "easily", particolare "particular" becomes particolarmente "particularly").

Italian is an SVO language, where Subject, Verb, and Object normally come in that order. The subject, if a pronoun, is usually omitted -- distinctive verb conjugations make it redundant. Subject pronouns are considered emphatic when used at all. Questions are formed by a rising intonation at the end of the sentence (in written form, a question mark). The question word (how, who, what, etc.) simply replaces the missing subject or object. Subject-verb inversion does not mark a question as in many European languages, as it usually just emphasizes the subject. In general the intonation and context are important to recognize questions from affirmative statements.

Note how in the following examples the Italian word order remains relatively fixed while the English varies somewhat:

E.g.

Davide è arrivato in ufficio.	(David has arrived at the office.)
Davide è arrivato in ufficio?	(Has David arrived at the office?)
Perché Davide è arrivato in ufficio?	(Why has David arrived at the office?)
Perché Davide è arrivato in ufficio.	(Because David has arrived at the office.)
È arrivato Davide in ufficio.	("It was David who arrived at the office" or "David arrived at the office" - depending on the intonation)
È arrivato Davide in ufficio?	(Has David, in particular, arrived at the office?)
È arrivato in ufficio.	(He has arrived at the office.)
Lui è arrivato in ufficio.	(He has arrived at the office.)
Chi è arrivato in ufficio?	(Who has arrived at the office?)

In general, adjectives come after the noun they modify, adverbs after the verb. But: as with French, adjectives coming before the noun indicate essential quality of the noun. Demonstratives (e.g. questo this, quello that) come before the noun, and a few particular adjectives (e.g. bello) may be inflected like demonstratives and also placed before the noun.

Though objects come after the verb as a rule, the rule changes when the object is a pronoun.

Dative and accusative pronouns come before the verb. If an auxiliary verb is used, the pronouns come before the auxiliary. If both dative and accusative pronouns are used, the dative comes first. Pronominal particles ce/ci (to it) and ne (of it) are treated like accusative pronouns for word-order purposes. (Note that ci, the first person plural accusative, is easy to confuse with ci, the accusative particle, but they're not the same. See examples.)

Examples:

Davide lascia la sua penna in ufficio.	(David leaves his pen at the office.)
Davide la lascia in ufficio.	(David leaves it at the office.)
Davide ce la lascia.	(David leaves it to us. (but also : David leaves it there.))
Davide ce ne lascia una.	(David leaves us one of them. (but also [rare]: David leaves one [of them] there.))
Davide potrebbe lasciarcene una.	(David might leave us one of them (but also [rare]: David might leave one [of them] there.)
or Davide ce ne potrebbe lasciare una.	(exactly the same as above)

(Compare with the similar use of objective pronouns, and "y" and "en" in French.)

And finally, in the imperative and infinitive cases, the objective pronouns come once again after the verb, but this time as a suffix:

Davide lascia la sua penna in ufficio.	(David leaves his pen at the office.)
"Lasciala in ufficio!"	("Leave it at the office!")
"Lasciacela!"	("Leave it to us!" also [less common] "Leave it there!")
Davide potrebbe lasciarla in ufficio.	(David might leave it at the office.)
"Non lasciarcela!"	("Don't leave it to us!" also [less common] "Don't leave it there!")
Davide dovrebbe lasciarcela.	("David should leave it to us." also [less common] "David should leave it there")

Italian inherits consecutio temporum, a grammar rule from Latin that disciplines the relationship between the tenses in subordinate sentences. Consecutio temporum has very rigid rules, though they are fading from spoken Italian. These rules order the subjunctive tense in order to express contemporaneity, posteriority and anteriority in relation with the principal sentence.

• to express contemporaneity when the principal clause is in a simple tense (future, present, or simple past,) the subordinate clause uses the present subjunctive, to express contemporaneity in the present.
  • Penso che Davide sia buono. I think (that) David is a good man.
• when the principal clause has a past imperfect or perfect tense, the subordinate clause uses the imperfect subjunctive, expressing contemporaneity in the past.
  • Pensavo che Davide fosse buono. I thought David was a good man.
• to express anteriority when the principal clause is in a simple tense (Future, or present or passato prossimo) the subordinate clause uses the past subjunctive.
  • Penso che Davide sia stato buono. I think David has been a good man.
• to express anteriority when the principal clause has a past imperfect or perfect tense, the subjunctive has to be pluperfect.
  • Pensavo che Davide fosse stato buono. I thought David had been a good man.
• to express posteriority the subordinate clause uses not subjunctive but indicative mood , because the subjunctive has no future tense.
  • Penso che Davide sarà buono. I think David will be good
• the subordinate clause may use past conditional when the main clause is in a simple past tense, similarly to English or French.
  • Pensavo che Davide sarebbe stato buono. I thought that David would have been good.

1. ^ ^{a b} Serianni, Luca (1997). Italiano. Garzanti. ISBN 88-11-50470-8. 

• Italian grammar at the Open Directory Project (suggest site)
• La grammatica italiana
• Italian Language: Grammar, a small directory of Italian grammar resources
• Italian Language Primer