Practice Your Pronunciation With Rocket Record
Understanding Italian Grammar
Italian grammar is the body of rules describing the properties of the Italian language. The Italian language is based on the following categories: articles, adjectives, nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions.
## [Italian Articles](https://www.rocketlanguages.com/italian/grammar/italian-articles)In Italian articles are more than just simple words before the nouns. They identify the genre and the number of the nouns and are essential in order to recognize irregular nouns. They can be masculine or feminine, singular or plural and, except in some specific cases, they must always be used. For more on Italian articles click here.
Italian Adjectives
Adjectives are words that describe a person or a thing. For more on Italian Adjectives click here.
Italian Nouns
Nouns are words that refer to a person or a thing; they can be masculine or feminine, singular or plural. Many Italian nouns have irregular form.
Italian Pronouns
Pronouns are words that are used in place of a noun. They can stand in for the subject, Io mangio - I eat; the object, Paola mi ama - Paola loves me; or the complement, Io vivo per lei - I live for her. There are many kinds of pronouns: personal, possessive, demonstrative, interrogative and indefinite. For more on pronouns in Italian click here.
Italian Verbs
Verbs are the core of the Italian language. They are words that refer to an action (andare - to go; mangiare - to eat) or to a state (essere - to be; stare - to stay; esistere - to exist). In Italian there are three classes of verbs, five moods and 21 tenses. For more on verbs in Italian click here.
If you want to find out more about verb conjugations in Italian then check this lesson out!
Italian Adverbs
An adverb is a word that tells you how or where or when an action is done, for example:
Italian Prepositions
Prepositions are words that show position in relation to space or time, or that introduce a complement. The main prepositions in Italian are listed below. For a more in-depth look at Italian prepositions click here.
di
a
da
in
con
su
per
tra/fra
Italian Conjunctions
Conjunctions are words that link to other words or to a group of words. Like e - and, ma - but, se - if.
The Auxiliary Verbs: Essere and Avere
Essere and avere can be used as common verb, with the meanings of to be and to have, but also they can be auxiliary verbs, io ho comprato - I have bought.
Essere:
Avere:
In the formal situation, the 2nd person is substituted with the 3rd person Lei.
Some special cases:
Italian Grammar Rules Summary
- There are seven main categories in Italian: articles, nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions and conjunctions.
- Adjectives and nouns have a specific form for the masculine and for the feminine, for singular and plural
- Verbs are the core of the Italian language
- Some prepositions can be contracted with the articles
- Essere and avere are the Italian auxiliary verbs.