Conjugation of the Verbs (Coniugathion dei Verbi)

Simple Tenses (Tenpi Sènplici)

   
The drop of the vowel after the stressed one brought about profound changes in the Venetan verbal endings as compared with their Latin prototypes. The final consonants were dropped, in modern language the person and number of some verbal forms are indicated by the atonic personal pronouns that are used as subjects of the verbs. The most important transformations of the verbal endings are as follows:

• The ending -s was dropped cf. Ven. te parti you depart vs. VL *partis, Ven. te dixi you say vs. VL *dicis; in the majority of Venetan variants this -i was generalized to first conjugation too cf. Ven. te canti you sing vs. VL cantas.
• When Venetan verbs end in unstressed -i they change their internal closed vowels "ó, é" as do plural substantives. At extreme east (Venice) and extreme west (Verona) verbs only take -i without any vowel change and at the north then do not take any ending, though changing the stem.
• The verbs have dropped the endings -t and -nt for 3rd p. sg./pl.: cf. Ven. el canta he sings vs. L. cantat, Ven. i canta he sings vs. L. cantant; so the 3rd p. pl. is always the same as the 3rd p. sg. They are ditinguished by the pronoun.
• Differently from French and Italian, Venetan verbs must be preceded by a pronoun only when the ending is not sufficient to identify the subject, this is, in 2nd p. sg. and in 3rd p. sg./pl., cf.:
  canto I sing vs. el canta he sings, scoltémo we listen vs. i scólta they (masc.) listen, te cantavi (-ava) you sang vs cantavi you (pl.) sang, te cantarè you will sing vs cantarè you (pl.) will sing.
• This pronoun must always be used, even when the subject is already expressed by a substantive i.e. i canta they sing vs. i veci i canta the old men sing
• Venetan has developed an interrogative form for every tense. The pronouns do not come before the verb, but they are added, in a different form, to it like normal endings, cf.:
  te canti you sing vs. càntito? do you sing?
  te sa (te sè) you know vs. sastu? (sèto?) do you know?
  el dixéa he said vs. dixévelo? did he say?
  la dixéa she said vs. dixévela? did she say?...
• The 1st. p. pl. Latin terminations -âmus, -êmus, were unified in -émo (Italian -iamo). Modern "Bellunese" variant has the ending -on for all three conjugations (like French -ons); cf. canton we sing vs L. cantamus, Ven. cantémo; it existed also in archaic Central Venetan (called "Pavan") .
• The 2nd. p. pl. Latin terminations -âtis, -êtis, -itis and -îtis were reduced to -è, -é, -ì. Then they became -è, -ì while the form -é only survives in 3 provinces (Venice-Treviso-Belluno) and has been generally replaced by -ì; cf. Ven. bevì you drink vs L. bibêtis; (through bevé).
• The Latin characteristic -ba- for imperfect was softened to -v(a)- and later, in some sequence of vowels, the -v- was dropped, so the verbal terminations: -abam, -abas, -abat became -ava, -avi, -ava and -ebam, -ibam became -eva, -evi, and then -éa, -ìa
• The Past simple disappered centuries ago and it was replaced by the Present Perfect
• It exist, also, a "twice-compound-past" like the French passé surcomposé cf. go bùo catà I have [had] found. It's rarely used however, and generally people say go catà I have found.
• The imperfect subjunctive has preserved the characteristic -s-.
• The verbs of the 3rd conjugation (in its major part derived from the Latin IV conjugation) have incorporated the inchoative affix -s- (for easiness considered -is- in the tables below; from the Latin -sc-) in their forms; a similar phenomenon occurs in French (finir : je finis..., nous finissons...) Italian (finire : finisco, finisci ... finiscono, finisca etc.), in Spanish (establecer : establezco, establezca; traducir : traduzco, traduzca etc.), in Portuguese (agradecer : agradezo etc.) etc.; see the Latin inchoative verbs;
• The participial form in -à-, -ù-, -ì- are developed from -ào-, -àa... through the regular change of the intervocalic t into d and the subsequent drop of the latter; cf. Ven. scoltà from L auscultâtus. In some provinces still survive the intermediate feminine sing. forms -ada, -ida...
• Modern Venetan has developed a "regularizing" ending -s- that can replace every participial form but is generally used only as an alternative option with irregular verbs of the 2nd conjugation, i.e.Ven. dixésto said in addition to dito (from L dictus).
• Older past participle desinence -ò only survives in some nouns cf. V filò from L filâtum...

        
Non-Finite Verbal Forms
 

• "closed-ó" in penultimate position becomes -u-
• "closed-é" in penultimate position becomes -i-
• sequences "-o-ó" and "-o-é" become -u-u and -u-i

 
The Present Indicative (Indicativo Prexente)
 

Be careful to vowel change when the verb ends in unstressed -i.

The final unstressed -ii is always reduced to single -i and the verbs in -ciar, -giar change these to -ci, -gi, cf.:

• i.e. maciar => macio => te maci.

See the Latin Present Indicative.
 
 
The Present Indicative Interrogative (Indicativo Prexente Interogativo)
 

Interrogative forms have a pronoun added after the verb like a desinence: -i/-nti, -to/-tu, -(e)lo, -(e)la, -i/-e, -o/-u, -(e)li, -(e)le, cf.:

• porto I bring -> pòrtoi? do I bring?
• te porti you bring -> pòrtito? (pòrtitu?) do you bring?
• la porta she brings -> pòrtela? does she bring?
• scoltémo (scolton) we listen -> scoltémoi? (scoltone?) do we listen?
• portè you (pl.) bring -> portèo? (portèu?) do you (pl.) bring?
• le porta they (fem.) bring -> pòrtele? do they (fem.) bring?

 
The Imperfect Indicative (Indicativo Inparfeto)
 

Practical Rule of Formation: The imperfect indicative is formed on the stem of infinitive (-ar, -er [-are], -ir). Be careful to vowel change when the last vowel of the ending is unstressed -i., this is, in 2nd person:

scoltar => scoltava, etc. finir => finìa, etc. bévare (same group as temer) => bevéa (teméa), etc.

Note that the interrogative forms re-establish the older -v-, cf.: el bevéa => bevévelo?, i finìa => finìveli?

el bevéa => bevévelo?
le finìa => finìvele?

The only exceptions to the standard formation are the verb èser, whose stem is xer- / jer- and other few verbs

See the Latin Imperfect Indicative.

The Imperfect Indicative Interrogative (Indicativo Inparfeto Interogativo)

Interrogative. forms have a pronoun added after the verb like a desinence:

• --, portàvito? (-tu?) did you bring?, portàvelo?, portàvela?, --, --, portàveli?, portàvele?

 
The Future Indicative (Indicativo Futuro)
 

Formation: It is formed by adding the endings -ar- for the 1st-2nd conjug. and -ir- for the 3rd conjugation.

It is derived from the Vulgar Latin modal construction infinitive (q.v.) +the Present Indicative of the auxiliary (q.v.) habêre (Ven. aver) to have, which is of a future meaning. In Venetan the forms of aver were appended to the infinitive to make a whole word, cf.: scoltar ò => scoltarò, scoltar à => scoltarà etc. Note that in the plural the verbal form avémo, avè was shortened to -émo, -è. (only in the three central provinces Vicenza-Padua-Rovigo -è becomes -ì). In most Venetan variants, -er- has changed into -ar- so this suffix is now used in 1st and 2nd conjugations.

The Future Indicative Interrogative (Indicativo Futuro Interogativo)

Interrogative. forms have a pronoun added after the verb like a desinence:

• portaròi? (-ònti?) will I bring?, portarèto?, portaràlo?, portaràla?,
• portarémoi? (portaròne?) will we bring?, portarèo?, portaràli?, portaràle?

 
The Present Subjunctive (Congiuntivo Prexente)
 

See the Latin Present Subjunctive.

The others persons have the same endigns as the indicative:

te sculti, scoltè, finì (indicative)  vs. che te sculti, che scoltè, che finì (subjunctive).

A great many verbs -- especially common verbs, like ndar (nar), èser, far, dir, dar, star, poder, voler etc. -- are irregular in the present subjunctive as well as in other tenses. However there are very few irregular verbs in Venetan.
 
 
The Imperfect Subjunctive (Congiuntivo Inparfeto)
 

Formation: It is formed by adding the endings -ar- for the 1st-2nd conjug. and -ir- for the 3rd conjugation

The Present Conditional Interrogative (Condithional Prexente Interogativo)

Interrogative. forms have a pronoun added after the verb like a desinence:

• --, portarìsito? would you bring?, portarìselo?, portarìsela?, --, --, portarìseli?, portarìsele?

 
 
The Present Imperative (Inperativo Prexente)
 

The other imperative forms are borrowed from the Present Indicative (1st p. pl.) and Present Subjunctive.

The form of the 2 p.sg. changes the vowel to -e if it is followed by a pronoun, cf.:

• the forms for singular:  scólta! => scólteme! listen! => listen to me!
• vs. the forms for plural:  scoltè! => scoltème! listen! (pl.) => listen to me! (pl.)

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