154 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR 



LESSONS IN ITALIAN. XXIV. 



CONJUGATION OF THE AUXILIARY VERB A-VjG-RE, to have. 



WE now proceed to bring under the learner's notice the auxiliary 

 verb avere, to liave, adding remarks on the various peculiarities 

 in each mood, as in the case of the auxiliary verb essere, to be. 



I. INDEFINITE MOOD. 

 Present. A-ve"-re, to have. 

 Preterite. A-ve"-re a-vu-to, to have had. 



Future. A-ve-re ad a-vd-re, s-se-re per a-ve-re, to be about to have. 

 Present Participle. A-ven-te, having. 

 Preterite Participle. A-vu-to, had. 

 Present Gerund. A-ven-do, 1 having. 



Preterite Gerund. A-ven-do a-vu-to, having had. [about to have. 



Future Gerund. A-ven-do ad a-ve"-re, or es-sen-do per a-ve-re, being 



I. REMARKS ON THE INDEFINITE MOOD. 



1. Ab-biSn-te for avente, ab-biit-to or ati-to for a-vti-to, and 

 ab-bien-do for dvendo, are obsolete forms. 



II. REMARKS ON THE INDICATIVE MOOD. 



"].. The purists write d, <K, A, and anno, in the place of ho, 

 /ku, Tia, and lianno, as mentioned already. Baretti says : 

 " They save some ink by so doing." A'b-bo and dg.gio, for M, 



I have, are regular, but now obsolete, forms ; they were used by 

 Dante and Petrarca. 



2. Have, for ha, is used in poetry, and also in the familiar 

 language of some provinces. 



3. A-vc-mo, for abbiamo, is used in familiar language. Also 

 Petrarca has it in his poetry. The ancients wrote, likewise, 

 ag-gid-mo for abbiamo, but it ia now quite obsolete. In Tuscany 

 they also say a-vid-mo for abbiamo. 



4. The terminations of the imperfect tenses of all Italian 

 verbs in eva have a close e thus, e-va ; for example, fa-c^-va, 

 I did ; di-c^-va, T said, etc. Va is the termination of the first 

 and third person, and vi of the second person singular in the 

 imperfect tense of all conjugations ; for example 



1st Conj. A-ma-va, a-ma-vi, a-ma-va, I loved, thou louedst, 7ie loucd. 

 2nd Conj. Te-me'-va, te-me-vi, te-tnd-va, I feared, thou fearedst, Ue feared, 

 3rd Conj. Dor-uu-va, dor-mi-vi, dor-mi-va, I slept, thou sleptst, he slept. 



5. A-vd-vi, for avevate, is a Florentinism, just like eri for 

 eravate. 



6. b-ba-mo, for avemmo, is a Florentinism. b-bi-mo, for 

 avemmo, is in use, but not quite correct. 



7. b-bo-no, for ebbcro, was once much in use on account of 

 euphoEy, and is a form similar to a-vreb-bo-no for a-vreb-be-ro. 



8. Strictly speaking, a-ve-ro, a-ve-ra-i, a-ve-ra, a-ve-r^-mo, 

 a-ve-rd-te, a-ve-rdn-no, for avrv, etc., is the regular form of the 

 future of avere, while avrd is a contraction. Averb is still in 

 use among the people, and also was used by ancient writers, 

 but must be considered as obsolete. A-rv, a-rd-i, a-rd, a-rd-mo, 

 a-re-ie, a-rdn-no, for avrd, etc., is still in use among the people 

 of Florence, and was also sometimes used by ancient writers, 

 but educated people ought neither to say nor to write it. The 

 ancients said avroe for avrd, and avrae for avrd, which of course 

 is now obsolete. 



9. A-ve-re'-i, a-ve-re-sti, etc., for avrei, avresti, etc., are the 

 original forms of this tense, and must be considered as obso- 

 lete, though they are still in the mouths of the people. A-vrd 

 is a contraction for avrei, or avrebbe. 



10. A-vri-a-mo or a-vri-mo, for avremmo, are poetical forms. 

 A-vre's-si-mo is the usual Romanism, and a-vrSb-ba-mo the usual 

 Florentinism, for avremmo. Both are, of course, erroneous. 



11. A-vrie'-no, for avrebbero, is a poetical form. 



III. REMARKS ON THE IMPERATIVE MOOD. 



1. For non de-vi a-ve"-re, thou must not have, as explained 

 before. 



2. A'b-bi, for the third person singular (db-bia, let him or her 

 have), and db-bii-no, or db-bi-no, for db-bia-no, are not quite 

 correct, and perhaps somewhat vulgar ; though, as a familiar 

 form, the Tuscans frequently say abbino for abbiano, and even 

 apply this form to all verbs of the second conjugation ; and it 

 must be addod that the best writers of the sixteenth century 

 used it. 



IV. REMARKS ON THE SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD. 



1. See the preceding remark of equal application here. 



2. The imperfect tenses of the subjunctive mood, and of the 

 second conjugation (to which avere belongs), ending in essi, 

 always have a close e thus, ds-si; for example, te-mes-si, I 

 might fear ; cre-des-si, I might believe ; etc. 



3. Avessi, thou mightest have (or with se se tu avessi, if 

 thou had), is exclusively of the subjunctive mood ; while avesti, 

 thou hadst, is exclusively of the indicative mood and of the 

 indeterminate preterite. 



4. In low style avessi is sometimes used for avesse. 



5. In low style avessemo, for avessimo, has been used by old 

 poets. 



6. A-ves-so-no, in the place of avessero, for the sake of 

 euphony, is a form which occasionally is applied to all verbs. 

 A-v4s-si-no, for avessero, is a Florentinism, like abbino. 



ADDITIONAL REMARKS. 



Both a-ve-re and es-se-re are irregular verbs of the second 

 conjugation, and the compound tenses of both these verbs are 

 taken from themselves without the aid of another verb, with 

 this difference, however, that essere has its past participle taken 

 from the verb std-re, which, by a long usage, has become its 

 property, while the original past participle, essuto or suto, is 

 quite obsolete. 



Essere is an intransitive verb, denoting being or existence ; 

 av&re is a transitive or active verb, denoting possession of a 



