Presente

Present tense of the 3rd conjugation is slightly more difficult than others because two different inflections may occur, according to the verb:

		singular			plural
1st person		capisco	I understand		capiamo	we understand
2nd person		capisci	you understand (sing.)		capite	you understand (pl.)
3rd person		capisce	he/she/it understands		capiscono	they understand

This pattern is the most common one, and the first nine verbs listed in the table above use these inflections. Note how the inflection of all singular persons and of the 3rd plural person is longer than in other conjugations (i.e. there is a cluster "isc.." before the final vowel). This causes a certain difference in pronounciation (see paragraph 1.2):

...isco sounds as "...yskoh", thus capisco sounds as "kahpyskoh" ...isco sounds as "...yshyh", thus capisci sounds as "kahpyshyh" ...isco sounds as "...ysheh", thus capisce sounds as "kahpysheh" ...iscono sounds as "...yskohnoh", thus capiscono sounds as "kahpyskohnoh"

You can notice how the sc cluster changes sound, from "hard" to "soft", according to the following vowel. But a fewer number of verbs, as the following nine ones of the table above, have simple inflections, like the ones used for present tense of the 1st and the 2nd conjugation:

		singular			plural
1st person		scopro	I discover		scopriamo	we discover
2nd person		scopri	you discover (singular)		scoprite	you discover (plural)
3rd person		scopre	he/she/it discover		scoprono	they discover

Unfortunately, there is no specific rule to tell whether a verb of the 3rd conjugation follows the first or the second pattern, but present tense is the only one with this dual situation: all other tenses have simply one inflection. In both cases, accent always falls on the penultimate syllable, except the 3rd plural person (accent on the antepenultimate syllable), like in present tense of the 1st and 2nd conjugation.

capisco la situazione = I understand the situation ...BUT apro il giornale = I open the newspaper forniscono le informazioni = they provide the informations ...BUT seguono una persona = they follow a person capiamo le istruzioni = we understand the instructions apriamo la porta = we open the door fornite gli attrezzi = you (plur.) provide the tools seguite le orme = you follow the footprints (no difference for 1st and 2nd plural persons)

--- PHONETIC CHANGES ---

In very few cases, a verb whose root ends with c or g (i.e. fuggire = to run away, or cucire = to sew) follows the second pattern. Some of them add a phonetic i to the root, so to keep the consonant's "soft" sound:

		singular			plural
1st person		cucio	I sew		cuciamo	we sew
2nd person		cuci	you sew (singular)		cucite	you sew (plural)
3rd person		cuce	he/she sews		cuciono	they sew

Note that the root of cucire is cuc..., but the 1st singular and 3rd plural persons have cuci...: in this way, consonant c sounds "soft" : cucio (pronounced "kwchoh") and cuciono (pronounced "kwchohnoh"). Without the i, they would have sounded "kwkoh" and "kwkohnoh". Instead, others do not add the phonetic i, so the root remains graphically unchanged, but the sound of the consonant changes according to the following vowel:

		singular			plural
1st person		fuggo	I run away		fuggiamo	we run away
2nd person		fuggi	you run away (singular)		fuggite	you run away (plural)
3rd person		fugge	he/she runs aways		fuggono	they run away

Note the pronounciation: fuggo sounds as "fw'ggoh", whereas fuggi sounds as "fw'djyh", and so on. But almost every other verb of the 3rd conjugation whose root ends with c or g follows the first pattern (i.e. reagire, agire, etc.), for which phonetic changes are not required, because all inflections start with vowel i:

agisco ("ahjyskoh"), agisci ("ahjyshyh"), agisce ("ahjysheh"), etc.

So, simply try to memorize these two examples, and don't worry about others.