The Italian Verb Ballare (To Dance)

What does ballare mean in Italian?

The Italian verb ballare means to dance and, more rarely, in a figurative sense, to wobble, to rock or to shake, for example when talking about a flight with turbulences, you could say l’ aeroplano balla.

What conjugation does ballare belong to?

Ballare belongs to the first conjugation, where the infinitive form ends in -are (ballare), the participle form ends in -ato (ballato) and the gerund ends in -ando (ballando).

Is ballare regular or irregular?

Ballare is a regular verb, so it varies in a regular way throughout its conjugation. If you are able to conjugate ballare, then you’ll be able to conjugate all other regular verbs of the first conjugation (-are).

Does ballare use an essere or avere auxiliary?

Italian compound tenses such as the present perfect (passato prossimo) require the main verb to be preceded by an auxiliary, essere or avere. Ballare takes the avere auxiliary all the time (for example ho ballato – I danced) and never the essere auxiliary.

What prepositions are used with ballare?

The most common prepositions found with ballare is con (with).

• Dave balla con sua moglie (Dave is dancing with his wife)

Uses of ballare

Here are some of the most common ways to use ballare in Italian:

• Si è offerto di ballare con sua figlia (he offered to dance with his daughter)
• Andiamo a ballare in quella nuova discoteca vicino alla spiaggia (let’s go dancing in that new club by the beach)
• Qualche volta l’ aereo balla per le turbolenze (sometimes the plane shakes because of turbolences)

Italian proverbs with ballare

One Italian proverb with the verb ballare says:

Quando il gatto non c’è i topi ballano

Literally: when the cat isn’t there the rats dance

This proverb is used to refer to when people aren’t being checked upon, managed, or controlled and they decide to behave how they prefer.

Two examples of when this saying would be suitable could be a classroom misbehaving because the teacher has left, or staff in an office not doing their work because the boss is not in the office.

Synonyms of ballare

Danzare (to dance) is a synonym of ballare. Danzare is associated with classical dance and ballroom dance. In fact, we say danza classica to refer to ballet but we say le ragazze ballano alla festa (the girls are dancing at the party) to refer to a more casual, or untrained, way of dancing.

Nouns related to ballare

One useful noun related to the verb ballare is il ballo. This means the ball or the dance. For example un corso di ballo (a dance course/ dance classes).

The complete conjugation of ballare

In the table below you can see the complete conjugation of ballare in all tenses and moods.

Verb Tense	IO	TU	LUI/ LEI	NOI	VOI	LORO
Present indicative	ballo	balli	balla	balliamo	ballate	ballano
Present perfect indicative	ho ballato	hai ballato	ha ballato	abbiamo ballato	avete ballato	hanno ballato
Imperfect indicative	ballavo	ballavi	ballava	ballavamo	ballavate	ballavano
Past perfect indicative	avevo ballato	avevi ballato	aveva ballato	avevamo ballato	avevate ballato	avevano ballato
Remote past indicative	ballai	ballasti	ballò	ballammo	ballaste	ballarono
Preterite perfect indicative	ebbi ballato	avesti ballato	ebbe ballato	avemmo ballato	aveste ballato	ebbero ballato
Simple future indicative	ballerò	ballerai	ballerà	balleremo	ballerete	balleranno
Future perfect indicative	avrò ballato	avrai ballato	avrà ballato	avranno ballato	avrete ballato	avranno ballato
Present conditional	ballerei	balleresti	ballerebbe	balleremmo	ballereste	ballerebbero
Past perfect conditional	avrei ballato	avresti ballato	avrebbe ballato	avremmo ballato	avreste ballato	avrebbero ballato
Imperative		balla		balliamo	ballate
Present gerund	ballando	ballando	ballando	ballando	ballando	ballando
Past gerund	avendo ballato	avendo ballato	avendo ballato	avendo ballato	avendo ballato	avendo ballato
Present subjunctive	balli	balli	balli	balliamo	balliate	ballino
Present perfect subjunctive	abbia ballato	abbia ballato	abbia ballato	abbiamo ballato	abbiate ballato	abbiano ballato
Imperfect subjunctive	ballassi	ballassi	ballasse	ballassimo	ballaste	ballassero
Past perfect subjunctive	avessi ballato	avessi ballato	avesse ballato	avessimo ballato	aveste ballato	avessero ballato