Lesson 189: Understanding verbs -- assumere

Italian has a lot of those words that seem like they might mean the same thing in English but in reality, are not. They are called false friends, and one of these friends is the transitive verb, assumere, which means:

• to hire, to employ
• to take something on, such as a responsibility, a task, etc.
  
• to assume, as in to assume the shape of something

The past participle of assumere is assunto. Avere is used in compound tenses. Assumere is irregular in the passato remoto. Go to Italian-Verbs.com to see the verb conjugated in all its tenses and moods.

Let's look at some examples of the verb's usage:

• Il capo mi ha avvisato che devo assumere dieci nuovi assistenti per questo nuovo progetto.
  
  The boss advised me that I have to hire 10 new employees for this new project.
  
  
• Perchè Marcello ha assunto responsabilità di organizzare la nostra vacanza? È meglio se lo aiutiamo?
  
  Why did Marcello assume the responsibility for organizing our vacation? Isn't it better if we help?
  
  
• L'uomo misterioso ha assunto la forma di un cane per nascondersi dalla polizia.
  
  The myterious man assumed the form of a dog in order to hide from the police.
  

To assume in the sense of to suppose, when one might say "He assumes that we are going to Europe," requires different verbs: supporre or presumere.

Let's look at some examples:

• Presumo che non ci vediamo più?
  
  I assume that we are not going to see each other anymore?
  
  
• Hai supposto che avessi rubato i soldi perché ho avuto un passato difficile?
  
  You assumed that I had stolen the money because I had a difficult past?

Presumere and supporre both have irregular past participles: presunto and supposto, respectively. Avere is used for both verbs in compound tenses.