–ere Verbs in Italian
The infinitives of all regular verbs in Italian end in –are, –ere, or –ire and are referred to as first, second, or third conjugation verbs, respectively. In English the infinitive (l'infinito) consists of to + verb.
| amare to love | temere to fear | sentire to hear |
Verbs with infinitives ending in –ere are called second conjugation, or –ere, verbs. The present tense of a regular –ere verb is formed by dropping the infinitive ending –ere and adding the appropriate endings to the resulting stem. There is a different ending for each person.
# Characteristics of the Second Conjugation The «passato remoto» (historical past) of the second conjugation verbs has two diverse forms of the first and third person singular and third person plural:
| io temetti/temei | io vendetti/vendei |
| egli temette/temé | egli vendette/vendé |
| essi temettero/temerono | essi vendettero/venderono |
Note! In standard usage the forms –etti, –ette, and –ettero are preferred. The majority of verbs whose root ends in t though, such as battere, potere, and riflettere, take the endings –ei, –é and –erono.
| battere | potere | riflettere |
| io battei | io potei | io riflettei |
| egli batté | egli poté | egli rifletté |
| essi batterono | essi poterono | essi rifletterono |
# The verbs fare and dire are considered second conjugation verbs (because they are derived from two third conjugation Latin verbs—facere and dicere) as well as all verbs ending in –arre (trarre), –orre (porre), and –urre (tradurre).
# Verbs ending in –cere (vincere), –gere (scorgere), or –scere (conoscere) have a particular phonetic rule. C, g, and sc of the root maintains the soft sound of the infinitive before the declinations that start with e or i. They take the hard sound before the declinations that begin with a or o:
| vincere | spargere |
| tu vinci | tu spargi |
| che egli vinca | che egli sparga |
| conoscere | crescere |
| tu conosci | tu cresci |
| che egli conosca | che egli cresca |
| conosciuto | cresciuto |
# Many irregular verbs ending in –cere (piacere, dispiace, giacere, nuocere, tacere) maintain the soft sound by inserting an i before declinations that begin with a or o; if the verb has a regular past participle ending in –uto, an i is also added:
| nuocere | piacere | giacere |
| io nuoccio | io piaccio | io giaccio |
| tu nuoci | tu piaci | tu giaci |
| essi nuocciono | essi piacciono | essi giacciono |
| nuociuto | piaciuto | giaciuto |
# Verbs ending in –gnere are regular and maintain the i of the declinations iamo (indicative and present subjunctive) and iate (present subjunctive):
spegnere
noi spegniamo
che voi spegniate
# Verbs ending in –iere drop the i of the root before declinations (? declensions) that start with i:
compiere
tu compi
noi compiamo
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