Second Conjugation Italian Verbs

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
egli temette/temé
essi temettero/temerono

io vendetti/vendei
egli vendette/vendé
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
io battei
egli batté
essi batterono

potere
io potei
egli poté
essi poterono

riflettere
io riflettei
egli rifletté
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
tu vinci
che egli vinca

spargere
tu spargi
che egli sparga

conoscere
tu conosci
che egli conosca
conosciuto

crescere
tu cresci
che egli cresca
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
io nuoccio
tu nuoci
essi nuocciono
nuociuto


piacere
io piaccio
tu piaci
essi piacciono
piaciuto

giacere
io giaccio
tu giaci
essi giacciono
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 that start with i:
compiere
tu compi
noi compiamo