Correre: Full Conjugation

Correre (to run) is one of those verbs that looks utterly tame on the page — a regular-looking second-conjugation -ere verb with a clean corr- stem and standard endings — and then quietly hides three irregularities that you have to know cold. The passato remoto is corsi / corse / corsero (the canonical -si pattern, dropping -rr- to -rs-), the past participle is corso (the matching -so form), and the auxiliary is famously flexible: essere when you're describing a directional movement (è corso a casa — he ran home), avere when you're describing the activity itself (ha corso per due ore — he ran for two hours).

Beyond the dictionary meaning, correre powers a long list of figurative idioms: correre il rischio (to run the risk), correre dietro a qualcuno (to chase, to run after), far correre voce (to spread a rumour), i tempi che corrono (the times we're living in). Italians also use it for time itself — come corre il tempo! ("how time flies!") — and for fluids, news, and traffic. Once you know the verb you start hearing it everywhere.

Indicativo presente

Fully regular endings on a fully regular corr- stem. The single audible feature worth getting right is the double r — Italian rr is distinctly longer than the single r of coro (chorus), and confusing the two changes the word entirely. Stress falls on the first syllable in the singular and 3pl (còrro, còrri, còrre, còrrono) and shifts to the ending in noi and voi (corriàmo, corrète).

Imperfetto

Standard -ere imperfect endings on the regular corr- stem. This is the form for habitual past running, descriptive backdrop, and ongoing actions interrupted by something else — correvo nel parco quando ho visto la volpe ("I was running in the park when I saw the fox").

Passato remoto

The classic -si pattern in 1-3-3 distribution. The 1sg, 3sg, and 3pl take the irregular cors- stem with the diagnostic -s- ending (corsi, corse, corsero), while the other three persons keep the regular corr- stem with regular endings. Same shape as prendere → presi, scrivere → scrissi, scendere → scesi. The double m in corremmo distinguishes the passato remoto from the present corriamo — the consonant length carries the morphological information.

Note that the irregular forms carry no written accent — corsi, not corsì — because the stress falls naturally on the first syllable in a regular Italian word. The final-stressed -ò of the future (correrò) is a different story and does take an accent.

Futuro semplice

Built on the predictable future stem correr-. The thematic vowel is preserved (correre → correr-ò). The grave accent on the 1sg correrò and 3sg correrà is mandatory — without it, correra would be misread as a non-form. The future also carries the standard "conjecture" reading — correrà sui dieci chilometri ("it must be about ten kilometres").

Condizionale presente

Watch the orthographic trap: correremo (future, single m) versus correremmo (conditional, double m). Beyond that, the conditional drives some of the most common collocations of correre — correrei subito ("I'd run there straight away"), non correrei un rischio simile ("I wouldn't run a risk like that").

Congiuntivo presente

Three singulars collapse into corra — explicit subject pronouns or context resolve which person is meant. The noi form corriamo does triple duty (indicative, subjunctive, imperative).

Congiuntivo imperfetto

Standard imperfect-subjunctive endings on the regular corr- stem. Note that the voi form correste is identical to the passato remoto correste — context disambiguates entirely. Used in counterfactuals and past-tense subjunctive contexts.

Imperativo

Corri! is one of the most-shouted imperatives in Italian — at children, at people running for buses, at marathon viewers. The negative tu form takes the infinitive, as always: non correre ("don't run"), the standard adult command to a child galloping through a museum.

Forme non finite

The participle corso is the second irregularity. It belongs to the -so family alongside preso, sceso, speso, reso. The Latin etymology is helpful here: the verb correre is from Latin currere, with the supine cursum — exactly the -rs- stem that survives in modern Italian as cors-, both in the passato remoto corsi and in the participle corso. The same curs-/cors- root surfaces in noun derivatives like corso (a course or avenue), corsa (a race), and corsia (a lane).

The infinitive past form has two shapes — essere corso or aver corso — depending on which auxiliary the underlying meaning requires. We turn to that next.

The auxiliary split — essere vs avere

This is the core difficulty of correre, and it's the canonical textbook example of the ambiguous auxiliary. The verb takes:

• essere when correre describes a directional motion — running to or from somewhere, the subject ends up in a different place. The participle agrees with the subject in gender and number.
• avere when correre describes the activity of running — running as exercise, running in a race, running for a duration, with no destination implied. The participle stays invariable.

The diagnostic is whether the sentence answers where to? (essere) or what did you do? (avere). When a destination, source, or direction is present (a a, in, fino a, da complement), essere is overwhelmingly the choice. When the focus is the activity itself — its duration, its pace, its competitive context — avere takes over.

Essere — directional running

Avere — running as activity

The same speaker, in the same conversation, can flip between the two: Ho corso un'ora ("I ran for an hour" — activity) and then Sono corso a casa a fare la doccia ("I ran home to take a shower" — destination). Italians do not perceive this as inconsistency; they hear it as the verb correctly tracking the meaning.

For the broader theory of when an Italian intransitive verb can take either auxiliary, see verbs with ambiguous auxiliary.

Compound tenses

Because of the auxiliary split, every compound tense has two possible shapes for correre. Below is the model for an unambiguously directional reading (essere, masculine subject) and an unambiguously activity reading (avere). For feminine and plural subjects with essere, the participle agrees: è corsa, sono corsi, sono corse.

Idiomatic uses

The figurative range of correre is substantial. The most common collocations:

• correre il rischio (di) — to run the risk (of)
• correre dietro a qualcuno — to chase after someone (often romantically)
• far correre la voce — to spread a rumour
• i tempi che corrono — the times we live in (often resigned: con i tempi che corrono...)
• correre la stessa sorte — to share the same fate
• a lungo andare
  • correre — over the long run
• lasciare correre — to let it slide, to drop the matter
• correre ai ripari — to take emergency measures, to rush to fix something

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

1. Correre is a -si/-so verb: the passato remoto is corsi / corse / corsero (1-3-3 -si pattern) and the participle is corso. The Latin cursum root explains both, and the same root surfaces in corsa, corso, corsia.

2. The auxiliary depends on meaning, not on the verb. Use essere when the sentence describes directional motion (a destination, a source, a direction); use avere when the focus is the activity, its duration, or its competitive frame. The same speaker switches between the two without contradiction.

3. The double r in corro, corri, corre, corrono is a phonological reality, not a spelling quirk. Italian listeners distinguish corro from a hypothetical coro by consonant length alone.

4. The future requires the grave accent on -ò: correrò, correrà, correranno (no accent), but the 1sg and 3sg without it would be wrong.

5. The conditional doubles its m: correremo (future) vs correremmo (conditional). The single most common spelling slip in -ere conjugation.

For more on the broader pattern of irregular -si/-so verbs, see prendere; for the auxiliary question in motion verbs, see auxiliary choice. The natural follow-up verb is scendere, which shares the -si/-so morphology and presents its own — slightly different — auxiliary split.