Spegnere: Full Conjugation

Spegnere (to extinguish, to turn off) is the verb you reach for every time a light, a fire, a TV, an oven, an engine, a phone, or a candle goes off. It is also one of the most pronunciation-trapped verbs in Italian: the stem alternates between -gn- (which is the palatal nasal /ɲ/, like the ñ in Spanish señor or the ny in English canyon) and -ng- (which is just n + g /ng/, no palatalisation). The two forms look similar on the page but sound completely different, and the alternation is not optional — it tracks the conjugational ending.

Add to that an irregular passato remoto (spensi) and an irregular past participle (spento), and you have a verb whose surface complexity belies its tractable underlying logic: spegnere belongs to the same -nsi/-nto family as vincere, piangere, and giungere. Once you internalise the stem alternation spegn- ↔ speng- and the diagnostic -nto participle, the whole paradigm becomes predictable.

There is also a regional alternative — spengere — used mainly in Tuscany and standard in some literary sources, including Manzoni. The infinitive spengere and its conjugation (spengo, spengi, spenge...) is essentially a different verb on the page, but it produces the same passato remoto (spensi) and the same participle (spento). In modern standard Italian, the spegnere infinitive form has won; spengere survives as a regional variant you should recognise but not use as a default.

Indicativo presente

This table is the single most important thing on the page. Spengo and spengono are speng- with /ng/ — the digraph -ng- sounds like English finger, with a clean n followed by a g. Spegni, spegne, spegniamo, spegnete are spegn- with /ɲɲ/ — the gn digraph is the palatal nasal, identical in sound to Spanish ñ or French gn in cognac. There is no separate g sound in spegnere; the gn is one indivisible sound.

In spegniamo, the i is purely orthographic — it tells you the gn is palatal, but you don't pronounce it as a separate vowel. Speg-nià-mo, three syllables, stress on the second.

Why the alternation? It is a morphological pattern that targets verbs whose stem ends in a palatal consonant: before the back vowels of the 1sg (-o), 3pl (-ono), and the singular/3pl subjunctive (-a, -ano), the palatal flips to a velar. The same pattern appears with palatal-lateral verbs — cogliere → colgo (but cogli), scegliere → scelgo (but scegli), togliere → tolgo (but togli) — and is loosely related to the -g- insertion in tenere → tengo and venire → vengo. Spegnere is the cleanest example of the palatal-nasal version of this rule.

Imperfetto

Fully regular on the spegn- stem with palatal /ɲɲ/ throughout. All endings begin with e, so the palatal pronunciation is preserved everywhere. This is the workhorse for habitual extinguishing in the past — what you used to turn off as a kid, what someone was turning off when you walked in.

Passato remoto

The canonical -si pattern with the -gn- → -ns- shift. The 1sg, 3sg, and 3pl drop the palatal gn entirely and replace it with ns: spens-. The other three persons (tu, noi, voi) keep the regular spegn- stem with its palatal pronunciation.

Notice how completely the palatal disappears: spensi is /ˈspɛnsi/ — clean n, clean s, no /ɲ/ in sight. The stress falls on the first syllable: spèn-si, spèn-se, spèn-se-ro.

The Latin source is the late/popular Latin expingĕre "to extinguish" (a verb of disputed etymology, distinct from classical pingĕre "to paint"). Its strong perfect expinx- gave Italian spens-, with the -ks- → -ns- shift also seen in vinsi from vīcī; the supine in -ct- gave the participle spento.

Futuro semplice

Regular on the spegn- stem with palatal /ɲɲ/ throughout. The thematic vowel is preserved (spegnere → spegner-ò) — there is no contraction. Note the obligatory grave accent on -ò: spegnerò, never spegnero.

Condizionale presente

Regular conditional. Watch the double m in spegneremmo — single-m spegneremo is the future ("we will turn off"), double-m spegneremmo is the conditional ("we would turn off"). The universal -ere conditional trap.

Congiuntivo presente

Here the stem alternation comes back with full force. The three singular forms collapse into spenga (with /ng/, no palatal) — built on the same speng- stem as spengo. The 3pl spengano also takes the speng- stem with /ng/. But noi spegniamo and voi spegniate keep the palatal spegn- stem with /ɲɲ/, because the following vowel is i.

This means: in the congiuntivo presente, you switch stems three times across six forms — speng-, speng-, speng-, spegn-, spegn-, speng-. It looks complex but follows directly from the phonological rule: palatal /ɲ/ before i, /ng/ before a or o.

Congiuntivo imperfetto

Regular on the spegn- stem with palatal /ɲɲ/ throughout — every ending starts with e, so the palatal pronunciation is preserved. The voi form spegneste is identical to the passato remoto voi form; context disambiguates.

Imperativo

The imperative is one of the most-used forms of spegnere in everyday speech: turn off the lights, turn off the TV, blow out the candles. The formal Lei form spenga uses the speng- stem (with /ng/), while informal tu spegni uses the spegn- stem (with /ɲɲ/). The negative tu form uses the infinitive: non spegnere il computer (don't turn off the computer).

Forme non finite

The participle spento is the second irregularity (after spensi). Same shape: the gn of the stem is replaced by -nt-. This is the -nto ending, the same pattern that gives vinto, pianto, giunto, dipinto.

The participle is also a high-frequency Italian adjective: spento "off, switched off, out, dim." A colore spento is a dull color; occhi spenti are lifeless eyes; un'atmosfera spenta is a flat, dreary atmosphere. The metaphorical extension from "extinguished" to "lifeless / dull" is one of those small windows into how Italian thinks about energy and presence.

Compound tenses

Spegnere takes avere as its auxiliary in every compound tense — it's a transitive verb (you turn off something). The participle does not agree with the subject but agrees with a preceding direct-object pronoun.

In the second example, spente agrees with the preceding pronoun le (feminine plural).

Reflexive: spegnersi

The reflexive spegnersi ("to go out, to die down, to fade") describes something that goes off by itself — a candle that burns out, a fire that dies down, a dream that fades. It conjugates exactly like spegnere with reflexive pronouns and the auxiliary essere in compound tenses (with full subject agreement).

The figurative spegnersi is also a euphemistic Italian way of saying "to die," especially of someone going gently in old age: si è spento serenamente nella sua casa ("he passed away peacefully at home"). This usage is common in obituaries and respectful speech.

Etymology

From late/popular Latin expingĕre "to extinguish" — a verb of contested etymology, traditionally treated as distinct from classical pingĕre "to paint" (whose Italian descendant is dipingere). Whatever its origin, its strong perfect stem expinx- gave Italian spens- in the passato remoto, with the -ks- → -ns- shift also responsible for vinsi/vinse; the supine expinctum gave -nt- in the participle spento.

The competing infinitive spengere (with the same passato remoto and participle) reflects an alternative analogical generalisation: speakers built spengere directly on the spengo stem, the way prendere matches prendo. The spegnere form, however, reflects an older tradition where the infinitive carried the palatal even though the present 1sg/3pl flipped to /ng/. Modern standard Italian has codified spegnere as the preferred infinitive, with spengere surviving regionally and in older literary sources.

Idioms and collocations

Spegnere is at the heart of dozens of fixed expressions, ranging from the literal (turning things off) to the deeply metaphorical (extinguishing emotions and lives).

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

Spegnere is the most pronunciation-sensitive verb in this paradigm group. Its single core fact is the stem alternation -gn- (palatal /ɲ/) ↔ -ng- (clean /ng/), conditioned by the following vowel:

• speng- before o and a: spengo, spengono, spenga, spengano
• spegn- before i and e: spegni, spegne, spegnete, spegniamo, spegnessi

On top of that, the standard -nsi/-nto irregularity gives the passato remoto spensi/spense/spensero and the past participle spento. The Tuscan / literary infinitive spengere coexists but is no longer the standard choice.

The reflexive spegnersi ("to go out, to fade, to die") is an essential satellite verb to internalise alongside the base — it appears constantly in obituaries (si è spento serenamente), in descriptions of dying fires, and in metaphors of fading passion.

For the broader -nsi/-nto class, see irregular passato remoto with -si pattern. Drilling spegnere together with vincere and giungere gives you the entire -ng-/-nc- micro-paradigm at once.