Imperfetto: Regular -ere Verbs | Italian Grammar

The imperfetto of regular -ere verbs is one of the simplest paradigms to learn in all of Italian: take the stem, add the endings, done. Better still, almost every -ere verb is regular here — including a long list of verbs that are wildly irregular in the passato remoto (prendere → presi, scrivere → scrissi, leggere → lessi). In the imperfetto, all of these snap into a clean pattern.

The model verb is credere (to believe). Once you can conjugate it, you can conjugate vedere, scrivere, leggere, prendere, mettere, ricevere, perdere, vendere, ripetere, conoscere — and almost every other -ere verb in the language.

How it works

To form the imperfetto of a regular -ere verb, drop the -ere ending from the infinitive to get the stem, then add the imperfetto endings. The endings are identical to the -are imperfetto except for one letter: the theme vowel is -e- instead of -a-.

The six endings are:

Person	Ending
io	-evo
tu	-evi
lui / lei / Lei	-eva
noi	-evamo
voi	-evate
loro	-evano

Compare with -are: parlavo vs credevo. The structure is identical (theme vowel + -v- marker + person ending) — only the theme vowel changes. This parallelism is one of the great gifts of the Italian imperfetto: learn one conjugation and you have most of the work done for the others.

Credere — the model verb

Take credere, drop the -ere to get the stem cred-, then add each ending. Bold marks indicate stress (training aid only).

Person	Conjugation	Stress
io	credevo	credévo
tu	credevi	credévi
lui / lei / Lei	credeva	credéva
noi	credevamo	credevàmo
voi	credevate	credevàte
loro	credevano	credévano

Credevo di aver capito, ma poi mi sono accorto di no.

I thought I had understood, but then I realized I hadn't.

Credevi davvero a quella storia?

Did you really believe that story?

Mio padre credeva nel valore del lavoro manuale.

My father believed in the value of manual work.

Credevamo che fossi a Roma, dov'eri?

We thought you were in Rome, where were you?

I miei amici credevano alle leggende del paese.

My friends used to believe the village's legends.

The same stress trap

Just like with -are, the loro form stresses the root of the verb, not the ending: credévano, not credevàno. The pattern is identical to -are: stress falls on the -ev- core in the singular and loro forms (credévo, credévi, credéva, credévano), and shifts one syllable to the right in noi and voi (credevàmo, credevàte).

The reason this matters so much is that English speakers who are aware of the rule for -are sometimes don't transfer the same logic to -ere — they say credevàno even after they've correctly mastered parlàvano. The principle is general: every imperfetto loro form is rizotonic, regardless of conjugation class.

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The loro form credevano is stressed credévano, with the accent on the second syllable. The same applies across all -ere verbs in the imperfetto: vedévano, scrivévano, leggévano, prendévano. Always stress the second-to-last vowel of the stem-plus-ev cluster.

High-frequency -ere verbs in the imperfetto

These are all completely regular in the imperfetto, even though several of them are irregular in other tenses:

Infinitive	Meaning	io form	noi form	loro form
vedere	to see	vedevo	vedevamo	vedévano
scrivere	to write	scrivevo	scrivevamo	scrivévano
leggere	to read	leggevo	leggevamo	leggévano
prendere	to take	prendevo	prendevamo	prendévano
mettere	to put	mettevo	mettevamo	mettévano
ricevere	to receive	ricevevo	ricevevamo	ricevévano
perdere	to lose	perdevo	perdevamo	perdévano
vendere	to sell	vendevo	vendevamo	vendévano
conoscere	to know (someone)	conoscevo	conoscevamo	conoscévano
ripetere	to repeat	ripetevo	ripetevamo	ripetévano

Da bambino vedevo i miei nonni ogni domenica.

As a kid I used to see my grandparents every Sunday.

Scrivevamo lettere ogni domenica, prima dell'email.

We used to write letters every Sunday, before email.

Leggevo molto da bambino, soprattutto fumetti.

I used to read a lot as a child, especially comic books.

Mio padre prendeva il treno delle sette per andare al lavoro.

My father used to take the seven o'clock train to work.

Non conoscevamo nessuno alla festa, ci siamo sentiti un po' a disagio.

We didn't know anyone at the party, we felt a bit out of place.

Why the imperfetto regularizes irregular verbs

This is one of the most useful facts about Italian morphology. Verbs like prendere, scrivere, leggere, mettere have famously irregular passato remoto forms (presi/prese, scrissi/scrisse, lessi/lesse, misi/mise) that go back to Latin perfect-tense stems. But in the imperfetto, none of that irregularity surfaces. Why?

Because the imperfetto is built on a different morphological foundation: the infinitive stem plus a regular ending pattern. The Latin perfect stems that wreak havoc in the passato remoto don't intrude here. So if you ever feel intimidated by the irregular passato remoto of these verbs, take comfort — the imperfetto is the easy half of their past-tense profile.

Scrivevo un romanzo, ma non l'ho mai finito.

I was writing a novel, but I never finished it.

Quando vivevamo a Bologna, prendevamo il tram tutti i giorni.

When we lived in Bologna, we used to take the tram every day.

The three exceptions: bere, fare, dire

There are exactly three -ere verbs whose imperfetto looks irregular at first glance. They all have a specific historical reason: their modern infinitives are contracted from longer Latin forms, and the imperfetto preserves the original Latin stem.

Modern infinitive	Latin source	Imperfetto stem	io form
bere (to drink)	bibere	bev-	bevevo
fare (to do/make)	facere	fac-	facevo
dire (to say)	dicere	dic-	dicevo

These three verbs lost their internal consonant cluster in the modern infinitive (bibere → bere, facere → fare, dicere → dire), but the imperfetto kept the original stem. That's why bevevo has a -v- where the modern infinitive doesn't, and why facevo has a -c- where the modern infinitive doesn't, and dicevo has a -c- as well.

Once you know this, these "irregular" forms aren't really irregular at all — they take exactly the same imperfetto endings (-evo, -evi, -eva, -evamo, -evate, -evano) as any other -ere verb. The only quirk is the stem.

Da giovane bevevo molto caffè, adesso non più.

When I was young I used to drink a lot of coffee, not anymore.

Cosa facevi a Berlino?

What were you doing in Berlin?

Mia nonna diceva sempre che la pazienza è una virtù.

My grandmother used to always say that patience is a virtue.

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Bere, fare, dire all conjugate in the imperfetto on their Latin stems: bev-, fac-, dic-. Memorize these three and you're done — the rest of -ere is fully regular. Note that fare is technically an -are verb in modern Italian, but it joins the -ere conjugation in the imperfetto because of its Latin origin.

Each of these three verbs has its own dedicated grammar page; this page just flags them as exceptions to the otherwise universally regular -ere pattern.

Imperfetto vs passato prossimo with -ere verbs

The contrast between imperfetto and passato prossimo is the same logic for every conjugation, but it's worth seeing it specifically with -ere verbs because some of them describe actions that English speakers reflexively put in the simple past:

Leggevo il giornale quando hai chiamato.

I was reading the paper when you called.

Ho letto un bel libro la settimana scorsa.

I read a good book last week.

The first sentence uses the imperfetto leggevo because it's setting the scene — the reading was ongoing when something else happened. The second uses the passato prossimo ho letto because the reading is presented as a single completed event with a defined boundary.

Da bambino vedevo poco la televisione.

As a kid I didn't watch much TV. (habitual past)

Ieri sera ho visto un film bellissimo.

Last night I saw a beautiful film. (single event)

Mentre scrivevo l'email, è arrivato il pacco.

While I was writing the email, the package arrived.

In the last sentence, two things happen at the same time: the writing was ongoing (imperfetto), the package's arrival was a single event (passato prossimo). This is the imperfetto-as-backdrop + passato prossimo-as-event structure that drives all Italian past narration.

Common mistakes

❌ I miei nonni leggevàno il giornale ogni mattina.

Incorrect — wrong stress on the loro form. The accent should be on the root, not on the -và-no.

✅ I miei nonni leggévano il giornale ogni mattina.

Correct — leggévano stresses the second syllable.

❌ Da bambino, ho letto sempre prima di dormire.

Incorrect — habitual past actions take the imperfetto, not the passato prossimo.

✅ Da bambino, leggevo sempre prima di dormire.

Correct — recurring childhood actions take the imperfetto.

❌ Da giovane berevo molto caffè.

Incorrect — bere takes the Latin stem 'bev-' in the imperfetto, not 'ber-'.

✅ Da giovane bevevo molto caffè.

Correct — bevevo, from Latin bibere.

❌ Cosa farevi a Berlino?

Incorrect — fare takes the Latin stem 'fac-' in the imperfetto, not 'far-'.

✅ Cosa facevi a Berlino?

Correct — facevi, from Latin facere.

❌ Loro credevono nelle fate.

Incorrect — the loro ending for -ere verbs is -evano, not -evono.

✅ Loro credevano nelle fate.

Correct — credevano with -evano.

❌ Mentre prendevo il caffè, ho leggevo il giornale.

Incorrect — two parallel ongoing actions both take the imperfetto.

✅ Mentre prendevo il caffè, leggevo il giornale.

Correct — both actions are ongoing, both are imperfetto.

Key takeaways

The regular -ere imperfetto endings are -evo, -evi, -eva, -evamo, -evate, -evano. These are identical to the -are endings except for the theme vowel: e instead of a.

Three things to internalize:

The loro form is rizotonic: stress on the root, not on the ending. Credévano, never credevàno.
All -ere verbs are regular in the imperfetto, even those with wildly irregular passato remoto forms. The imperfetto is built on the infinitive stem, which short-circuits the Latin perfect-stem irregularities.
Bere, fare, dire are the only three exceptions. They use Latin stems (bev-, fac-, dic-) that the modern infinitive has lost. Once you know this, they conjugate exactly like every other -ere verb.

Next stop: regular -ire verbs, where the only twist is what happens to the -isc- infix. Then the two essential irregulars, essere and avere, to complete your imperfetto toolkit.

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