Historic past of -ere and -ire verbs

Tales of Knights and Castles

Continuing our journey into the passato remoto (historic past), we will now look at how to conjugate regular -ere and -ire verbs. This tense is perfect for recounting historical events, like stories of battles and knights.

To form the third-person singular ("he/she/it") for regular -ire verbs, drop the infinitive ending and add -ì. As with -are verbs, the written accent mark tells you to stress the final vowel.

For regular -ere verbs, the third-person singular ending is -ette (though you may also occasionally see an alternative -é ending). Drop the infinitive ending and add -ette.

The Plural Forms

When describing the actions of entire armies or groups, you will need the third-person plural ("they") form.

To create this form for regular -ire verbs in the historic past, drop the infinitive ending and add -irono.

For regular -ere verbs, drop the ending and add -ettero.

Notice how both endings appear in the following sentence:

Here is another example showing the -ire plural form in action: