Historic past of irregular verbs

The Irregular Historic Past

When reading classic Greek and Roman mythology, you will encounter the passato remoto (historic past) forms of high-frequency verbs like fare (to do/make), dire (to say), and vedere (to see).

These irregular verbs follow a predictable pattern. The io (I), lui/lei (he/she/it), and loro (they) forms use an irregular stem. The tu (you), noi (we), and voi (you all) forms use a regular stem based on their original Latin roots.

Fare and Nascere

For fare (to make/do), the irregular lui/lei form is fece (he/she/it made).

For nascere (to be born), the lui/lei form is nacque (he/she/it was born).

Vedere

For vedere (to see), the irregular forms use the stem vid-:

• vidi (I saw)
• vide (he/she/it saw)
• videro (they saw)

Meanwhile, the noi form uses the regular stem: vedemmo (we saw).

Dire and Decidere

For dire (to say/tell), the irregular lui/lei form is disse. Because its regular forms are based on the old Latin infinitive dicere, the noi form is dicemmo (we told).

For decidere (to decide), the irregular lui/lei form is decise.

Epic Actions

In mythology, you will often see these verbs chained together to describe heroic deeds and divine vengeance. For fare, the irregular loro form is fecero (they made).