Breakdown of Videro un bel tempio per la dea.
un
a / an (masculine)
bello
beautiful
vedere
to see
per
for / in order to / because of
Questions & Answers about Videro un bel tempio per la dea.
Why is it videro and not a regular ending for vedere?
Videro is the passato remoto (historical past) form of vedere for "they" (loro). Vedere is highly irregular in this tense. Like many irregular verbs in the passato remoto, it uses a special irregular stem (vid-) for the 1st person singular (io vidi), 3rd person singular (lui/lei vide), and 3rd person plural (loro videro).
In everyday spoken Italian, would I actually use videro?
In standard everyday conversation, especially in northern and central Italy, you are much more likely to hear the passato prossimo: hanno visto un bel tempio. You will encounter videro mostly in written literature, history books, fairy tales, or when speaking with people from certain southern Italian regions where the passato remoto is still used for recent events.
Why does this sentence use bel instead of bello?