Conjugation of irregular verbs ending in -ere

Which are the irregular verbs of the -ere conjugation

In Italian there are a lot of irregular verbs belonging to the second conjugation (ending in -ere).

The most used ones are:

1. piacere (to like);
2. rimanere (to remain);
3. sapere (to know);
4. tenere (to keep);
5. bere (to drink);
6. chiudere (to close);
7. conoscere (to know);
8. leggere (to read);
9. mettere (to put);
10. prendere (to take);
11. scrivere (to write);
12. vivere (to live).

These verbs are irregular because they do not follow any grammatical rule.

This is why their conjugation has to be studied by heart.

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Characteristics of irregular verbs ending in -ere

Despite the fact that these verbs are irregular, we could find some common features between them.

Let's see together some of their behaviors.

Verbs that change the root

As you saw for the first conjugation, also in the second one there are verbs that change their root irregularly.

Example:

• Io tolgo (I remove [sth]);
• Egli toglie (He removes [sth]);
• Ella tolse (She removed [sth]).

Remember! The root does not change for all the persons in all the tenses. You have to learn the differences by heart.

Verbs that change the ending

Moreover, some verbs use to change their endings.

Example:

• Mi piace (I like [sth]);
• Mi piacque (I liked [sth]).

Verbs with irregular past participle

Therefore, there are also verbs that change their past participle form:

Example:

•  Accendere (to switch on) > acceso (switched on). 

List of Italian irregular verbs

Usually, you could understand if a second conjugation verb is irregular from its suffix.

​Below you can find a list of some irregular verbs that can be distinguished from their endings.