Passato remoto

		singular			plural
1st person		parlai	I talked		parlammo	we talked
2nd person		parlasti	you talked (singular)		parlaste	you talked (plural)
3rd person		parlò	he/she/it talked		parlarono	they talked

Penultimate syllables have an accent, except in parlò (3rd singular person), sounding as a truncated word (pronounced "pahrloh"), and parlarono (3rd plural person), whose antipenultimate syllable is stressed (pronounced "pahrlahrohnoh"). Be careful not to mistake parlò with parlerò (1st singular person, future tense), and parlarono with parlano (3rd plural person, present tense). Always remember that this tense is used when the past action expressed by the sentence is already over. le tre donne comprarono il pane = the three women bought [the] bread (in comparison with a similar sentence shown for the imperfect tense, here the three women bought bread on a specific occasion, not as a usual action) il cielo cambiò colore = the sky changed colour (the change is an action with very limited duration) tu parlasti, e io ascoltai = You spoke, and I listened (note the use of pronouns to give stress to the different subjects; the sentence refers specifically to one past occasion: should this situation have occured often or usually, imperfect tense would express the fact: io cucinavo e tu mangiavi).

.6 VERBS OF THE 2nd CONJUGATION PART I SIMPLE INDICATIVE TENSES

Verbs whose infinitive tense has the inflection ...ere, belong to the 2nd conjugation. But, as explained in paragraph 4.2, the accent may fall on the penultimate syllable or on the antepenultimate one. Most verbs in the latter subgroup are regular; despite this, past perfect tense is partially irregular in all cases, but this will be discussed later on. Instead, almost every verb in the first subgroup has peculiarities in one or more tenses, so these ones will be discussed in a further paragraph, at a more advanced stage; only one important verb of this subgroup, vedere (= to see, to watch) is shown in this page, as a comparison with other verbs. As a help for the reader, I will spell the Italian infinitive tense with one accented vowel (the vowel which carries the stress), but remember that this never happens in common spelling. Also take note how vowel e may have an "open" sound ( è ) or a "closed" sound ( é ), according to the verb. Standard inflections will be shown by using the verb chièdere (= to ask for), whose accent falls on the antepenultimate syllable (pronounced "kyehdehreh"). Other verbs used in sample sentences are:

chiùdere = to close	muòvere = to move	còrrere = to run
ròmpere = to break	risòlvere = to solve	scéndere = to come down, to descend
prèndere = to take	discùtere = to discuss	ripètere = to repeat
vìncere = to win	pèrdere = to lose	nàscere = to be born
spìngere = to push	pùngere = to prick	tìngere = to dye, to colour
vedére = to see	rìdere = to laugh	piàngere = to cry