9 Verbs ending in  -cere  (or  -scere ) and  -gere  (or  -ggere ) change the sound of c  (or  sc ) and  g  (or  -gg ), which become ‘hard’ before the endings of the  fi rst person singular ( -o ) and the third person plural ( -ono ). So care needs to be taken in speaking these verbs: Vincere (io)  vin c o (tu)  vin c i (lui/lei)  vin c e (noi)  vin c iamo (voi)  vin c ete (loro)  vin c ono Spoken like English k ch ch ch ch k To win I win you win he/she/it wins we win you win they win Conoscere (io)  cono sc o (tu)  cono sc i (lui/lei)  cono sc e (noi)  cono sc iamo (voi)  cono sc ete (loro)  cono sc ono Spoken like English sk sh sh sh sh sk To know I know you know we know you know they know Leggere (io)  le gg o (tu)  le gg i (lui/lei)  le gg e (noi)  le gg iamo (voi)  le gg ete (loro)  le gg ono Spoken like English g [as in ‘go’] j j j j g [as in ‘go’] To read I read you read he/she/it reads we read you read they read Vince sempre. Non conosco i tuoi genitori. Leggono il giornale. Non piango mai. He/she always wins. I don’t know your parents. They’re reading the paper. I never cry. Prendo il prossimo treno. Prendiamo questa strada. Anna scrive una lettera. Marco e Martina ridono molto. I’m getting/taking the next train. We take this road. Anna is writing a letter. Marco and Martina laugh a lot. Unit 5 39