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Middle English
Credible describes a person or thing that can reasonably be believed (as in “a credible story,” or “the witness was credible”), or something that is good enough to be effective (“does a credible impression of her mom”). Credulous typically describes someone who is ready to believe something despite insufficient evidence (as in “credulous people who fell for the scam”), or something that shows this kind of readiness (as in “credulous reporting of far-out claims”). Creditable most often describes what is praiseworthy (as in “a difficult feat accomplished with creditable skill”).
credere (~ a qcn./qcs., ~ a qcs.) verb—
Generally speaking, credere is equivalent to “to believe, think.”
Translation of “credere” into English
A verb which does not follow these patterns exactly is called an irregular verb. In Italian, the 3 regular patterns are for verbs ending in are, ere, and ire. The other regular Italian verbs end in -are or -ire and are referred to as first- and third-conjugation verbs, respectively. Though the infinitive endings for these verbs are different, they are conjugated in the same way as second-conjugation verbs. Inherited from Old English crēda, crēdo, from Latin crēdō (“I believe”) in the Nicene Creed or Apostle’s Creed. Trust, of course, works two ways, and maybe that’s why some credere-derived words are liable to be confused with one another.
The present tense of a regular -ere verb is formed by dropping the infinitive ending -ere and adding the appropriate endings to the resulting stem. The passato prossimo of Credere is formed by combining the auxiliary verb avere with the past participle creduto. To form the first-person present tense of credere, drop the -ere and add the appropriate ending (o) to form credo, which means “I believe.” There is a different ending for each person, as demonstrated in the above conjugation tables. Both words can be used to describe things that, rather than deserving belief, deserve an acknowledgment of credit, the kind we speak of when we say “She was given credit for her contributions.” So, if you were to say that credible could be conflated with creditable, we’d say that’s a credible theory. A verb is called a regular verb when its conjugation follows a typical pattern.
- Credere is a regular second-conjugation Italian verb meaning to believe or think.
- To form the first-person present tense of credere, drop the -ere and add the appropriate ending (o) to form credo, which means “I believe.” There is a different ending for each person, as demonstrated in the above conjugation tables.
- Creditable most often describes what is praiseworthy (as in “a difficult feat accomplished with creditable skill”).
- A verb is called a regular verb when its conjugation follows a typical pattern.
Credere appears on the 100 Most Used Italian Verbs Poster as the #1 most used regular ere verb. Credere is a regular second-conjugation Italian verb meaning to believe or think. It can be a transitive verb, which takes a direct object, or intransitive verb, which does not.
The Latin verb credere, meaning “to believe or trust,” is the source of a plethora of English words pertaining to belief and trust, including creed, credence, credo, and credit. The tables give the pronoun accessories for each conjugation—io (I), tu (you), lui, lei (he, she), noi (we), voi (you plural), and loro (their). Verbs with infinitives ending in -ere are called second-conjugation, or -ere, verbs.