the imperfect (imperfetto)

Ciao cari! This week's tutorino Italian grammar topic is another verb tense - the imperfect or imperfetto . First let's see how it looks, then we'll learn how it's used.

parlare	vedere	partire
io parlavo	io vedevo	io partivo
tu parlavi	tu vedevi	tu partivi
lui / lei parlava	lui / lei vedeva	lui / lei partiva
noi parlavamo	noi vedevamo	noi partivamo
voi parlavate	voi vedevate	voi partivate
loro parlavano	loro vedevano	loro partivano

Some irregularities...

essere

ero
eri
era
eravamo
eravate
erano

Fare, dire: regular -ere endings on the stems fac and dic respectively (e.g. facevo , dicevo ).

So that's how the imperfect is formed, but what does it do? Its main use is to describe past actions or events that were habitual or recurring. In English we use "used to" for this.

lavoravo - I used to work
andava - he used to go
finivamo - we used to finish

So when you're describing an action that you did repeatedly in the past, you use the imperfect.

You also use l'imperfetto to describe an action that was in progress when another action occurred, or to describe two actions that were unfolding simultaneously. English often uses was / were + verb ending in -ing for this.

Leggevo il giornale quando Tony ha chiamato.
I was reading the paper when Tony called.

Mentre noi studiavamo , loro parlavano e ridevano .
While we were studying , they were talking and laughing .

You also use it to describe states and conditions in the past, or to refer to time, age and weather.

Ero stanco e avevo fame. - I was tired and hungry.

La loro casa era grande e brutta. - Their house was big and ugly.

Erano le sei. - It was 6:00.

Avevo venti anni. - I was 20 years old.

Era autunno. - It was autumn.

So in case you used to wonder about this tense, now you know it!

Comments

[Mapleleaf60]

Its so enjoyable doing the exercises on your website + all the mini quizzes- Thanks for the grammar explanations as well
thank you