Posts tagged with "imperfetto"

Imperfetto e Passato Prossimo – Quale Devo Usare?

Posted by Serena 12 Comments
Aug 8 2011

Occasionally students of Italian tell me that they are confused about whether to use the passato prossimo (present perfect) or the imperfetto (imperfect tense), and don’t really understand the difference between the two. A while ago I wrote a blog on the subject which you can find here: passato prossimo e imperfetto, but I think that it would be useful to revisit the topic in a more practical way by giving you a number of examples in which I’ll demonstrate how the two forms differ. To clarify things, I have highlighted the imperfetto in red, and the passato prossimo in green.

1.Imperfetto or Passato Prossimo:

We use the imperfetto when talking about something that used to happen regularly, something that happened repeatedly, or something that happened over a long but indefinite  period of time. The passato prossimo, on the other hand, is more precise, because it describes something that happened only once, at a very specific time, or for a limited period of time:

Imperfetto: da bambina andavo tutte le estati al mare (when I was a child I used to go to the beach every summer)

Passato Prossimo: l’estate scorsa sono andata al mare (last summer I went to the beach)

Imperfetto: quando ero in Inghilterra abitavo a Nottingham (when I was in England I used to live in Nottingham)

Passato Prossimo: ho abitato a Nottingham per tredici anni (I lived in Nottingham for thirteen years)

Imperfetto: da bambino a Giovanni piaceva il gelato al pistacchio (when Giovanni was a child he used to like pistachio ice cream)

Passato Prossimo: a Giovanni è piaciuto il gelato al pistacchio non appena l’ha assaggiato (Giovanni liked pistachio ice cream as soon as he tasted it)

Imperfetto: quand’eravamo in Inghilterra spesso andavamo a camminare nel Derbyshire (when we were in England we often went walking in Derbyshire)

Passato Prossimo: quand’eravamo in Inghilterra siamo andati a camminare nel Derbyshire un paio di volte (when we were in England we went walking in Derbyshire a couple of times)

Imperfetto: quand’ero all’università studiavo archeologia (when I was at university I studied archaeology)

Passato Prossimo: quand’ero all’università ho studiato archeologia per quattro anni (when I was at university I studied archaeology for four years)

 

2. Imperfetto and Passato Prossimo:

When we want to talk about a specific event we often use both the imperfetto and the  passato prossimo in the same sentence. In this case we use the imperfetto to set the scene, to say what was going on, or to clarify when something happened, and the passato prossimo to recount the specific event:

mentre facevo la spesa dal fruttivendolo è entrata Maria con il suo nuovo ragazzo (while I was shopping at the greengrocer Maria came in with her new boyfriend)

mentre scrivevo il blog ha telefonato Marco (Marco phoned while I was writing the blog)

quando abitavo in Inghilterra un’estate ho visitato la Scozia (when I lived in England I visited Scotland one summer)

Giorgio si è rotto la gamba mentre giocava a calcio (Giorgio broke his leg whilst playing football)

quand’ero all’università ho partecipato a due scavi archeologici (when I was at university I took part in two archaeological excavations)

 

Spero di essere stata chiara (I hope I’ve been clear)

Passato Prossimo e Imperfetto

Posted by Serena 23 Comments
Feb 4 2009

If you’re struggling to understand when to use the present perfect and when it is more appropriate to use the imperfect this blog should help you. In my experience of teaching Italian to English speakers I have found this to be a very common problem. It is equally difficult for Italian people learning English to know when to use the appropriate past tense: is it “I have done” or “I did” or even “I have been doing”? Hmmmm…….anyway, lets have a look at those elusive Italian past tenses.

The passato prossimo, which is usually called the “present perfect” or “perfect” in English grammar, is formed by the auxiliary verb essere or avere followed by the participio passato (past participle): e.g. sono andata (I went), ho fatto (I did). The passato prossimo is the main tense used in Italian to convey an action which has been completed in the past, and is used to translate both the English present perfect and the simple past: e.g.: ho gia’ visto quel film (I have already seen that film), ho visto quel film sabato scorso (I saw that film last Saturday).

The imperfetto (imperfect) is characterized by the sounds -evo, -avo or -ivo e.g. avevo (I had/was having), pensavo (I thought/was thinking), dormivo (I slept/was sleeping) with the exception of the verb essere which is irregular (ero, eri, era, eravamo, eravate, erano). The imperfect describes past actions that are incomplete, that is the starting and/or finishing moments are not expressed, are left vague.

Because of its incomplete nature, the imperfetto is used:

1) to describe the way people, objects or places were in the past: e.g. da piccola avevo i capelli ricci (when I was a child I used to have curly hair); era un uomo coraggioso (he was a brave man); la macchina era arrugginita (the car was rusty);

2) to describe situations and factual conditions (this tense is used a lot in literature): e.g. la citta’ era deserta e non si vedevano macchine (the town was empty and there were no cars to be seen); era buio e la pioggia cadeva gentilmente (it was dark and the rain was falling lightly);

3) to describe states of mind or health: e.g. avevo sonno (I was sleepy); gli faceva male la testa (he had an headache); ero triste (I was sad);

4) to describe what used to happen such as habits and repeated actions in the past: e.g. ogni venerdi’ ci incontravamo al bar (every Friday we used to meet at the bar); d’estate andavamo sempre al mare (in the summer we always used to go to the sea); correva alla porta ogni volta che suonava il campanello (he would run to the door every time that the bell rang).

Because of their differences in nature the imperfetto and the passato prossimo can be found together in the same sentence, with the imperfect giving the setting or scenario, and the passato prossimo describing the main action: e.g. mentre guardavo la televisione e’ suonato il telefono (while I was watching television the phone rang); dov’eri quando e’ arrivato Giovanni? (where were you when Giovanni arrived?); quando ci siamo svegliati pioveva (when we woke up it was raining).

N.B. when the exact time or duration of an action is specified, the passato prossimo is used: e.g. Giovanni e’ vissuto in Inghilterra dal 2002 al 2007 (Giovanni lived in England from 2002 to 2007); ho studiato il francese per tre anni (I studied French for three years); Mario ha dormito fino alle 11 (Mario slept until 11 o’clock).

To clarify: we would use the imperfetto to say ‘non sapevo che eri malato’ (I didn’t know that you were ill) because the time is not specified, and the passato prossimo to say ‘solo ieri ho saputo che eri malato’ (I only found out yesterday that you were ill), as the time, ieri, is specified.

For more information on the use of the past tense with da (since) or per (for), see my post Da or Per

Adesso ho finito!

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