Italian 路 Chapter 7 路 Lesson 8 路 Grammar primer
Imperfetto: the past that was still going on
Passato prossimo reports what happened; imperfetto describes the scenery around it.
The short version
Age, time and weather in the past are imperfetto
English uses one past tense for everything, so learners say ho avuto dieci anni. Italian describes what things were like in the imperfetto: how old you were, what time it was, the weather, how you felt. These are the scenery, not events, and the scenery is never passato prossimo.
Avevo dieci anni ed era tardi.
One set of endings for every verb family
The imperfetto is the most regular tense in Italian. Drop the -re and add -vo, -vi, -va, -vamo, -vate, -vano: parlavo, credevo, dormivo. Even avere and andare behave. The only verb that truly breaks is essere, which gives ero, eri, era.
Da bambino giocavo sempre in strada.
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