Parli Italiano?
Chapter 1: Ripasso Passato Prossimo e Imperfetto
Passato Prossimo
The passato prossimo is used to talk about anything that happened in the past, whether yesterday (ieri) or three years ago (tre anni fa).
Ho mangiato un panino.
means both
[I have eaten a sandwich] and [I ate a sandwich]
The passato prossimo is a compound tense made up of two words:
- the present tense of avere or essere
- the past participle of the verb, as in the examples:
Sono andata a casa.
How do you form the past participles of verbs?
- For verbs in –are: –are turns into –ato, as in parlare > parlato.
- For verbs in –ere: –ere turns into –uto, as in credere > creduto.
- For verbs in –ire: –ire turns into –ito, as in sentire > sentito.
How do you know whether to use avere or essere?
- You use avere with all verbs, except with those verbs that require essere. Avere is basically always used when a direct object follows an action, as in Ho ordinato un caffè [I ordered a coffee]. In this case, caffè is the direct object. A direct object can also be a person, as in Ho conosciuto Francesca [I met Francesca]. The direct object may not be
explicit, as in Ho ordinato. - You use essere with verbs that express moving from a place to another (i.e. andare, venire, partire, arrivare, uscire, etc.), verbs that express states of being (i.e. essere, stare, rimanere/restare), verbs that express changes of status like nascere [to be born], crescere [to grow], diventare [to become], morire [to die] and reflexive verbs.
- Note that stare and essere share the same past participle: sono stato/a means I have been, I was, and I stayed.
- Essere is basically always used when there is no direct object, but rather the action of moving to or from a place.
Study the following conjugations:
[table id=1 /]
[notice that MANGIATO never changes]
[table id=2 /]
[notice that ANDATO works like an adjective: ANDATO/ANDATA/ANDATI/ANDATE]
- For passato prossimo verbs with auxiliary essere, the gender and number of the past participle depends on who the subject is: a woman will say sono andata, but two men will say siamo andati.
- In the passato prossimo, all reflexive verbs take essere as the auxiliary. As for all verbs that take essere in the passato prossimo, a singular female subject will say mi sono persa, a masculine plural subject will say ci siamo persi, etc.
[table id=3 /]
IRREGULAR PAST PARTICIPLES
bere (to drink) → bevuto
chiudere (to close) → chiuso
coprire (to cover) → coperto
decidere (to decide) → deciso
dire (to say) → detto
fare (to do, to make) → fatto
friggere (to fry) → fritto
leggere (to read) → letto
mettere (to put) → messo
morire (to die) → morto
nascere (to be born) → nato
offrire (to offer) → offerto
prendere (to take) → preso
rispondere (to reply) → risposto
rompere (to break) → rotto
scegliere (to choose) → scelto
scrivere (to write) → scritto
spendere (to spend) → speso
vedere (to see) → visto
vincere (to win) → vinto
vedere (to see) → visto
Imperfetto
The imperfetto is another past tense that is used to:
- describe the way people, objects, places, the weather, situations and states of mind were in the past
- describe what used to happen in the past on a regular basis (like the English “used to”)
- describe what someone was doing or what was happening when something else happened. In this sense, the imperfetto is like “was/were + -ing” in English
The conjugations are:
[table id=4 /]
Few verbs have irregular forms in the imperfetto:
[table id=5 /]
Imperfetto o Passato Prossimo?
We use the imperfetto for:
- Habitual actions in the past → Andavo a scuola tutti i giorni in autobus
- Descriptions of people in the past → I miei compagni di classe erano molto simpatici
- Descriptions of past situations → In estate faceva sempre molto caldo
- Descriptions of places → La mia scuola aveva molti spazi per giocare
The imperfetto accompanies expressions such as: sempre, di solito, regolarmente, tutti i giorni, ogni volta, da bambino…
Da bambino, mangiavo sempre i cereali a colazione. Bevevo il latte tutti i giorni.
We use the passato prossimo for:
- Actions that happened once in the past and are finished → Sono andato dai nonni ieri
- Actions with a determined duration → Mi sono svegliato alle 6 e ho studiato per tre ore
The passato prossimo accompanies expressions such as: ieri, due giorni fa, per tre mesi…
Ieri ho mangiato i biscotti a colazione. Due giorni fa ho bevuto il latte, ma ieri ho preso il caffè.
NOTA BENE
When two actions happen at the same time and have the same duration, we use imperfetto for both. → Mentre Luca ascoltava la musica, io leggevo il giornale.
When one action happens while another one is happening but has a shorter duration or interrupts the previous one, we use imperfetto for the one that has the longest duration and passato prossimo for the one that interrupts its. → Mentre leggevo il giornale, mia sorella mi ha telefonato.