Lesson 4, part 12: Imperfetto

The Italian “Imperfetto” is a tense that we use to talk about the past.

The Italian imperfetto sometimes is similar (not equal) to English Past Simple: when you use the Past Simple of “to be” we generally use the Imperfetto of “Essere”

Here is the irregular conjugation:

Essere (imperfetto) To be (past simple)
Io ero I was
Tu eri You were
Lui/Lei era He/she/it was
Noi eravamo We were
Voi eravate …
Loro erano …
.

So: “C’era” = There was

And “C’erano” = There were

But “Imperfetto” means “not exact”, so we cannot used this tense when we explain the exact amount of time it was repeated (we cannot say: “guidavo per molti kilometri prima di trovare un telefono pubblico“; we must say “ho guidato per molti chilometri prima di trovare … “; or we cannot say “vivevo lì per 25 anni“; but we must say: “ho vissuto lì per 25 anni“ in these sentence we must use the “Passato prossimo“); we cannot use the “imperfetto” when we say when the fact happened: Di solito mi alzo presto, ma oggi mi sono alzata alle 10 (here we need “Passato prossimo”, you use “past simple” instead (= I usually get up early but this morning I got up at 10).

On the contrary we use the “imperfetto” to express habits in the past (in English you generally say “used to + verb“ or “would always + verb”), but not only. I ‘ll explain better:

The Italian imperfetto is used

for talking about a situation or regular activity in the past (it happened regularly or existed in the past but it does not happen or exist now):
Quando ero studente uscivo ogni sera.
Mia madre mi faceva sempre la pasta
= I used to go out every night when I was a student.
= My mother would always make the pasta
Prima dove vivevi?
= Where did you use to live?
Prima vivevo a Genova, ma ora vivo a Roma
= I used to live in Genoa, but now I live in Rome
to describe feeling, people, objects, landscape or situations in the past
Da giovane Luca era alto e bello = when Luca was young he was tall and handsome
Ieri alla festa avevo mal di testa = I had a headache at the party yesterday
La campagna era arida = The countryside was arid
Dalla finestra della camera da letto c’era una splendida vista del lago = There was a wonderful view of the lake from the bedroom window
C’erano circa cinquanta persone alla festa = There were about fifty people at the party
Generally after time expressions “quando“, “generalmente“ “di solito” and “normalmente”
Generalmente studiavo in biblioteca I generally studied in the library
Di solito andavo al mare in macchina I usually went to the seaside by car
to talk about actions or series of events in the past which happened at the same time and continued for a certain amount of time. Be carefully “mentre“ is always followed by the “imperfetto” and also, when in English you need “past continuous”, we can use “Imperfetto” or “Imperfetto” continuous (Che facevi/stavi facendo ieri alle 2? = What were you doing at 2 yesterday?)
Mentre andavo a scuola ho incontrato Marta = While/as I was going to school I met Marta
Mentre insegnavo, Peter imparava = While I taught, Peter learned
Mentre ballavo, Luca cantava la canzone = While I danced, Luca sang the song
also is commonly used instead of the conditional to express requests
Buongiorno, volevo (better vorrei) un caffè, per favore = good morning, I’d like a coffee, please
Volevo (better vorrei) vedere la carta dei vini, per favore = I’d like to see the wine list, please
.

An important difference between Italian and English:

At time you use the Present perfect or the Past simple, but we use only the “Passato prossimo” and we cannot use “Imperfetto” (in Italian is easier) because we only consider that the event happened:

You say: Or: We use the “Passato prossimo”:
I have lost my book I lost my book yesterday Ho perso il mio libro (ieri)
Have you seen Lisa? When did you see Lisa? Hai visto Lisa?/Quando hai visto Lisa?
Marco has not arrived yet Marco didn’t arrive on Saturday Marco non è ancora arrivato/ Sabato Marco non è arrivato
Rita has gone home Rita went home ten minutes ago Rita è andata a casa (dieci minuti fa)
Have you ever gone to Florence? Did you go to Florence last week? Sei mai stato a Firenze?/La settimana scorsa sei stato a Firenze?