Imperfetto: the Italian imperfect tense (ero, facevo)

The imperfetto is the Italian past tense for things that were going on or used to happen. Where the passato prossimo reports a finished event, the imperfetto paints the background: what life was like, what people usually did, what the weather was doing, what was happening when something else occurred.

English has no single equivalent. Depending on the context, «giocavo» can mean “I played”, “I used to play”, “I would play” or “I was playing”: «Da bambino giocavo sempre in cortile.» “As a child I always played in the courtyard.” The good news is that the imperfetto is the most regular tense in Italian.

Forms: one set of endings, very few irregular verbs

Take the infinitive, drop the final -re and add the endings -vo, -vi, -va, -vamo, -vate, -vano. The vowel before the ending stays the same as in the infinitive: -avo for -are verbs, -evo for -ere verbs, -ivo for -ire verbs. Verbs that add -isc- in the present do not add it here: finire → finivo, capire → capivo.

Watch the stress in the loro form. It falls on the same syllable as in the io form: you stress -la- in «parlavo» and also in «parlavano», never the ending.

Only a handful of verbs are irregular. Essere has its own forms: ero, eri, era, eravamo, eravate, erano. Fare, bere and dire use a longer, older stem (fac-, bev-, dic-) and then the regular endings: facevo, bevevo, dicevo. Avere is completely regular: avevo, avevi, aveva.

Habits: what you used to do

Use the imperfetto for actions that happened regularly in the past, where English says “used to” or “would”: «La domenica pranzavamo dai nonni» “On Sundays we used to have lunch at our grandparents’”. The sentence does not say how many times it happened, only that it was normal.

Habits often come with time words such as «di solito» (usually), «sempre» (always), «spesso» (often), «ogni giorno», «ogni estate», «la domenica», «da bambino» or «quando ero piccolo». The imperfetto is also the natural way to compare the past with the present: «Prima abitavo in campagna, adesso abito in città.»

• Da ragazza andavo a scuola in bicicletta. · As a girl I used to cycle to school.
• Ogni estate passavamo un mese al mare. · Every summer we would spend a month at the seaside.
• Mio padre leggeva il giornale ogni mattina. · My father read the paper every morning.

Descriptions, age, time, weather and background

Use the imperfetto to describe people, places and things in the past: «La casa era piccola ma aveva un bel giardino», «Il maestro era molto severo». Use it for age, the time and the weather: «Avevo sei anni», «Erano le dieci di sera», «Faceva freddo e nevicava».

It also describes feelings and states of mind that were simply there, with no clear start or end: «Ero stanco», «Avevamo fame», «Non sapevo la risposta», «Volevo un gelato».

Finally, use it for an action in progress at a certain moment, where English uses “was …ing”: «Alle otto cenavamo» “At eight we were having dinner”. With «mentre» (while), two actions in progress can run side by side: «Mentre cucinavo, mio marito apparecchiava la tavola.» You will also hear «stavo cenando», which stresses the moment even more.

Imperfetto and passato prossimo together

Real stories mix the two past tenses. The imperfetto sets the scene; the passato prossimo tells you what happened, the events that move the story forward: «Era una bella giornata e c’era tanta gente in spiaggia. A un certo punto è arrivato un temporale.»

The most common pattern is an action in progress interrupted by an event: «Mentre aspettavo l’autobus, ho incontrato Marco», «Dormivo quando è suonato il telefono». Another is a habit broken by a single occasion: «Di solito tornavo a casa alle cinque, ma quel giorno sono tornato alle otto.»

One more clue helps. If you give a closed period of time, with a start and an end, use the passato prossimo: «Ho abitato a Roma per tre anni» (and then that period ended). «Abitavo a Roma» only describes the situation at the time. The full comparison of the two tenses is a topic of its own.

• Mentre facevo la spesa, ho visto la mia vecchia insegnante. · While I was doing the shopping, I saw my old teacher.
• Era tardi e non c’erano più autobus, così abbiamo preso un taxi. · It was late and there were no more buses, so we took a taxi.