1. Another past tense

2.  The imperfetto (imperfect) is another past tense.  It is used to describe habitual actions What people used to do or things that used to happen Da bambino guardavo Sesame street.

3.  It describes past actions that were in progress when something else happened or while something else was going on. Leggevo il giornale mentre (while) Roberto guardava la televisione.

4.  It describes physical, mental, and emotional states in the past. Mi sentivo stanco I miei nonni non volevano andare al cinema  It also expresses age, time, and weather in the past. Quando avevo sei o otto anni, guardavo laTV vicino allo schermo

5.  Time expressions such as anni fa (years a go), di solito (usually), sempre (always), il lunedi, il martedi… (mondays, tuesdays…) are frequently used with the imperfetto. Non capisco perché ero sempre stanco

6.  It is formed by dropping the –re of the infinitive and adding the same set of endings to verbs of all conjugations, no matter the ending (are, ere, ire).  + Subject Pronoun Imperfetto Endings ioVo tuVi Lui / leiVa NoiVamo VoiVate LoroVano

7.  The verb essere is irregular in the imperfetto Subject PronounEssere IoEro TuEri Lui/leiEra NoiEravamo VoiEravate Loroerano

8.  The verb avere is also irregular in the imperfetto Subject PronounAvere Ioavevo Tuavevi Lui/leiaveva Noiavevamo Voiavevate Loroavevano

9.  The verbs bere, dire, fare have irregular stems in the imperfetto Bere – (bev-)Dire (dic-)Fare (fac-) BevevoDicevoFacevo BeveviDiceviFacevi BevevaDicevaFaceva BevevamoDicevamoFacevamo BevevateDicevateFacevate Bevevanodicevanofacevano

10.  The Passato Prossimo and the imperfetto are often used together in accounts of past events. They express different kinds of actions in the past, and cannot be used interchangeably.

11.  The passato prossimo is used to describe specific events in the past. It tells what happened at a given moment. Siamo usciti alle otto

12.  The imperfetto describes habitual actions in the past: What used to happen Scrivevo una recensione (review) per un giornale ogni sabato.

13.  It also describes ongoing actions in the past; what was going on while something else was going on (two verbs in the imperfetto) Io guardavo un DVD mentre mio cugino ascoltava la radio  or what was going on when something else happened (one verb in the imperfetto, the other in the passato prossimo). Mangiavate quando ho telefonato?

14.  The imprefetto also relates conditions or states – Physical or mental – in the past, such as appearance, age, feelings, attitudes, beliefs, time, and weather Erano le otto di sera Pioveva ma non faceva freddo

15.  Because the passato prossimo expreses what happened at a particular moment, whereas the imperfetto expresses a state of being, the passato prossimo is used to indicate a sudden change in a state of being. Aveva paura dei topi Ho avuto paura quando ho visto il topo