Tag Archives: italian past tenses
I Would Have Liked … Posted by Geoff on Sep 8, 2014
A while ago I wrote an article entitled I Would Like in which I discussed how to use the conditional of the verb piacere (to please). If you feel you need to revise the use of piacere, I suggest that you read this blog. Now, if you feel fairly comfortable using ‘I like’ and ‘I…
The Fall of my Guardian Angel Posted by Serena on Sep 27, 2013
In this little story from my childhood I’ve mainly used two verb tenses: imperfetto, which I’ve marked in purple, and passato prossimo, which is in red. Quando ero bambina in casa avevamo una statuina in ceramica di un angelo, che mia madre diceva essere il nostro angelo custode: era alta circa 10 cm, aveva la…
Trapassato Prossimo e Passato Prossimo Posted by Serena on Oct 12, 2012
Il trapassato prossimo (the pluperfect or past perfect tense) describes something that had happened or we had done in the past, for example: era partito (he had left), non ti avevo sentito (I hadn’t heard you). Technically speaking, as you can see from the examples, it’s constructed using the auxiliary verbs essere (to be) or…
Talking About The Past Posted by Serena on Aug 20, 2012
Here’s a brief description of a morning walk. It highlights some grammatical points which will help you when talking about things that happened in the past. Each sentence is translated into English, and for the text in blue we have given a grammatical explanation. Words in red are links to old posts. 1. Oggi ci…
Imperfetto e Passato Prossimo – Quale Devo Usare? Posted by Serena on Aug 8, 2011
Occasionally students of Italian tell me that they are confused about whether to use the passato prossimo (present perfect) or the imperfetto (imperfect tense), and don’t really understand the difference between the two. A while ago I wrote a blog on the subject which you can find here: passato prossimo e imperfetto, but I think…
Passato Prossimo e Imperfetto Posted by Serena on Feb 4, 2009
If you’re struggling to understand when to use the present perfect and when it is more appropriate to use the imperfect this blog should help you. In my experience of teaching Italian to English speakers I have found this to be a very common problem. It is equally difficult for Italian people learning English to…