{"id":14267,"date":"2017-06-05T12:05:44","date_gmt":"2017-06-05T10:05:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=14267"},"modified":"2017-06-19T10:29:45","modified_gmt":"2017-06-19T08:29:45","slug":"the-italian-subjunctive-4-imperfect-tense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/the-italian-subjunctive-4-imperfect-tense\/","title":{"rendered":"The Italian Subjunctive – 4. Imperfect Tense"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let’s continue our series of articles on the subjunctive form with an in depth look at il congiuntivo imperfetto<\/strong> (the imperfect subjunctive).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Se io fossi in te non lo farei!!!<\/strong> If I were you I wouldn’t do it!!!<\/span><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Constructing the congiuntivo imperfetto<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

To construct the congiuntivo imperfetto<\/strong> of regular verbs we modify the ending of the infinitive in the following way:<\/p>\n

verbs ending in \u2013are<\/strong>, e.g. parlare<\/strong> (to speak):
\nio parlassi<\/span>, tu parlassi<\/span>, lui parlasse<\/span>, lei parlasse<\/span>, noi parlassimo<\/span>, voi parlaste<\/span>, loro parlassero<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

verbs ending in \u2013ere<\/strong>, e.g. credere <\/strong>(to believe):
\nio credessi<\/span>, tu credessi<\/span>, lui credesse<\/span>, lei credesse<\/span>, noi credessimo<\/span>, voi credeste<\/span>, loro credessero<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

verbs ending in \u2013ire<\/strong>, e.g. dormire<\/strong> (to sleep):
\nio dormissi<\/span>, tu dormissi<\/span>, lui dormisse<\/span>, lei dormisse<\/span>, noi dormissimo<\/span>, voi dormiste<\/span>, loro dormissero<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Important irregular verbs<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

essere<\/strong> (to be): io fossi<\/span>, tu fossi<\/span>, lui\/lei fosse<\/span>, noi fossimo<\/span>, voi foste<\/span>, loro fossero<\/span><\/strong>
\ndare <\/strong>(to give): io dessi<\/span>, tu dessi<\/span>, lui\/lei desse<\/span>, noi dessimo<\/span>, voi deste<\/span>, loro dessero<\/span><\/strong>
\ndire<\/strong> (to say): io dicessi<\/span>, tu dicessi<\/span>, lui\/lei dicesse<\/span>, noi dicessimo<\/span>, voi diceste<\/span>, loro dicessero<\/span><\/strong>
\nfare<\/strong> (to do, to make): io facessi<\/span>, tu facessi<\/span>, lui\/lei facesse<\/span>, noi facessimo<\/span>, voi faceste<\/span>, loro facessero<\/span><\/strong>
\nstare<\/strong> (to stay, to be): io stessi<\/span>, tu stessi<\/span>, lui\/lei stesse<\/span>, noi stessimo<\/span>, voi steste<\/span>, loro stessero<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

When to use the congiuntivo imperfetto<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

1.<\/span><\/strong> with verbs which express: wishes<\/em>, thoughts<\/em>, beliefs<\/em>, worries<\/em>, and doubts<\/em> in the past tense, when they are followed by the conjunction che <\/strong>(that).
\nE.g.: speravo che<\/strong> (I hoped that), pensavo che<\/strong> (I thought that), credevo che<\/strong> (I believed that), temevo che <\/strong>(I was afraid that), dubitavo che<\/strong> (I doubted that).
\nExamples:<\/span>
\nGiovanni voleva che Laura lo aiutasse a ridipingere la camera<\/strong> (Giovanni wanted Laura to help him repaint the bedroom)
\nLucia pensava\u00a0 che Maria partisse oggi per le vacanze<\/strong> (Lucia thought that Maria was leaving for her holidays today)
\nmi sono stupita che tu fossi ancora l\u00ec<\/strong> (I was surprised that you were still there)
\navevo paura che Carlo non ce la facesse a superare l\u2019esame<\/strong> (I was worried that Carlo wouldn\u2019t be able to pass the exam).<\/p>\n

2.<\/span><\/strong> following impersonal verbs conjugated in the past such as bastava che<\/strong> (it was enough\/sufficient that), bisognava che<\/strong> (it was necessary that), si diceva che<\/strong> (it was said).
\nExamples:<\/span>
\nbisognava che Carlo studiasse di pi\u00f9<\/strong> (it was necessary for Carlo to study more)
\nbastava che tu mi dicessi con che treno saresti arrivato<\/strong> (you only needed to tell me which train you would have arrived on)
\nsi diceva che questa fosse una leggenda<\/strong> (this was said to be a legend).<\/p>\n

3.<\/span><\/strong> following impersonal constructions used in the past such as era meglio<\/strong> (it was better), era un peccato<\/strong> (it was a pity), non era giusto<\/strong> (it was unfair).
\nExamples:<\/span>
\nera meglio che veniste oggi pomeriggio<\/strong> (it was better that you [plural] came this afternoon)
\nera un peccato che tu non potessi venire<\/strong> (it was a pity that you weren\u2019t able to come).<\/p>\n

4.<\/span> <\/strong>following the conditional form followed by che<\/strong> (that) or se <\/strong>(if)
\nExamples:<\/span>
\nvorrei che tu smettessi di fumare<\/strong> (I would like you to stop smoking)
\nbisognerebbe che Carlo studiasse di pi\u00f9 per poter passare l\u2019esame<\/strong> (it would be necessary for Carlo to study more in order to pass the exam)
\nsarebbe meglio se veniste oggi pomeriggio<\/strong> (it would be better if you came this afternoon).<\/p>\n

5.<\/span><\/strong> in sentences in the past tense following conjunctions built with che<\/strong>, such as prima che<\/strong> (before), affinch\u00e9<\/strong> (so that, in order that), a meno che non<\/strong> (unless), nel caso che<\/strong> (if)
\nExamples:<\/span>
\nsiamo dovuti partire prima che facesse buio<\/strong> (we had to leave before it got dark)
\nti ho aiutato affinch\u00e9 tu potessi superare l\u2019esame<\/strong> (I helped you so that you could pass the exam)
\nha detto che avrebbe telefonato nel caso che il treno fosse in ritardo <\/strong>(he said that he’d phone if the train was late)<\/p>\n

6.<\/strong><\/span> following the conjunction se<\/strong> (if) when talking about a hypothetical situation
\nExamples:
\nse non piovesse farei una passeggiata<\/strong> (if it wasn’t raining I’d go for a walk)
\nse Bruno arrivasse presto potrebbe aiutarci<\/strong> (if Bruno arrived soon he could help us)
\nse partissimo oggi avremmo tempo di visitare Siena<\/strong> (if we left today we’d have time to visit Siena)
\nse io fossi in te non lo farei<\/strong> (if I were you I wouldn’t do it).<\/p>\n

Coming soon: Il Congiuntivo Trapassato<\/span><\/strong> (pluperfect subjunctive)!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Let’s continue our series of articles on the subjunctive form with an in depth look at il congiuntivo imperfetto (the imperfect subjunctive). Constructing the congiuntivo imperfetto To construct the congiuntivo imperfetto of regular verbs we modify the ending of the infinitive in the following way: verbs ending in \u2013are, e.g. parlare (to speak): io parlassi…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":14280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[712,733],"class_list":["post-14267","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar","tag-il-congiuntivo-imperfetto","tag-italian-imperfect-subjunctive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14267"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14357,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14267\/revisions\/14357"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}