ITALIAN 102 Midterm: Italian 102 Study Guide
Document Summary
Imperfect tense: a tense used to express habitual, recurring, and ongoing actions that took place in the past. A beginning and end time is not usually defined. Imperfetto is often expressed by used to + verb or was/were +-ing verb. Hints for imperfetto: habitual actions: ogni, tutti gli anni, tutti i mesi, sempre, do solito, spesso, when two or more ongoing actions are occuring simultaneously, they are connected by the adverb mentre (while) Imperfetto is also used to express: descriptions in the past of places, people (age, physical characteristics, physical and emotional states, likes and dislikes, weather conditions, time of day. Lei, lui / lei essere ero eri era bere bevevo bevevi beveva dire dicevo dicevi diceva fare facevo facevi faceva. Loro eravamo bevevamo dicevamo facevamo eravate erano bevevate dicevate bevevano dicevano facevate facevano. Imperfectto con i verbi modali: volere, potere, dovere. Imperfetto or passato prossimo is used depending on the information the speaker wants to convey.
