PAST Tenses in Italian (Overview, Uses + Examples)

Ciao a tutti! In today’s lesson, I’ll give you an overview of the main past tenses in Italian. I'll focus on their uses with examples of real-life sentences, but I won’t cover how to conjugate them because I'll leave it for future lessons. Ready? Let’s start! --------------------------- SUMMARY OF THE LESSON ------------------------- In Italian, you have three main tenses to talk about something that happened in the past: passato remoto, passato prossimo, and imperfetto 1 - PASSATO REMOTO (0:44) This tense is to talk about a completed action in a time before the moment you speak. It doesn’t really matter how long ago it happened, as long as it's completed and not related to the time you're speaking. Examples: (io) studiai ingegneria = I studied engineering (tu) mangiasti tutta la torta = you ate the whole cake Michelangelo nacque nel 1475 = Michelangelo was born in 1475 Watch the video for more examples. 2 - PASSATO PROSSIMO (3:50) You mostly use this tense in the following two situations: to tell of an event that happened in the past but that still has present consequences or it’s not fully completed at the moment you speak. for something that happened in a very recent time, like today or a few hours ago Examples: Noi abbiamo prenotato un tavolo = we’ve booked a table Voi a che ora siete arrivati? = what time did you arrive? I bambini sono usciti in giardino = the kids went out into the garden Watch the video for more examples. Note: You use the verbs “essere” or “avere” to make this past tense - we’ll see exactly when in another lesson (SUBSCRIBE not to miss it!) This tense has almost completely replaced the past “remoto” in the spoken language 3 - IMPERFETTO (6:52) This tense is generally to talk about past habits or continuous actions in the past Examples: Il film era un po’ noioso = the film was a bit boring Noi suonavamo la chitarra = we used to play the guitar Voi andavate a scuola insieme = you used to go to school together Watch the video for more examples. Hope you liked the video and if you haven’t already, please hit the like button and SUBSCRIBE to my channel 😊 Thanks so much for watching and I’ll see you soon in the next lesson, a presto! ------------------------ FREE PLAN (TO LEARN ITALIAN) ------------------------------- Need some help to start? Try my free PLAN to learn Italian :) I'll tell you exactly what to do every day for 7 DAYS! You'll learn all the basics and you can also test your improvements at the end of the plan. Ready for the challenge? I bet you are!!! 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