Learn the difference between the perfect and the imperfect tense
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
Intro |
|---|
| Michael: What is the difference between the perfect and imperfect tense in Italian? |
| Ofelia: And when is one used over the other? |
| Michael: At ItalianPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Marco Mancini and Mark Lee talk about what food they like. Marco says, |
| "When I was a young, I used to eat pizza every day." |
| Marco Mancini: Quando ero giovane, mangiavo la pizza ogni giorno. |
| Dialogue |
| Marco Mancini: Quando ero giovane, mangiavo la pizza ogni giorno. |
| Mark Lee: Ho mangiato la pizza ieri. |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Marco Mancini: Quando ero giovane, mangiavo la pizza ogni giorno. |
| Michael: "When I was a young, I used to eat pizza every day." |
| Mark Lee: Ho mangiato la pizza ieri. |
| Michael: "I ate pizza yesterday." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: There are two commonly used past tenses in Italian: |
| Ofelia: "the perfect," or passato prossimo, and "the imperfect," or imperfetto. |
| Michael: The perfect is made up of an auxiliary verb, either |
| Ofelia: essere, |
| Michael: "to be" or |
| Ofelia: avere, |
| Michael: "to have," plus the main verb in the past participle form. The imperfect just uses the main verb in the imperfect form. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Let's see how the two tenses differ. Starting with the dialogue, do you remember how Marco says "When I was a young, I used to eat pizza every day?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Ofelia as Marco Mancini: Quando ero giovane, mangiavo la pizza ogni giorno. |
| Michael: Here all the verbs are in the imperfect form, so there's no auxiliary verb. The first is |
| Ofelia: ero |
| Michael: which is translated as "was" and comes from the verb "to be" or |
| Ofelia: essere. |
| Michael: In this case, the imperfect is used in the phrase "when I was young" |
| Ofelia: quando ero giovane |
| Michael: which describes an ongoing status in the past. The second verb in the imperfect is |
| Ofelia: mangiavo |
| Michael: which corresponds to "I used to eat" and describes a habitual action in the past. These two verbs exemplify how the imperfect is used, which is to talk about an ongoing status in the past, and repeated or habitual past actions. If you were to picture this tense on a timeline, you would use a long line, in the past section, without clear starting and ending points. |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Now, let's take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Mark says "I ate pizza yesterday?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Ofelia as Mark Lee: Ho mangiato la pizza ieri. |
| Michael: Here, the verb is in the perfect form |
| Ofelia: ho mangiato |
| Michael: and it refers to an action that happened in the near past and was completed. Let's break it down. The first is the auxiliary verb |
| Ofelia: ho |
| Michael: meaning "I have," and the following is |
| Ofelia: mangiato |
| Michael: which is the main verb in the past participle and comes from |
| Ofelia: mangiare |
| Michael: "to eat." Very often, you can find a clear indication of time near a perfect verb. In this case, we had |
| Ofelia: ieri |
| Michael: "yesterday." So the perfect in Italian expresses a completed action that happened at some point in the past. If you were to picture this tense on a timeline, you would use a point or a line with clear starting and ending points. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: So the imperfect focuses on the duration of an action rather than on its completeness, whereas the perfect refers to a completed action that took place at some point in the past. Let's look at some examples with both tenses. Our first example is |
| Ofelia: Prima bevevo il caffè tutti i giorni, poi ho smesso. |
| Michael: which means "I used to drink coffee every day, then I quit." Here, the first verb is |
| Ofelia: bevevo |
| Michael: which is in the imperfect and means "I used to drink." It clearly describes a past habit. The second verb is |
| Ofelia: ho smesso |
| Michael: which is in the perfect and means "I quit." It clearly describes a momentary action. Let's hear the sentence once more: |
| Ofelia: Prima bevevo il caffè tutti i giorni, poi ho smesso. |
| Michael: What's the next example? |
| Ofelia: Karen è arrivata ieri, mentre studiavo |
| Michael: which means "Karen arrived yesterday, while I was studying." The first verb is |
| Ofelia: è arrivata |
| Michael: which is in the perfect tense and means "arrived." The perfect in this case is used to describe something that happened at a certain time. The second verb is |
| Ofelia: studiavo |
| Michael: which is in the imperfect tense and means "I was studying." The imperfect in this case is used to describe something that happened during a relatively extended period of time, in contrast to the action described by the perfect tense. The speaker wants to focus on the duration of the action. Let's hear the sentence once more: |
| Ofelia: Karen è arrivata ieri, mentre studiavo. |
| Michael: Now, for a better understanding, let's give an example, where the speaker wants to focus on the completeness of the same action of studying. |
| Ofelia: Ieri ho studiato tutto il giorno. |
| Michael: which means "Yesterday I studied all day." Though both sentences refer to yesterday, it's clear that in the first case the speaker was focusing on the duration, whereas here the speaker focuses on the completeness of the action. Let's hear the sentence once more: |
| Ofelia: Ieri ho studiato tutto il giorno. |
| Review |
| Michael: Let's review. Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud. Then, repeat after the native speaker focusing on pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how Marco says "When I was a young, I used to eat pizza every day?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Ofelia as Marco Mancini: Quando ero giovane, mangiavo la pizza ogni giorno. |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Ofelia as Marco Mancini: Quando ero giovane, mangiavo la pizza ogni giorno. |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Ofelia as Marco Mancini: Quando ero giovane, mangiavo la pizza ogni giorno. |
| Michael: And do you remember how Mark says "I ate pizza yesterday?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Ofelia as Mark Lee: Ho mangiato la pizza ieri. |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Ofelia as Mark Lee: Ho mangiato la pizza ieri. |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Ofelia as Mark Lee: Ho mangiato la pizza ieri. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Ofelia: A presto! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
Comments
Hide