INTRODUCTION |
Marco: Hello, and welcome to the Newbie Series S2 at ItalianPOD101.com, where we study modern Italian in a fun, educational format! |
Cinzia: So, brush up on the Italian that you started learning long ago, or start learning today. |
Marco: Thanks for being here with us for this lesson. Cinzia, what are we looking at in this lesson. |
Marco: In this lesson we will continue to explain the imperfetto and passato prossimo tense agreement in narrations This conversation takes place on the streets of Italy |
Cinzia: And it's between John and Laura They are friends therefore they will be speaking informal Italian |
Marco: Attention listners, comment, |
Cinzia: comment, |
Marco: and comment some more! |
Cinzia: It's easy, |
Marco: and asking questions really helps improve progress. |
Marco: Let's listen to the conversation. |
DIALOGUE |
John: Ieri sera nevicava molto forte e mentre tornavo a casa sono scivolato! |
Laura: Ti sei fatto male? |
John: No, ma ero molto imbarazzato. |
Laura: Perché? |
John: Dei bambini mi guardavano e ridevano. |
English Host: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
John: Ieri sera nevicava molto forte e mentre tornavo a casa sono scivolato! |
Laura: Ti sei fatto male? |
John: No, ma ero molto imbarazzato. |
Laura: Perché? |
John: Dei bambini mi guardavano e ridevano. |
English Host: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
John: Ieri sera nevicava molto forte e mentre tornavo a casa sono scivolato! |
Marco: Yesterday evening it was snowing very heavily and while I was going back home I slipped! |
Laura: Ti sei fatto male? |
Marco: Did you hurt yourself? |
John: No, ma ero molto imbarazzato. |
Marco: No, but I was very embarrassed. |
Laura: Perché? |
Marco: Why? |
John: Dei bambini mi guardavano e ridevano. |
Marco: Some children were looking at me and laughing. |
POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
Marco: This January, it snowed so much in Italy! |
Cinzia: Yes! Incredible snow. |
Marco: There’s also a YouTube video of an Italian man skiing on a closed highway access ramp in Milan. |
Cinzia: For real! |
Marco: Yeah! We’ll post the link in a comment under the lesson post. |
VOCAB LIST |
Marco: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
: The first word we shall see is: |
Cinzia: forte [natural native speed] |
Marco: strong, powerful, loud, tough, heavy, severe |
Cinzia: forte [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
Cinzia: forte [natural native speed] |
: Next: |
Cinzia: mentre [natural native speed] |
Marco: while, whilst |
Cinzia: mentre [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
Cinzia: mentre [natural native speed] |
: Next: |
Cinzia: tornare [natural native speed] |
Marco: to go back, to come back, to get back |
Cinzia: tornare [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
Cinzia: tornare [natural native speed] |
: Next: |
Cinzia: scivolare [natural native speed] |
Marco: to slide, slip, glide |
Cinzia: scivolare [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
Cinzia: scivolare [natural native speed] |
: Next: |
Cinzia: farsi male [natural native speed] |
Marco: to hurt oneself |
Cinzia: farsi male [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
Cinzia: farsi male [natural native speed] |
: Next: |
Cinzia: imbarazzare [natural native speed] |
Marco: to embarrass |
Cinzia: imbarazzare [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
Cinzia: imbarazzare [natural native speed] |
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
Marco: Let's have a closer look at the usuage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
Cinzia: The first word we will look at is |
forte |
Marco: And the sample sentence is? |
Cinzia: Tuo papa è molto forte. |
Marco: “Your father is very strong.” |
Cinzia: The next word/expression we will look at is |
mentre |
Marco: And the sample sentence is? |
Cinzia: Ascolto musica mentre viaggio in treno. |
Marco: “I listen to music while I travel by train.” |
Cinzia: The next word/expression we will look at is |
tornare |
Marco: And the sample sentence is? |
Cinzia: Torno subito. |
Marco: “I’ll be right back.” |
Cinzia: The next word/expression we will look at is |
scivolare |
Marco: And the sample sentence is? |
Cinzia: Mario è scivolato mentre correva. |
Marco: “Mario slipped while he was running.” |
Cinzia: The next word/expression we will look at is |
farsi male |
Marco: And the sample sentence is? |
Cinzia: Mi sono fatto male correndo. |
Marco: “I hurt myself while running.” |
Cinzia: Today's last word/expression is |
imbarazzare |
Marco: And the sample sentence is? |
Cinzia: La ragazza era imbarazzata. |
Marco: “The girl was embarrassed.” |
Lesson focus
|
Marco: In order to better illustrate the passato prossimo and imperfetto tense agreement, consider the following short story. |
Cinzia: Ieri stava piovendo. Mentre guardavo la televisione è suonato il telefono. Stavo andando a rispondere e sono caduto a terra. Stavo per rialzarmi quando il telefono ha smesso di suonare. La stanza era fredda e scura. Io ero un po' nervoso a causa del tempo. Quando ero giovane guardavo la pioggia, mi faceva pensare al futuro come infinite gocce di possibilità. Ora pensavo alla mia famiglia e sorridevo. |
Marco: ""Yesterday, it was raining. While I was watching the TV, the phone rang. I was going to answer (the call), and I fell on the floor. I was about to stand up when the phone stopped ringing. The room was cold and dark. I was a bit nervous due to the weather. When I was young, I used to look at rain. It made me think about the future as infinite drops of possibilities. Now, I thought about my family and smiled. |
Cinzia: The short story above presented the main contexts in which to use the imperfetto tense. |
Marco: I. We use the imperfetto tense to describe the traits of the environment, situations, or animate and inanimate beings in a narration. For example |
Cinzia: Ieri stava piovendo. |
Marco: ""Yesterday, it was raining."" |
Cinzia: La stanza era fredda e scura. |
Marco: ""The room was dark and cold."" |
Marco: II. We can use the imperfetto to express past, ongoing actions before they were interrupted. |
Cinzia: The conjunction mentre (""while"") often precedes these actions and we can also conjugate them in the passato progressivo (past progressive) tense. |
Marco: For instance |
Cinzia: Mentre guardavo la televisione... |
Marco: ""While I was watching the TV..."" guardavo is imperfetto |
OR |
Cinzia: Mentre stavo guardando la televisione... |
Marco: ""While I was watching the TV..."" guardando is passato progressivo |
Marco: III. Another use of the imperfetto tense is to describe the character of individuals in the past. For example |
Cinzia: Io ero un po' nervoso a causa del tempo. |
Marco: ""I was a bit nervous due to the weather."" |
Marco: IV. We can use the imperfetto tense to describe repetitions, recurrent actions, and past habits. For example |
Cinzia: Quando ero giovane mi piaceva guardare la pioggia. |
Marco: ""When I was young, I liked looking at the rain."" guardare (past habit and repetition) |
Cinzia: ...mi faceva pensare al futuro come... |
Marco: ""...it made me think about the future as..."" pensare (recurrent action) |
Marco: V. One more way in which we can use the imperfetto tense is to express two or more contemporary actions in the past. |
Cinzia: Ora pensavo alla mia famiglia e sorridevo. |
Marco: ""Now, I thought about my family and smiled."" |
Marco: We employ the passato prossimo tense to express the main actions of the narration, which take place at a particular time. For example |
Cinzia: ...è suonato il telefono. |
Marco: ""...the phone rang."" |
Cinzia: ...sono caduto a terra. |
Marco: ""...I fell on the floor."" |
Cinzia: ...il telefono ha smesso di suonare. |
Marco: ""...the phone stopped ringing."" |
Outro
|
Marco: That just about does it for today. |
Cinzia: Ready to test what you just learned? |
Marco: Make this lesson's vocabulary stick by using lesson specific flashcards in the learning center. |
Cinzia: There is a reason everyone uses flashcards... |
Marco: They work... |
Cinzia: They really do help memorization. |
Marco: You can get the flashcards for this lesson at |
Cinzia: ItalianPod101.com. |
Marco: Okay.... |
Marco: A presto! |
Cinzia: Ciao a tutti!" |
22 Comments
HideHi Xyrel,
thanks for your question!
While ORA means NOW, in this context you should interpret it more as IN THAT MOMENT (a now in the past, so to say).
Of course, if you're actually talking about the present, you can say: ora sorrido e penso alla mia famiglia, using the present tense.
Hope this helps!
Valentina
Team ItalianPod101.com
Hello,
In the story, the last sentence "Ora pensavo alla mia famiglia e sorridevo." Why do we use imperfetto with "Ora"? Shouldn't we use present tense?
Thanks in advance.
Ciao Roberto,
thanks for sharing this! 😄
prima le sei -> prima delle sei
Other than that, great job!
Valentina
Team ItalianPod101.com
Ciao tutti!
I've been learning Italian from ItalianPod101.com for a month and a half now, so I should be able to tell this story in Italian. Apologies in advance for the grammar mishaps - hopefully not that many. :)
Mi sono svegliato prima le sei stamattina perche il mio cervello ha deciso pensare a un mistero della lingua italiana. Stavo coniugando nella mia testa il verbo "salire" quando ho notato che l'imperfetto dal verbo "salire" è lo stesso che il presente da "salivare", salvo la "i" mancante en "salivamo". 🤯
Hi Kandance,
Basically they are interchangeable.
There are some exception, such as "When I was child", which in Italian should be "Quando ero bambino/a", because you were a child for a long while.
Another expression that coincides to the Italian imperfect tense is "used to".
I hope this helps,
Thank you,
Ofelia
Team ItalianPod101.com
Are imperfect tense and past progressive tense always interchangeable? Is one ever preferred over the other?
thank you
Grazie, Marco.
Ken
Grazie per i complimenti.
Here are a few corrections:
Allora, questa lezione è stupenda, meravigliosa o semplicemente grande. Mi piace particolarmente la breve storia per usare i verbi — il passato prossimo e l’imperfetto. La storia stessa era buona; comunque, specificando quale frase ha quale funzione è stato speciale. Non avevo pensato che potessi imparare ad usarli. Tante grazie.
Divertitevi con le correzioni - - se volete!
Marco,
Io sono molto felice che io non ero un membro quando avete avuto i molti problemi con il programma.
Allora, per questa lezione: è stupenda, meravigliosa, o semplicemente grande. Mi piacciano particolarmente la corta storia per indicare
i verbi -- la passato prossimo e l'imperfetto. La storia se stesso era buona; comunque, a specificare quale frase ha fatto quale funzione era speciale. Non avevo pensato che potrei imparare come usarli. Grazie tanta.
Divertite con le correzioni - - se volete!