| Let's look at the sentence pattern. |
| Do you remember how the character said, |
| "When you were little, we went to Florence together, remember?" |
| Quando eri piccola siamo andate insieme a Firenze, ricordi? |
| Quando eri piccola siamo andate insieme a Firenze, ricordi? |
| This sentence follows the pattern here:. |
| (subject) + present of essere + past participle |
| "(subject) + present of "to be"+ past participle" |
| This is called the passato prossimo, one of the most common past tenses in Italian. |
| It's used to talk about completed actions or events in the past. |
| Some verbs — especially verbs of movement, like andare (to go) — use essere as their helper verb, not avere. |
| So let's look at how essere is conjugated in the present tense: |
| io sono – I am |
| tu sei – you are |
| lui/lei è – he or she is |
| noi siamo – we are |
| voi siete – you all are |
| loro sono – they are |
| These forms are used in passato prossimo before the past participle. |
| And there's one more important thing! |
| When you use essere, the past participle changes to match the subject in gender and number. |
| For example: |
| io sono andato if you're male, or io sono andata if you're female |
| noi siamo andati, if the group is all male or mixed |
| noi siamo andate if the group is all female |
| Here's how the line from the dialogue uses the pattern. |
| Quando eri piccola siamo andate insieme a Firenze, ricordi? |
| "When you were little, we went to Florence together, remember?" |
| Let's break it down: |
| Quando, meaning "when," |
| followed by |
| eri, the second-person singular of essere in the imperfetto tense, meaning "you were," |
| Next |
| piccola, an adjective meaning "little" or "young," referring to a female subject. |
| Quando eri piccola together means "When you were little." |
| Next we have |
| siamo, the first-person plural of essere in the present tense, used here as an auxiliary verb in the passato prossimo, meaning "we have" or simply "we," |
| followed by |
| andate, the past participle of andare, meaning "gone" — here, forming "we went" with siamo. |
| The form andate agrees in gender and number with a feminine plural subject. |
| insieme a Firenze means "together to Florence" — indicating the destination. |
| ricordi is the second-person singular of ricordare in the present tense, meaning "do you remember?" |
| So the full sentence means: |
| "When you were little, we went to Florence together, remember?" |
| It follows the pattern: |
| Quando + [imperfect sentence], [passato prossimo with essere] — describing a time in the past and a completed action that followed. |
| You'll use this sentence structure when describing highlights or activities from a trip, vacation, or event in the past. |
| In Italian, some verbs use essere instead of avere to form the passato prossimo. |
| This usually includes state of being verbs like diventare (to become) or morire (to die), |
| and many verbs of movement like andare (to go), venire (to come), or partire (to leave). |
| It also includes impersonal verbs such as succedere (to happen), and most reflexive and reciprocal verbs — verbs like svegliarsi (to wake up) or incontrarsi (to meet each other). |
| So when you describe past events with these types of verbs, make sure to use essere as the helper verb, and don't forget to adjust the past participle to match the subject's gender and number. |
| This rule is part of what makes Italian sound precise and expressive! |
| Now let's look at some speaking examples. |
| Mio figlio Giuseppe è arrivato tardi a scuola oggi. |
| "My son Giuseppe arrived late to school today." |
| Can you see how the pattern applies here? |
| Let's break it down: |
| Mio figlio Giuseppe, the subject, |
| followed by |
| è, the present tense of essere, meaning "is" or here, as an auxiliary, "has," |
| next |
| arrivato, the past participle of arrivare, meaning "arrived," |
| and |
| tardi a scuola oggi, meaning "late to school today." |
| This sentence uses the same structure: subject + present of essere + past participle. |
| It tells us a completed action: Giuseppe arrived at school late today. |
| Here's another example |
| Gli studenti sono tornati in classe dopo la pausa pranzo. |
| "The students returned to class after the lunch break." |
| Gli studenti sono tornati in classe dopo la pausa pranzo. |
| "The students returned to class after the lunch break." |
| Let's try one more, |
| Emily, sei entrata nel sito web sbagliato. |
| "Emily, you entered the wrong website." |
| Emily, sei entrata nel sito web sbagliato. |
| "Emily, you entered the wrong website." |
| Another one. |
| Io e mia moglie siamo tornati negli Stati Uniti per le vacanze. |
| "My wife and I returned to the United States for the holidays." |
| Io e mia moglie siamo tornati negli Stati Uniti per le vacanze. |
| "My wife and I returned to the United States for the holidays." |
| One last example. |
| La ragazza è partita ieri mattina presto. |
| "The girl left early yesterday morning." |
| La ragazza è partita ieri mattina presto. |
| "The girl left early yesterday morning." |
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