Past Imperfect · b605a6a52359719af302d542bdd65d8c

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Imperfect

We’ve already seen one way to talk about the past in Italian, the passato prossimo.

Io ho parlato con lei per un'ora.
I talked with her for an hour.

But if you want to say what you were doing or what you used to do in the past, you’ll need to use verbs in a different form called imperfect.

Lui mi parlava ogni giorno.
He used to talk to me every day.

La gente entrava quando voleva.
People were entering whenever they wanted.

To talk in the imperfect, just drop ‑re from the infinitive of a verb and add these endings.

	arrivare to arrive
io	arrivavo (I) used to arrive
tu	arrivavi (you) used to arrive
lui / lei	arrivava (he / she) used to arrive
noi	arrivavamo (we) used to arrive
voi	arrivavate (you all) used to arrive
loro	arrivavano (they) used to arrive

Keep in mind that verbs related to feelings and emotions, like volere, are often used in the imperfect rather than in the passato prossimo.

Lei voleva mangiare pesce.
She wanted to eat fish.

Mi sentivo molto solo.
I was feeling very lonely.

Era tutto buono

It’s probably not too surprising to find out that essere doesn’t follow normal word endings in the imperfect!

	essere to be
io	ero (I) used to be
tu	eri (you) used to be
lui / lei	era (he / she) used to be
noi	eravamo (we) used to be
voi	eravate (you all) used to be
loro	erano (they) used to be

C’era tanta gente

You’ve already seen how to use c’è and ci sono to say there is and there are. In the same way, you can use c’era and c’erano to say there was and there were.