How to Talk About the Past in Italian using the Imperfetto

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The imperfetto presents a past situation as ongoing, habitual or background, without focusing on its beginning or endpoint. It can describe recent or distant events; it is not limited to repeated actions.

In this lesson, we will show you how to use the imperfetto tense and will give you some tips to help you avoid some common pitfalls. Its rules are pretty straightforward and once you learn them, it will begin to come naturally.

Using the imperfetto

The imperfect tense in Italian can be a little tricky at first, because it doesn’t have an exact equivalent in English.

The imperfetto is a past tense used to:

(1) Talk about oft-repeated or habitual actions in the past:

Ogni giovedì ci incontravamo al bar – We used to meet at the bar every Thursday (the action happened continually in the past)
Quando Virginia era piccola, si svegliava alle 7:30 per andare a scuola – When Virginia was a kid, she used to wake up at 7:30 a.m. to go to school (a habitual action in the past)

(2) Describe a situation in the past:

La strada non era asfaltata – The road was not paved.
La città era deserta – The city was empty.
Quando andavo a scuola odiavo la matematica – When I was at school I used to hate maths.

(3) Talk about one’s age at a point in the past:

Nel 2000, Alessia aveva 16 anni – In 2000, Alessia was 16 years old.

(4) Describe time or weather in the past:

C’era il sole ma faceva freddo – It was sunny but cold.
Erano le sette – It was seven o’clock.

(5) Describe the ongoing state of objects, places and people in the past:

Da piccola, Sabrina aveva i capelli ricci – When she was little, Sabrina used to have curly hair (you are talking about how she looked in the past).
Caterina era una donna coraggiosa – Caterina was a brave woman

(6) Describe an emotional or physical state at a past reference point. The tense does not, by itself, tell us whether that state still exists now:

Ieri avevo mal di testa – I had a headache yesterday.
Eravamo così felici – We were so happy.

(7) Talk about two or more events that happened simultaneously in the past:

Mentre studiavo in camera mia, Tommaso guardava la televisione (parallel activities) – While I was studying in my room, Tommaso was watching TV.

(8) Describe an action that was taking place when something else happened:

Mentre passeggiavo nel parco, ho visto uno scoiattolo – While I was having a stroll in the park, I saw a squirrel (you are talking about what you were doing when something else occurred).

As you can see, that’s a lot of uses!

How to Construct the Italian imperfetto

Lucky for you, the imperfetto is one of the most stable Italian tenses and is formed by adding the same endings to all three verb types. The only difference is the typical vowel of the infinitive.

The imperfetto is formed by taking the -re off the end of the infinitive and replacing it with:

-vo for “I”
-vi for “you”
-va for “he”/ “she” / “it”
-vamo for “we”
-vate for “y’all”
-vano for “they”

That’s it! This works with all regular verbs. As you might have noticed, the characteristic letter of the imperfetto tense is the letter “v”:

Parlavo (I spoke or used to speak)
Leggevo (I read or used to read)
Dormivo (I slept or used to sleep)

Once you learn one set of endings, it will be easy to learn the subsequent two because they all follow a similar pattern.

Parlare

Io parlavo	I spoke or used to speak
Tu parlavi	You spoke or used to speak
Lui/lei parlava	He/She/It spoke or used to speak
Noi parlavamo	We spoke or used to speak
Voi parlavate	You (plural) spoke or used to speak
Loro parlavano	They spoke or used to speak

Leggere

Io leggevo	I read or used to read
Tu leggevi	You read or used to read
Lui/lei leggeva	He/She/It read or used to read
Noi leggevamo	We read or used to read
Voi leggevate	You (plural) read or used to read
Loro leggevano	They read or used to read

Dormire

Io dormivo	I slept or used to sleep
Tu dormivi	You slept or used to sleep
Lui/lei dormiva	He/She/It slept or used to sleep
Noi dormivamo	We slept or used to sleep
Voi dormivate	You (plural) slept or used to sleep
Loro dormivano	They slept or used to sleep

There are some irregular verbs in the imperfect form. First we will look at the imperfect conjugations of essere (to be):

Io ero

Tu eri

Lui/lei era

Noi eravamo

Voi eravate

Loro erano

Aside from the Italian verb “essere”, the other irregular verbs to beware of in the imperfect form are those that end in -orre, -urre and -arre, such as:

porre (to put, to place);
tradurre (to translate);
trarre (to pull, to draw);

and also:

fare (to make, to do);
dire (to say, to tell);
bere (to drink).

While the endings are similar, the stem used is not as easy to form. Fortunately, they tend to be the same troublesome verbs that are also irregular in other tenses in Italian, so they are easy to spot. Let’s go over some of the most common irregular verbs in the imperfect form:

Fare

Io facevo

Tu facevi

Lui/lei faceva

Noi facevamo

Voi facevate

Loro facevano

Dire

Io dicevo

Tu dicevi

Lui/lei diceva

Noi dicevamo

Voi dicevate

Loro dicevano

Bere

Io bevevo

Tu bevevi

Lui/lei beveva

Noi bevevamo

Voi bevevate

Loro bevevano

Porre

Io ponevo

Tu ponevi

Lui/lei poneva

Noi ponevamo

Voi ponevate

Loro ponevano

Tradurre

Io traducevo

Tu traducevi

Lui/lei traduceva

Noi traducevamo

Voi traducevate

Loro traducevano

Trarre

Io traevo

Tu traevi

Lui/lei traeva

Noi traevamo

Voi traevate

Loro traevano

We recommend committing those to memory.

Fortunately, the Italian verb “avere” is regular in the imperfect tense:

Avere

Io avevo

Tu avevi

Lui/lei aveva

Noi avevamo

Voi avevate

Loro avevano

Which phrases are typically used with the Italian imperfect tense?

These expressions often accompany descriptions of habits or background situations. They do not automatically require imperfetto; context and how the event is presented determine the tense.

A volte	at times
Continuamente	continuously / continually
Giorno dopo giorno	day in and day out
Mentre	while / as
Ogni tanto	every so often
Sempre	always
Spesso	often
Tutti i giorni	every day

Imperfetto or passato prossimo?

Confused by the past tenses in Italian? Understanding when to use the imperfetto over the passato prossimo can be tough at first, and most English speakers who decide to learn Italian struggle with this. Here are some tips to help you with the use of these two past tenses.

As mentioned previously, the imperfetto describes repeated or habitual actions in the past as well as the characteristics and frequency of past situations.

L’estate scorsa andavo in piscina ogni domenica – Last summer, I used to go to the pool every Sunday.
A 11 anni Cinzia aveva i capelli lunghissimi – When Cinzia was 11, she had very long hair.
The passato prossimo presents a past event as complete or bounded. It can refer to recent or distant events and to one event or a completed series: Sono andata in piscina tre volte (“I went to the pool three times”).
Due anni fa siamo andati a Firenze – We went to Florence two years ago (we didn’t keep on going to Florence).

In much contemporary speech, passato prossimo is used for distant past events too. The choice between it and passato remoto also depends on region, register and the connection the speaker makes to the present.

For an ongoing background action interrupted by a bounded event, use imperfetto for the background and passato prossimo for the event. Two simultaneous ongoing actions can both use imperfetto.

Mentre andavo a scuola ho incontrato Francesca. – While I was going to school, I met Francesca.

Colloquial uses of the imperfetto

There are colloquial uses of the imperfetto which are well worth learning. It is quite common in colloquial speech to skip complicated grammar structures and use the imperfect tense instead.

In informal speech and writing that represents it, the imperfetto can express an unreal past condition and its consequence. Standard careful writing uses the congiuntivo trapassato and condizionale passato for this meaning.

This example uses an informal double imperfect to refer to a missed past possibility:

Se sapevo che eri vegetariana, non preparavo l’arrosto (colloquial) – Had I known you were a vegetarian, I wouldn’t have made the roast.

The double imperfect is a colloquial construction. For exams or careful formal writing, prefer: Se avessi saputo che eri vegetariana, non avrei preparato l’arrosto. Both versions refer here to a past situation that did not happen.

Here are other examples:

Potevate avvisarmi che arrivavate in ritardo (informal communication). Avreste potuto avvisarmi che sareste arrivati in ritardo (formal communication). – You could have told me that you would arrive late.

Se Fabio mi mandava una mail, rispondevo subito (informal communication) / Se Fabio mi avesse inviato una mail, avrei risposto subito (formal communication) – If Fabio had sent me an email, I would have replied right away.

The imperfect tense is also used in place of the conditional to make a request sound less imperative.

Buongiorno, volevo un caffè per favore (volevo instead of vorrei) – Good morning, I’d like a coffee please.
Volevo prenotare una camera per due notti (polite volevo instead of vorrei) — “I would like to book a room for two nights.”

How to translate the imperfetto into English

English and Italian have different past tenses and there is no exact one-to-one correspondence between how they are used. The imperfetto corresponds roughly to “used to” or the past continuous tense. The most similar phrasing you have in English is perhaps the expression “used to,” but it is not a direct translation.

Widely used both in the spoken and written language, the imperfetto in Italian may need to be translated with:

The past continuous tense

Pioveva forte – It was raining heavily.

“used to”

Andavo a trovare Emanuele ogni giorno – I used to visit Emanuele every single day.

The simple past tense

Marta faceva la babysitter dopo la scuola – Marta worked as a babysitter after school (this was a regular happening).

“Would”

Silvia lo seguiva dovunque andasse – Silvia would follow him everywhere.

How to pronounce verbs in the imperfect form

Lots of students get tripped up on which syllable to stress in Italian imperfect verbs.

You should stress the penultimate syllable on imperfetto verb conjugations, except in the third person plural (loro), when, as in the present, the stress falls on the third to last syllable (antepenultimate).

Andrea e Adele andavano al cinema ogni mercoledì sera – Andrea and Adele used to go to the cinema every Wednesday evening

This might sound a bit weird to you at first but this rhythm will come to feel natural with a bit of practice.

To sum up…

The imperfect tense is used for situations and events that continued for some time in the past.
It is used to describe things that happened continuously in the past on a regular basis, kind of like the expression “used to” in English:

Quando ero in Sicilia parlavo italiano ogni giorno – When I was in Sicily I used to speak Italian every day

Quando ero piccolo, mangiavo la pasta tutti i giorni – When I was a kid, I used to eat pasta every day

The verb forms are made by removing the letters -re of the infinitive and simply adding the endings -vo, -vi, -va, -vamo, -vate and -vano. There are a few irregular forms.
The Italian imperfetto has various ways of being translated into English.

Developing an understanding for which tense to use in a sentence is not something you can learn by simply studying grammar rules. It will take time and requires you to spend a lot of time with the language till you develop a natural feel for the correct tense form to use.

Read and listen to Italian as much as you can to speed up this process. The more you expose yourself to Italian, the more natural this and other grammatical structures will become for you.