7. Past tense
There are three tenses in Italian: past, present and future.
There are several different past tense forms, but perhaps the two most common ones in spoken language are present perfect and imperfect.
AMARE – love
| Present perfect – passato prossimo | Imperfect – imperfetto |
|---|---|
| io ho amato | io amavo |
| tu hai amato | tu amavi |
| lui/lei/Lei ha amato | lui/lei/Lei amava |
| noi abbiamo amato | noi amavamo |
| voi avete amato | voi amavate |
| loro hanno amato | loro amavano |
The present perfect is formed with the help of an auxiliary verb (essere to be or avere to have, which are presented in more detail in chapter 8) and the main verb (in this case amare).
The present perfect is used when referring to the recent past:
Questa settimana ho lavorato tanto.
This week I worked a lot.
However, the present perfect is also used when something that happened long ago somehow affects the present:
Ho conosciuto Maria quando ero bambina.
I met Maria when I was a child (implying that you are still friends).
The imperfect refers to some action that began in the past, but which was never fully completed.
The imperfect can therefore refer to some form of action that was taking place in the past:
Che cosa facevi? – Parlavo al telefono.
What were you doing? – I was talking on the phone.
The imperfect is also used when referring to something that occurred regularly in the past:
Quando ero piccola, andavamo al mare ogni estate.
When I was a child, we used to go to the beach every summer.
Finally, the imperfect can be used to describe an action that partly occurs simultaneously with a verb in the perfect tense. In other words, the action described by the perfect tense interrupts the action described by the imperfect tense:
Mentre uscivo, ho incontrato il mio vicino di casa.
As I was going out, I met my neighbour.