Quote:
Originally Posted by falco del Nilo  it sounds like past simple tense to me ... am i wrong ??
and
thanks a million, dear Villa ..  |
Good question falco del Nilo.
In Italian there are four main ways to express past tense.
1. Il passato prossimo called the present perfect.
Maria ha telefonato ieri. Mary phoned yesterday.
(Noi)abbiamo appena finito di lavorare. We have just finished working or it can be translated as We just finished working.
This verb tense is used to show that an event was completed at the time of speaking. It is equivalent to the English forms
I have spoken, you have written, etc. However in standard spoken Italian this is the past tense that is used to say I spoke, I wrote etc. etc.
We need to do a seperate thread on this perche è molto importante.
2. Il imperfetto, The imperfect
Maria telefonaba spesso una volta. Mary used to phone often once.
Noi andavamo spesso in Italia da bambini. We used to go to Italy often as children.
This tense allows you to indicate incomplete, continued, or customary past actions.
In English we say I use to we use to as in I use to study every day. Or She was studying
when I walked in the room. This puts the imperfetto and the preterite together.
3. Il passato remoto or preterite
Loro arrivanrono in America molti anni fa. They arrived in America many years ago.
Dante nacque a Firenze. Dante was born in Florence.
This tense is used to refer to a completed action, state, or event in the distant past. It is
equivalent to the English forms I spoke, you wrote, you did, I went, you went etc. etc.
4. Il trapassato prossimo or the pluperfect indicative
Loro avevano gia telefonato, quando sei rientrato. They had already phoned when you got back.
Lui mi ha detto che le aveva gia parlato. He told me that he had already spoken to her.
The pluperfect is used to show that an event was completed before a given past time. It is
equivalent to the English compound tense forms I had spoken, you had writen, you had ran etc.
Hai passato bene il fine settimana? Hai passato un buon fine settimana? 
Linear Mode
