PASSATO

Oggi parliamo del passato dei verbi.

In Italian language there are many different past tenses: mainly we use two of them.

The first one is called PASSATO PROSSIMO. It is used to speak about an action or an event happened in the past. It is formed by the present of the auxiliary verbs to be (=essere) and to have (=avere) and the past participle (= participio passato) o the verb.

For instance, here is the passato prossimo of the verbs lavorare (=to work) and partire (=to leave):

es. Ieri ho lavorato tutto il giorno.

es. Carla è partita per l'Africa.

The second one is named IMPERFETTO. It is used to speak about habits, actions repeated a lot of times in the past, descriptions or facts in which the duration is undefined.

Here are the forms of the verbs lavorare (=to work), mettere (= to put) and dormire (=to sleep) in imperfetto:

es. Quando abitavo a Londra, lavoravo al British Museum.

es. In estate non mettevo mai la macchina in garage.

es. Sergio dormiva sempre fino a tardi.