Use the passato prossimo for actions that are finished, and the imperfetto for what was going on, what things were like and what used to happen. In a story, the imperfetto sets the scene and the passato prossimo tells what happened.
Past Tenses in Italian
In Italian, you can use three main types of past tenses to talk about the past: passato prossimo (present perfect), imperfetto (imperfect), and passato remoto (past simple).
Passato prossimo is used to express past finished events and actions. It is composed of the auxiliary verb “to have” or “to be“ and the past participle of the main verb.
Imperfetto is used to express a habit or a continued and prolonged action in the past. It can conceptually be translated with “used to” and is chosen to talk about events that happened at some point in the past, without saying exactly when.
Finally, passato remoto is mainly used in Tuscany and areas in the south of Italy to talk about events that happened long time ago in the past. You can easily survive in Italy without using passato remoto, yet I think it is important to know its existence and conjugation.
What is relevant for this article is the fact that, on the one hand, imperfetto and passato prossimo are often confused by English native speakers because this distinction does not exist in English. On the other hand, these two past tenses can be used together in the same sentence.
So, let me explain the main differences, how they are used, and when.
Passato Prossimo vs Imperfetto
Passato prossimo vs imperfetto at a glance
| Passato prossimo | Imperfetto | |
|---|---|---|
| Main use | a finished action or a single event | an ongoing action, a background, a habit |
| Question it answers | What happened? | What was going on? What was it like? |
| Typical time words | ieri, una volta, all’improvviso, la settimana scorsa | sempre, di solito, spesso, ogni giorno, da bambino |
| English | I ate, I have eaten | I was eating, I used to eat |
| Example | Ieri sono andato al cinema. | Da bambino andavo al cinema ogni domenica. |
The examples mean “Yesterday I went to the cinema” and “As a child I went to the cinema every Sunday”.
How they translate into English
The imperfetto usually matches “was/were + -ing” and “used to”, while the passato prossimo matches the English simple past and present perfect:
Guardavo la TV.
I was watching TV. / I used to watch TV.
Ho guardato la TV.
I watched TV. / I have watched TV.
Both sentences are correct. Which one you need depends on whether you are describing something ongoing or something completed.
When to use Passato Prossimo in Italian
In Italian, we use passato prossimo to:
- Talk about past events or actions that happened a while ago but still have an effect on the present.
- Talk about past events or actions that happened during a limited time, meaning that they started and ended at a specific point in time.
Let’s take a look at some examples:
Ho parlato con Maya ieri.
I spoke to Maya yesterday.
Siamo andati a trovare Matteo la settimana scorsa.
We visited Matteo last week.
Remember that when you use passato prossimo you must choose the right auxiliary verb (essere or avere) and that, when you use essere, the past participle must agree in gender and number with the subject of the sentence.
Also, since passato prossimo is used to talk about actions that happened in a specific moment of the past, there are several expressions of time that can be combined with it, like:
- stamattina (this morning)
- ieri (yesterday)
- l’altro giorno (the other day)
- la settimana/il mese/l’anno scorso/scorsa (last week/month/year)
- appena (just)
- amount of time fa (amount of time ago)
When to use Imperfetto in Italian
We use imperfetto to:
- Talk about past events that started and ended during an undetermined and presumably long period of time.
- Describe situations, people, events in the past.
- Talk about past habits or habitual actions occurring regularly in the past.
Have a look at the following examples:
La mia prima bicicletta era bianca.
My first bike was white.
Da piccolo, avevo i capelli castani.
When I was little, I had brown hair.
As I mentioned before, a good trick to avoid confusing these two tenses is to translate imperfetto with “used to”, as in “when I was little, I used to have brown hair”.
And here is a list of some time expressions commonly used with it:
- sempre (always)
- mai (never)
- spesso (often)
- tutti i giorni (every day)
- da piccolo / da bambino (as a child)
- a volte (sometimes)
- ogni tanto (once in a while)
Age, time, weather and feelings: use the imperfetto
When you describe the background of a story, you nearly always use the imperfetto: age, time, weather, physical state and feelings.
Avevo dieci anni quando ci siamo trasferiti a Roma.
I was ten when we moved to Rome.
Erano le otto quando è arrivato Luca.
It was eight o’clock when Luca arrived.
Pioveva e faceva freddo.
It was raining and it was cold.
Ero stanco e avevo fame.
I was tired and I was hungry.
Ogni estate andavamo al mare.
Every summer we went to the seaside.
Un giorno siamo andati in montagna.
One day we went to the mountains.
In the last two examples, the habit (“every summer”) takes the imperfetto, and the single event (“one day”) takes the passato prossimo.
When to use Passato Prossimo and Imperfetto Together
We use passato prossimo and imperfetto together to describe two past actions happening at the same time in the past.
Specifically, we use imperfetto to describe the background action, that is, the event that was occurring when something else interrupted it, and we use passato prossimo for the interrupting action.
For this type of structure, we introduce imperfetto with mentre (while).
Mentre andavo in ufficio, ho incontrato Marco.
While I was going to the office, I met Marco.
Otherwise, we can also introduce passato prossimo with quando (when).
Quando ho incontrato Marco, andavo in ufficio.
When I met Marco, I was going to the office.
Below I wrote some more examples of these two tenses:
Studiavamo quando improvvisamente ha squillato il telefono.
We were studying when suddenly the telephone rang.
Mentre camminavolungo il fiume, ho sentito un rumore improvviso.
I was walking along the river when I heard a sudden noise.
Quando David viveva in Italia, ha visitato sia Roma sia Firenze.
During the time David lived in Italy, he visited both Rome and Florence.
Notice that, here, quando is used with the meaning of mentre, therefore it introduces imperfetto.
Mentre Luca scriveva una e-mail, il computer ha smesso di funzionare.
While Luca was writing an e-mail, the computer stopped working.
Common Traps with Passato Prossimo and Imperfetto
Time expressions are hints, not rules
The tip to look at the time expressions works most of the time, but not always. A finished action with a stated duration takes the passato prossimo, even if it lasted years, while the same fact used as a background takes the imperfetto:
Ho abitato a Roma per tre anni.
I lived in Rome for three years.
Abitavo a Roma quando ho conosciuto Marco.
I was living in Rome when I met Marco.
When in doubt, ask yourself: is this action complete, or is it the situation in which something else happened?
Verbs that change meaning: sapere and conoscere
With some verbs, the choice of tense changes the meaning. Look at sapere and conoscere:
Sapevo che era malato.
I knew he was ill.
Ho saputo che era malato.
I found out he was ill.
Conoscevo Marco.
I knew Marco.
Ho conosciuto Marco.
I met Marco.
The same happens with the modal verbs. See my lessons on the passato prossimo of potere, volere, dovere and sapere and on volevo, potevo, sapevo and dovevo. Remember also that some common verbs have an irregular imperfetto, like essere (ero).
Practice: passato prossimo or imperfetto?
Put the verbs in brackets into the right tense:
- Ieri (io, andare) al mercato.
- Da piccola (io, avere) i capelli lunghi.
- Mentre (noi, cenare), (suonare) il telefono.
- Quando (io, essere) giovane, (io, viaggiare) molto.
- L’anno scorso (io, visitare) Firenze.
Answers: 1. sono andato (or sono andata); 2. avevo; 3. cenavamo, ha suonato; 4. ero, viaggiavo; 5. ho visitato.
Ready to Talk About Past Actions
Understanding these two past tenses is not easy, I know! But do not worry, the more you practice, the more you understand. This is because, in English, we use the past simple for almost all past events, and there is no distinction between different past tenses.
What most of my students find useful, is to look at the expressions of time: if you know when something happened, then it’s likely passato prossimo, and if the time when an event occurred is not specified, then it’s probably imperfetto.
Practice the use of these two verb tenses, and I promise you will speak Italian sooner than you think.
