What does potere, volere and dovere express in Italian?
There are some verbs that are special in Italian because they can be followed by other verbs.
This is the case of volere (to want to), potere (can or to be able to), and dovere (to have to).
These verbs respectively express a wish, a possibility, or a necessity.
Here are some examples:
Vogliamo mangiare la pizza.
We want to eat pizza.
Possiamo venire con voi?
Can we come with you?
Dovete andare a casa.
You have to go home.
We can use these verbs in the present, past, and future tenses.
In today’s lesson, we’re going to learn about the imperfetto of volere, potere and sapere: volevo, potevo, sapevo.
What is the imperfect tense?
The imperfetto is a tense that we use to talk about the past.
For instance, we use it to describe the way people, objects, or places were in the past, like in the example below.
La piazza prima era molto piccola.
Before, the square was very small.
We also use it to describe situations and factual conditions or to describe states of mind or health in the past.
Laura non stava molto bene ieri.
Laura wasn’t very well yesterday.
We can also use it to describe what used to happen, such as habits and repeated actions in the past.
Noi andavamo sempre in Messico d’estate.
We would always go to Mexico in the summer.
Finally, we use the imperfetto to express a continued and prolonged action that happened in the past.
Cosa dicevi ieri su mio fratello?
What were you saying yesterday about my brother?
How to conjugate volere in imperfetto?
Let’s have a look at the conjugation of volere in the imperfetto:
| Italian | Translation |
| Io volevo | I wanted |
| Tu volevi | You wanted |
| Lui/Lei voleva | He/She wanted |
| Noi volevamo | We wanted |
| Voi volevate | You wanted |
| Loro volevano | They wanted |
And here are some sentences:
La scorsa estate io volevo andare al mare.
Last summer, I wanted to go to the beach.
Cosa volevi dirmi ieri?
What did you want to tell me yesterday?
How to conjugate potere in imperfetto?
Now let’s have a look at the conjugation of potere in the imperfetto:
| Italian | Translation |
| Io potevo | I could |
| Tu potevi | You could |
| Lui/Lei poteva | He/She could |
| Noi potevamo | We could |
| Voi potevate | You could |
| Loro potevano | They could |
And here we have some examples:
Da piccoli, non potevamo uscire con i nostri amici.
When we were little, we couldn’t go out with our friends.
L’anno scorso potevo lavorare da casa.
Last year, I could work from home.
How to conjugate dovere in imperfetto?
At last, but not least, here’s the conjugation of the verb dovere in the imperfetto:
| Italian | Translation |
| Io dovevo | I had to |
| Tu dovevi | You had to |
| Lui/Lei doveva | He/She had to |
| Noi dovevamo | We had to |
| Voi dovevate | You had to |
| Loro dovevano | They had to |
And here’re some examples:
Cosa dovevate dirci ieri?
What did you have to tell us yesterday?
Angelo doveva pulire la casa e non l’ha fatto.
Angelo had to clean the house, but he didn’t do it.
