Page 32 - verbo italiano

22 / Webster’s New World 575+ Italian Verbs

The verbs fare (“to do,” “to make”), bere (“to drink”), dire (“to say”), and tradurre
(“to translate”) conjugate according to the Latin or old Italian infinitive.
fare (Latin facere): facevo, facevi, faceva, facevamo, facevate, facevano
bere (Latin bibere, old Italian bevere): bevevo, bevevi, beveva, bevevamo,
bevevate, bevevano
dire (Latin dicere): dicevo, dicevi, diceva, dicevamo, dicevate, dicevano
tradurre (Latin traducere): traducevo, traducevi, traduceva, traducevamo,
traducevate, traducevano

C’era and c’erano correspond to the English “there was” and “there were.”
For reflexive verbs, simply place the reflexive pronoun before the verb (mi alzavo,
ci vedevamo).

PAST PERFECT
The corresponding compound verb of the imperfect tense is the trapassato pros-
simo, the past perfect, a tense expressing an action or state of being that had hap-
pen before another past action. The Italian past perfect, trapassato prossimo, is
the equivalent of the English past perfect, or pluperfect (“I had seen,” “we had
traveled”). Both actions are in the past. The action that took place before takes the
past perfect. The more recent event may be expressed in the present perfect or the
imperfect.
Il treno era già partito, quando sono The train had already left when I
arrivato alla stazione. arrived at the station. (Note: First the
train left, then the subject arrived at
the station.)
Quando aveva 30 anni Alberto Tomba When Alberto Tomba was 30, he had
aveva già vinto tre medaglie already won three Olympic medals.
olimpiche. (Note: First Alberto Tomba won three
Olympic medals, then he turned 30.)

Non avevo mai visto un panorama I have never seen such a beautiful
così bello. view. (Implied: Now the subject has
seen it, and is in fact looking at it.)

* When the past perfect is used with mai (“never”), the more recent action is
implicit. English may use the present perfect (“have”+ past participle), while Ital-
ian uses the past perfect.
In Italian, the trapassato prossimo is formed by combining the imperfect tense of
the appropriate helping verb (avere: avevo, avevi, aveva, avevamo, avevate, avevano
or essere: ero, eri, era, eravamo, eravate, erano) plus the past participle of the main
verb. See the Italian past participle section for an explanation on forming Italian
past participles, and see the “Avere or Essere?” section for an explanation of when
to use essere or avere as auxiliary verbs. The chart below shows examples of the
formation of the past perfect. The helping verbs avere and essere are in the imper-
fect tense. The past participle of the verbs lavorare, ricevere, dormire, and arrivare
are given. The past participle agrees with the subject in number and gender when
the verb is conjugated with essere.