The imperfetto of essere is the most-used past-tense form in Italian. Whenever you describe what something or someone was — what time it was, where you were, what the weather was like, what someone was like, who someone was — you reach for ero, eri, era, eravamo, eravate, erano. It is also the auxiliary that builds the trapassato prossimo for reflexive verbs and verbs of motion (ero andato, eravamo arrivati). And it opens every Italian fairy tale: c'era una volta...
This page covers the conjugation, the high-frequency contexts where it lives, and why English speakers under-use it.
The conjugation
Essere in the imperfetto does not follow the regular pattern. It uses the stem er- rather than ess-, and there is no -v- marker between the stem and the personal endings. The result is one of the shortest, most distinctive paradigms in Italian.
| Person | Conjugation | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| io | ero | èro |
| tu | eri | èri |
| lui / lei / Lei | era | èra |
| noi | eravamo | eravàmo |
| voi | eravate | eravàte |
| loro | erano | èrano |
Ero stanca, sono andata a letto presto.
I was tired, I went to bed early.
Eri molto giovane allora, ti ricordi?
You were very young then, do you remember?
Era una bella giornata di primavera.
It was a beautiful spring day.
Eravamo in tre alla cena, poi è arrivato anche Marco.
There were three of us at dinner, then Marco came too.
Eravate stanchi dopo il viaggio?
Were you all tired after the trip?
I miei nonni erano contadini come tutta la loro famiglia.
My grandparents were farmers like all of their family.
The stress trap (yes, again)
Even with this irregular stem, the imperfetto stress rule holds: the loro form is rizotonic. The accent falls on the first syllable of èrano, not on the -ra-no. Same for the other "short" forms: èro, èri, èra. The only forms that shift the stress to the right are noi and voi: eravàmo, eravàte.
This is consistent with every other imperfetto in the language. If you've internalized the stress pattern for parlavo / parlàvano, transferring it to ero / èrano is automatic.
What essere imperfetto is used for
This is essentially a list of "every situation where English uses was/were to describe a state, identity, location, or condition in the past."
1. Describing what someone or something was like
Mio nonno era un uomo gentile, sempre disponibile.
My grandfather was a kind man, always willing to help.
La casa era grande, con un giardino enorme.
The house was big, with a huge garden.
Eravamo amici da una vita, poi abbiamo litigato.
We had been friends forever, then we had a falling out.
These describe ongoing characteristics, not a single completed event. Era gentile ("he was kind") describes him over time, not a moment of kindness.
2. Time and date in the past
Erano le cinque del pomeriggio quando è suonato il telefono.
It was five in the afternoon when the phone rang.
Era una domenica di novembre, faceva freddo.
It was a Sunday in November, it was cold.
Era il 15 marzo 1990, me lo ricordo bene.
It was March 15, 1990, I remember it well.
Note the agreement: era l'una (singular for one o'clock), but erano le due, erano le tre... (plural for two o'clock and beyond) — exactly parallel to the presente. This is one of the highest-frequency uses of imperfetto in narrative writing.
3. Weather in the past
Era una bella giornata, c'era il sole e non faceva caldo.
It was a nice day, it was sunny and not hot.
Era nuvoloso, sembrava che dovesse piovere.
It was cloudy, it looked like it was going to rain.
For "weather as a scene," essere is one of the standard verbs (alongside fare: faceva caldo, faceva freddo). Era una bella giornata is a sentence you'll meet in the opening line of countless stories.
4. Location in the past (where something/someone was)
Eravamo in vacanza quando è successo.
We were on vacation when it happened.
Mia madre era in cucina, preparava la cena.
My mother was in the kitchen, preparing dinner.
I bambini erano in giardino, giocavano a pallone.
The kids were in the garden, playing soccer.
5. Identity in the past
Era mio professore al liceo, lo conosci?
He was my teacher in high school, do you know him?
Eravamo compagni di classe alle elementari.
We were classmates in primary school.
6. Age (in narrative context, see also avere)
For exact age, Italian uses avere (avevo dieci anni). But to describe someone's stage of life or general youth/oldness, essere appears:
Era ancora giovane quando è morto, aveva solo cinquant'anni.
He was still young when he died, he was only fifty.
Note the elegant pairing: era giovane (essere, for the qualitative state) plus aveva cinquant'anni (avere, for the precise number).
C'era una volta — the fairy-tale opener
C'era una volta ("there once was," literally "there was a time...") is the canonical opening of every Italian fairy tale, equivalent to English "Once upon a time." It uses the imperfetto era because a fairy tale is a backdrop, an unbounded scene, not a single completed event. You will never hear *c'è stata una volta — that would be ungrammatical, because the existence of the king is not a closed event with a specific end.
C'era una volta un re che aveva tre figlie.
Once upon a time there was a king who had three daughters.
C'era una volta, in un piccolo villaggio in montagna, una bambina che amava esplorare il bosco.
Once upon a time, in a small mountain village, there was a little girl who loved exploring the woods.
The plural form c'erano una volta (there once were) exists for stories with multiple protagonists from the start, but c'era is overwhelmingly the convention.
This same logic — imperfetto for the unbounded backdrop — extends to all Italian narration. When you set a scene, you use the imperfetto. Events that happen against that scene take the passato prossimo.
Era una sera fredda d'inverno. La neve cadeva piano piano e nessuno camminava per le strade. All'improvviso ho sentito un rumore.
It was a cold winter evening. The snow was falling slowly and no one was walking on the streets. Suddenly I heard a noise.
The first three verbs (era, cadeva, camminava) set the scene in the imperfetto. The single completed event — hearing the noise — pivots to passato prossimo.
Essere as auxiliary in the trapassato prossimo
Just as in the presente, essere serves as the auxiliary for reflexive verbs and most verbs of motion or change of state. In the imperfetto, this gives you the trapassato prossimo — the "past of the past":
Quando sono arrivato, lui era già andato via.
When I arrived, he had already left.
Eravamo appena tornati a casa quando è cominciato il temporale.
We had just gotten home when the storm started.
Mi ero addormentato sul divano, non ho sentito il campanello.
I had fallen asleep on the sofa, I didn't hear the doorbell.
The participle agrees with the subject in gender and number: era andato (he had gone), era andata (she had gone), erano andati (they had gone, masc. or mixed), erano andate (they had gone, fem.). For the full picture, see the auxiliary system.
"Stavo per..." — what you were about to do
A related construction worth flagging: stavo per + infinitive means "I was about to + verb." It's one of the few times Italian doesn't lean on the imperfetto of essere directly:
Stavo per uscire quando è suonato il telefono.
I was about to leave when the phone rang.
Stavamo per andare a letto, ma sono passati degli amici.
We were about to go to bed, but some friends stopped by.
You could in principle say ero in procinto di uscire (formal) or dovevo proprio uscire (informal, with a different shade), but stavo per is the natural, neutral, everyday choice for "was about to."
Era / faceva / c'era — three ways to set a scene
All three describe past background. They overlap, but there are tendencies:
| Construction | Used for | Example |
|---|---|---|
| era + adjective/noun | characteristic of weather, day, scene | Era una bella giornata. |
| faceva + adjective | physical sensation of weather | Faceva caldo. |
| c'era + noun | existence of a thing in the scene | C'era il sole. |
Era una bella giornata, faceva caldo e c'era il sole.
It was a nice day, it was hot, and the sun was out.
A natural Italian description of a beautiful summer day weaves all three together. Each does a slightly different job; together they paint the scene.
Common mistakes
❌ Loro eràno in vacanza tutto agosto.
Incorrect — wrong stress on the loro form. The accent should be on the first syllable, not on the -ra-no.
✅ Loro èrano in vacanza tutto agosto.
Correct — èrano stresses the first syllable.
❌ Erano l'una di notte.
Incorrect — 'one o'clock' takes singular agreement: era l'una.
✅ Era l'una di notte.
Correct — singular for 1:00, plural for 2:00 and beyond.
❌ Quando sono giovane, andavo spesso al cinema.
Incorrect — 'when I was young' is past tense, requires imperfetto: quando ero giovane.
✅ Quando ero giovane, andavo spesso al cinema.
Correct — both verbs in the imperfetto for habitual past.
❌ C'è stata una volta un re.
Incorrect — fairy tales open with the imperfetto, not the passato prossimo. The scene is unbounded.
✅ C'era una volta un re.
Correct — c'era una volta is the fixed fairy-tale opener.
❌ Voi siete in ritardo ieri sera.
Incorrect — past description requires imperfetto: eravate.
✅ Voi eravate in ritardo ieri sera.
Correct — eravate for past state.
❌ Tu erai mio amico.
Incorrect — the tu form of essere imperfetto is eri, not *erai.
✅ Tu eri mio amico.
Correct — eri.
❌ Ho ero stanco.
Incorrect — essere is its own verb, not an auxiliary needing 'ho.'
✅ Ero stanco.
Correct — ero is the imperfetto of essere on its own.
Key takeaways
The imperfetto of essere is ero, eri, era, eravamo, eravate, erano. The stem is the irregular er-, with no -v- marker.
Three things to internalize:
The loro form is rizotonic on the first syllable: èrano, not eràno. Same goes for èro, èri, èra. Only noi and voi shift the stress to the right.
This is the most-used past-tense verb in Italian. Time, weather, location, identity, characteristics, age (in narration), existence — all reach for the imperfetto of essere. If your past narrative has no instances of ero/era/erano, you are almost certainly under-using the imperfetto.
C'era una volta is the fairy-tale opener — and the imperfetto-as-backdrop logic that makes it work extends to all Italian narration. Scene = imperfetto. Event = passato prossimo. Essere is the verb that gives you the scene.
Together with avere imperfetto, you now have the two auxiliaries you need to build all the imperfect-based compound tenses (trapassato prossimo) and all the highest-frequency state expressions (ero stanco, avevo fame, erano le tre, avevo dieci anni).
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Open the Italian course →Related Topics
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- Auxiliary Verbs: avere, essere, stareA2 — The three auxiliary verbs that build Italian's compound tenses, the progressive, and the imminent future — and why getting them right is foundational.