La caffettiera era già calda quando sei arrivato.

The coffee maker was already hot when you arrived.

Breakdown of La caffettiera era già calda quando sei arrivato.

• tu: you
• essere: to be
• quando: when
• arrivare: to arrive
• caldo: hot
• già: already
• la caffettiera: the coffee maker

Questions & Answers about La caffettiera era già calda quando sei arrivato.

Why is the imperfect tense era used for the coffee-maker being hot, rather than a passato prossimo like è stata calda?

In Italian, the imperfect (era) describes a background situation or ongoing state in the past, without focusing on its beginning or end. Saying la caffettiera era già calda paints the hotness as the setting for your arrival. By contrast, the passato prossimo (è stata calda) would present the coffee-maker becoming hot as a completed event, which doesn’t fit here because we want to express “it was already hot” at the moment you arrived.

Why is sei arrivato (passato prossimo) used for “you arrived,” and not the imperfect arrivavi or the passato remoto arrivasti?

Sei arrivato (passato prossimo) marks a specific, completed action in the past—your actual arrival. The imperfect (arrivavi) would suggest a repeated or continuous arriving, which makes no sense, and the passato remoto (arrivasti) is typically reserved for literary or very formal narratives in many regions. In everyday speech, the passato prossimo is the normal choice for “you arrived.”

Why is già placed between the verb and adjective (era già calda)? Could it go somewhere else?

In Italian, già (already) usually sits just before the main lexical element (here the adjective calda) or between auxiliary and participle in compound tenses (ha già mangiato). You could technically say già era calda to put emphasis on already, but era già calda is the most neutral, natural word order.

Why does caffettiera take the definite article la? In English we sometimes drop “the.”

Italian almost always uses definite articles before singular, countable nouns unless you’re listing professions, talking directly with a name, or in a few set expressions. So you say la caffettiera (“the coffee-maker”) where English might say simply “coffee maker.” Omitting la in Italian would sound ungrammatical.

Why is the adjective calda feminine? How do I know to make it calda and not caldo?

Italian adjectives agree in gender and number with the nouns they modify. Caffettiera ends in -a, marking it as feminine singular, so the adjective must be calda (feminine singular) rather than caldo (masculine singular).

Could I use the trapassato prossimo (era già stata calda) to say “it had already been hot” before you arrived?

You could, but it changes the nuance. The trapassato (era già stata calda) emphasizes that the coffee-maker became hot and then cooled down before your arrival. In our original sentence, the hotness is still in effect at the moment you arrive, so the simple imperfect era già calda is correct.

What happens if I flip the clauses? Can I say Quando sei arrivato, la caffettiera era già calda?

Absolutely. Italian allows both orders:

• La caffettiera era già calda quando sei arrivato.
• Quando sei arrivato, la caffettiera era già calda.
  Both mean the same thing; you’re just choosing which idea to present first.

Why is arrivato used with essere (sei arrivato) instead of avere?

In Italian, most intransitive verbs of motion (like arrivare, entrare, uscire) form their compound tenses with essere, not avere. That’s why you say sei arrivato. Also, when you use essere, the past participle (arrivato) agrees in gender and number with the subject.