When talking about unreal past events—things that didn't happen, like "If I had known, I wouldn't have come"—formal Italian requires a tricky combination of the pluperfect subjunctive and the past conditional (Se lo avessi saputo, non sarei venuto).
But in everyday spoken Italian, there is a massive shortcut: you just use the imperfect indicative for both halves of the sentence!
The Spoken Hypothetical Imperfect
This informal usage is called the imperfetto ipotetico. Simply use the imperfect tense after se (if), and the imperfect tense again for the result. It is incredibly common in spoken Italian, especially when complaining about how poorly things turned out.
| If I had known, I wouldn't have come to the convention. | Se lo sapevo, non venivo alla fiera. |
| If I had known that it was unlivable, I wouldn't have stayed. | Se sapevo che era invivibile, non restavo. |
Complaining at the Comic Convention
Comic conventions (le fiere del fumetto) can be crowded and poorly organized. You can use the hypothetical imperfect to talk about how things could have been different.
Notice in these examples how the imperfect tense effortlessly replaces both the "had [done]" and "would have [done]" from the English translations.
| If I had brought the costume, I would have dressed up too. | Se portavo il costume, mi travestivo anche io. |
| If the staff had been faster, the line for the autograph wouldn't have been unmanageable. | Se lo staff era più veloce, la fila per l'autografo non era ingestibile. |
| If they had opened the windows, the crush wouldn't have been so suffocating. | Se aprivano le finestre, la ressa non era così soffocante. |
The Standard Imperfect
Of course, while you are complaining about the convention, you will still use the imperfect for its normal jobs: describing ongoing past situations and framing past intentions.
| I wanted an autograph, but the staff guy wasn't listening to me. | Volevo un autografo, ma il ragazzo dello staff non mi ascoltava. |