The Imperfect Tense of "Essere"
To describe what things were like in the past—such as what kind of child you were, how life was, or background details—Italian uses a past tense called the imperfetto (imperfect).
Here is how to conjugate the irregular verb essere (to be) in the imperfetto:
| Pronoun | Essere (Imperfect) |
|---|---|
| io | ero |
| tu | eri |
| lui/lei | era |
| noi | eravamo |
| voi | eravate |
| loro | erano |
| I was a shy, but curious child. | Ero un bambino timido, ma curioso. |
| Life was simpler than now. | La vita era più semplice di adesso. |
| We were very lively children and full of energy. | Eravamo bambini molto vivaci e pieni di energia. |
Saying "As a..."
When talking about your past, you will often want to say "as a child" or "as a teenager." In Italian, you express this simply by using the preposition da followed by the noun.
| as a (child/teenager), when one was | da |
| As teenagers we were always in the courtyard. | Da adolescenti eravamo sempre in cortile. |
There Was, There Were (C'era and C'erano)
In the present tense, you use c'è (there is) and ci sono (there are) to describe existence. To say "there was" or "there were" in the past, you simply use the imperfetto forms of essere.
Use c'era (there was) for singular nouns or uncountable concepts.
| Everything was different, there was nothing here. | Tutto era diverso, qui non c'era niente. |
| Was there someone in the house last night? | C'era qualcuno in casa ieri sera? |
Use c'erano (there were) when talking about multiple things or people.
| There were my old toys on the floor. | C'erano i miei vecchi giocattoli sul pavimento. |
| Before, there were different people in this office. | Prima c'erano persone diverse in questo ufficio. |