Chinese (Mandarin)

Spanish

English

Hindi

Arabic (Modern Standard)

Portuguese

Bengali

Russian

Japanese

Punjabi

German

Javanese

Malay

Telugu

Vietnamese

Korean

French

Marathi

Tamil

Urdu

Turkish

Italian

Chinese, Yue / Cantonese

Thai

Gujarati

Chinese, Jin

Chinese, Min Nan

Dari

Farsi

Polish

Pashto

Kannada

Chinese, Xiang

Malayalam

Sundanese

Hausa

Odia

Burmese

Chinese, Hakka

Ukrainian

Bihari, Bhojpuri

Tagalog

Yoruba

Bihari, Maithili

Uzbek

Sindhi

Amharic

Fula

Romanian

Oromo

Igbo

Azerbaijani

Chinese, Gan

Dutch

Kurdish, Central

Kurdish, Northern

Kurdish, Southern

Malagasy

Lahnda, Saraiki

Nepali

Sinhalese

Chittagonian

Zhuang

Khmer

Turkmen

Assamese

Madurese

Somali

Marwari

Bihari, Magahi

Haryanvi

Hungarian

Chhattisgarhi

Greek

Chewa

Dakhini

Akan, Twi

Akan, Fante

Kazakh

Chinese, Min Bei

Sylheti

Zulu

Czech

Kinyarwanda

Marwari, Dhundhari

Haitian Creole

Chinese, Min Dong

Ilocano

Quechua

Kirundi

Swedish

Hmong

Shona

Uyghur

Hiligaynon

Mossi

Xhosa

Belarusian

Balochi

### 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 |

{{item:807954}}

{{item:807956}}

{{item:807963}}

### 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.

{{item:807965}}

{{item:807976}}

### 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.

{{item:807958}}

{{item:807970}}

Use **c'erano** (there were) when talking about multiple things or people.

{{item:807960}}

{{item:807971}}

The imperfect tense of to be (ero, c'era)

adjective

adjective/adverb

adverb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

preposition

pronoun

proper noun

sentence

verb

Subject pronouns and the verb to be (io sono)

Singular definite articles (il, la)

Singular demonstratives (questo, questa)

Basic verbal negation (non)

Yes/No questions

Coordinating conjunctions (e, ma, o)

Regular plurals and definite articles (-i, -e, i, le)

Plural verb to be (noi siamo, voi siete)

Plural demonstratives (questi, queste)

Nouns ending in -e

Special singular articles (lo, l')

The plural article (gli)

Special indefinite articles (uno, un')

Demonstrative adjectives (quello, quella)

Adjective endings (-o, -a, -i, -e)

Expressing quantity (molto, poco, tanto)

The verb to have (ho, hai, ha...)

There is / there are (c'è, ci sono)

The preposition of (di)

Singular possessives (il mio, la mia)

Numbers 1 to 10 (uno, due, tre...)

Numbers 11 to 20 (undici, dodici...)

Numbers 21 to 100 (trenta, quaranta...)

Idiomatic avere (avere fame, avere anni)

Plural possessive adjectives (i miei, le mie)

Possessives with family members (mio padre)

Formal address (dare del Lei)

Present tense of -are verbs (-o, -i, -a)

Question words (chi, cosa, dove)

Present tense of -ere verbs (-o, -i, -e)

Question words (quando, come, perché)

Question word agreement (quanto, quanta, quanti, quante)

Regular -ire verbs

Verbs with -isc- (capisco, capisci, capisce)

Pronouns after prepositions (me, te, lui)

The verb fare (faccio, fai, fa)

The verb andare (vado, vai, va)

The verb stare (sto, stai, sta)

The verb venire (vengo, vieni, viene)

The verb uscire (esco, esci, esce)

Location and destination (a, in)

Origin and movement (da)

Articulated prepositions with a (al, alla)

Articulated prepositions with in (nel, nella)

Articulated prepositions with di and da (del, dal)

Simple prepositions (con, per, su, tra)

Articulated prepositions with su (sul, sulla)

Months of the year

Telling time (sono le...)

Dates (il + number)

Ordinal numbers 1st to 10th (primo, secondo, terzo...)

The verb to want (volere)

The verb can (potere)

The verb must (dovere)

The verb to know (sapere)

Reflexive verbs (mi lavo, ti lavi)

Indirect object pronouns (gli, le, ci...)

Expressing preferences (mi piace)

Plural preferences (mi piacciono)

Comparatives (più... di, meno... di)

The passato prossimo with avere (ho parlato)

Irregular past participles (fatto, letto, preso)

The passato prossimo with essere (sono andato)

Reflexive verbs in the past (mi sono svegliato)

Time adverbs with the past tense (già, mai, ancora)

Third-person direct object pronouns (lo, la, li, le)

First and second-person direct object pronouns (mi, ti, ci, vi)

The four seasons

Prepositions of place (vicino a, davanti a)

Conversational words (beh, allora, davvero)

Indefinite adjectives for some (qualche, alcuni)

Indefinite adjectives for every and all (ogni, tutti)

Indefinite pronouns (qualcosa, qualcuno)

Noun suffixes (-ino, -one)

Adverbs of manner (-mente)

Comparisons of equality (così... come)

The relative superlative (il più)

The absolute superlative (-issimo)

Irregular comparatives (migliore, peggiore)

Present progressive (stare + -ando, -endo)

Imminent actions (stare per)

The locative pronoun (ci)

The partitive pronoun (ne)

Pronoun placement with modal verbs

Impersonal subjects (si)

Prepositions of time (da, per, tra, fra)

Past participle agreement with pronouns

Question	Answer
shy	timido
curious	curioso
I was a shy, but curious child.	Ero un bambino timido, ma curioso.
simple	semplice
Life was simpler than now.	La vita era più semplice di adesso.
different	diverso
Everything was different, there was nothing here.	Tutto era diverso, qui non c'era niente.
toy	il giocattolo
There were my old toys on the floor.	C'erano i miei vecchi giocattoli sul pavimento.
lively	vivace
energy	l'energia
We were very lively children and full of energy.	Eravamo bambini molto vivaci e pieni di energia.
blond	biondo
as a (child/teenager), when one was	da
teenager	l'adolescente
Were you blond as a teenager?	Eri biondo da adolescente?
courtyard	il cortile
My brothers were often in the courtyard.	I miei fratelli erano spesso in cortile.
Was there someone in the house last night?	C'era qualcuno in casa ieri sera?
Before, there were different people in this office.	Prima c'erano persone diverse in questo ufficio.
You all were less shy than us.	Eravate meno timidi di noi.
Our toys were very simple.	I nostri giocattoli erano molto semplici.
My friend was very lively and had a lot of energy.	La mia amica era molto vivace e aveva molta energia.
That blond little girl was very curious.	Quella bambina bionda era molto curiosa.
As teenagers we were always in the courtyard.	Da adolescenti eravamo sempre in cortile.