The Past Progressive
To describe an action that was actively in progress at a specific moment in the past—like telling the police exactly what you were doing at 8 PM last night—use the past progressive.
Stare + Gerund
Just like the present progressive, this tense requires the helper verb stare combined with a gerund (verbs ending in -ando or -endo). To place the action in the past, simply conjugate stare in the imperfetto.
| Pronoun | stare (imperfetto) |
|---|---|
| io | stavo |
| tu | stavi |
| lui/lei/Lei | stava |
| noi | stavamo |
| voi | stavate |
| loro | stavano |
Remember that to form the gerund, drop the infinitive ending and add -ando for -are verbs, and -endo for -ere and -ire verbs. Let's see this in action during a police investigation.
| The inspector was investigating a crime. | L'ispettore stava indagando su un crimine. |
| The suspect was explaining his alibi. | Il sospettato stava spiegando il suo alibi. |
Actions in Progress
Whether a suspect was lying (mentendo) or hiding (nascondendo) the evidence, the past progressive emphasizes that the action was ongoing at that very moment.
| But he was lying, the alibi is not true. | Ma stava mentendo, l'alibi non è vero. |
| The guilty man was hiding the jewel. | L'uomo colpevole stava nascondendo il gioiello. |
Defending Your Alibi
To form a negative statement, place non directly before the conjugated form of stare. You will often see the past progressive used alongside the regular imperfetto to set the scene, tell a story, or defend an alibi!
| I am innocent, I was not stealing the jewel! | Sono innocente, non stavo rubando il gioiello! |
| I was telling the truth, I was not arresting an innocent person! | Dicevo la verità, non stavo arrestando un innocente! |