Breakdown of Ho giocato per tutta la mia infanzia.
mio
my
per
for / in order to / because of
tutto
all the / whole
giocare
to play
Questions & Answers about Ho giocato per tutta la mia infanzia.
Why use per here instead of da?
Why use ho giocato (passato prossimo) instead of giocavo (imperfetto) for something done in childhood?
Normally, to say "I used to play" or "I played" as a habit in childhood, you would use the imperfect tense (giocavo). However, because we explicitly added per tutta la mia infanzia, we are framing the entire childhood as one single, measured block of completed time. For a closed, completed duration with per, Italian prefers the passato prossimo.
Why is it tutta instead of tutto?
Why do we need the word la before mia infanzia? In English, we just say "my childhood."