Learn Italian: Da bambino, avevo quella bicicletta rossa.

Da bambino, avevo quella bicicletta rossa.

As a child, I had that red bicycle.

Breakdown of Da bambino, avevo quella bicicletta rossa.

Questions & Answers about Da bambino, avevo quella bicicletta rossa.

Why do we use the imperfetto (avevo) here instead of the passato prossimo (ho avuto)?

In Italian, the imperfect tense is used to describe ongoing states, habits, or conditions in the past. Since having the bicycle was a continuous state during your childhood rather than a single, completed action, you use avevo instead of ho avuto.

Why do we use the preposition da in Da bambino to mean as a child?

The preposition da is used with stages of life or professions to mean as a or in the role of. So da bambino implies from the time of being a child, but translates smoothly to as a child. Notice that we don't use the article un (a) here.

If a woman is speaking, does the sentence change?

Yes, but just the first part! A woman would say Da bambina to match her gender. The rest of the sentence remains exactly the same because quella and rossa must agree with the feminine word bicicletta, not with the person speaking.

Why is it quella and not just quel?

Demonstrative adjectives like quello (that) must agree in gender and number with the noun they point to. Because bicicletta is feminine singular, we use quella. If it were a masculine singular word like libro, you would use quel (quel libro).

Wait, don't adjectives usually come after the noun? Why isn't it bicicletta rossa quella?

You are right that descriptive adjectives (like rossa) usually come after the noun! However, demonstrative adjectives like quello/quella (that) and questo/questa (this) always come before the noun they modify, just like in English. So we get quella bicicletta rossa.