Breakdown of Ieri hai comprato un criceto, ma prima avevi un gatto?
un
a / an (masculine)
il gatto
the cat
ma
but
avere
to have
comprare
to buy
ieri
yesterday
prima
before, earlier
il criceto
the hamster
Questions & Answers about Ieri hai comprato un criceto, ma prima avevi un gatto?
Why do we use "avevi" here instead of the passato prossimo "hai avuto"?
avevi is the imperfetto (imperfect tense) of avere. We use the imperfetto to describe a continuous, ongoing state in the past, like owning a pet. This contrasts with hai comprato (you bought), which uses the passato prossimo because buying the hamster was a single, completed event yesterday.
How do I know who the subject of "avevi" is?
The ending -vi tells us the subject is tu (you). The full conjugation for "you used to have" is tu avevi. Just like with hai comprato, we can drop the subject pronoun because the verb ending makes it perfectly clear who we are talking about.
Does "prima" trigger the use of the imperfetto here?
Yes! prima (before/earlier) often sets the stage for how things used to be. When describing a past ongoing situation in the "before" times, Italian naturally reaches for the imperfetto like avevi.
Why is it "un gatto" and "un criceto" instead of "uno"?
Both gatto (cat) and criceto (hamster) are masculine nouns that start with a single consonant (g and c). The indefinite article uno is only used for masculine words starting with s+consonant, z, gn, ps, or y. For all other masculine words, you just use un.
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