Breakdown of Collezionavate le figurine?
la
her/it (direct object)
collezionare
to collect
la figurina
the trading card
Questions & Answers about Collezionavate le figurine?
Why use the imperfect tense (collezionavate) here instead of the passato prossimo (avete collezionato)?
We use the imperfect tense because it describes a past habit or an ongoing hobby ("used to collect"). If you used the passato prossimo (avete collezionato), it would sound like you are asking about one specific, completed event rather than a general childhood hobby.
How do you build the voi form of the imperfect for an -are verb like this?
To form the imperfect for regular -are verbs, drop the -re from the infinitive (collezionare) and add the imperfect endings. For voi (you all), the ending is -vate. So, colleziona- + -vate gives us collezionavate. Seeing -va- inside a verb is your biggest clue that it is in the imperfect tense!
What exactly are figurine?
Why isn't there a voi at the beginning of the sentence?
Just like in the present tense, Italian usually drops the subject pronoun (voi) because the unique verb ending (-vate) already tells us exactly who was doing the action. Adding Voi wouldn't be grammatically wrong, but Italians only include it if they want to strongly emphasize "you all."
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