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Registravo le canzoni dalla radio.

Registravo le canzoni dalla radio.
I used to record the songs from the radio.
From Lesson 105:The imperfect tense of regular verbs (-avo, -evo, -ivo)·Italian

Questions & Answers about Registravo le canzoni dalla radio.

Why does the translation say 'I used to record' and use registravo?
The verb registravo is in the imperfetto (imperfect) tense. We use this tense for ongoing actions or repeated habits in the past. Translating it as 'I used to record' perfectly captures that this was a regular habit, rather than a one-time event. The ending -avo tells us it is the 'I' form for a regular -are verb, coming from registrare (to record).
I thought words ending in -i were masculine plural. Why does canzoni use the feminine plural article le?
Canzone (song) is a feminine word that ends in -e in its singular form (la canzone). In Italian, nouns that end in -e always change their ending to -i in the plural, whether they are masculine or feminine. Therefore, la canzone becomes le canzoni.
What words are combined to make dalla?
Dalla is a combination of the preposition da (from) and the definite article la (the). Because radio is feminine singular, we use la, and merging them gives us dalla (from the).
Wait, if radio ends in -o, shouldn't it be a masculine noun?
Radio is a common exception to the usual gender rules! It is a feminine noun, which is why we say la radio. It is actually an abbreviation of the longer word radiofonia, which helps explain why it kept a feminine gender despite ending in -o.

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