Word
La strega beveva l'acqua magica nel bosco.
Meaning
The witch drank the magical water in the woods.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of La strega beveva l'acqua magica nel bosco.
l'acqua
the water
nel
in the (in + il) / while / upon (doing something)
bere
to drink
magico
magical
Questions & Answers about La strega beveva l'acqua magica nel bosco.
Why does the verb bere (to drink) become beveva instead of "bereva"?
Bere is an irregular verb. In the imperfetto (imperfect tense), it is based on its old Latin root, bev-. Once you have that special root, you just add the regular verb endings. Since la strega is a "she" (third-person singular), we add -eva to get beveva.
How do I know whether to use beveva or the passato prossimo ha bevuto?
You use the imperfetto (beveva) to describe an ongoing action in the past or to set the scene in a story. Here, it translates perfectly to "was drinking" or "used to drink". If the witch drank the water once as a sudden, completed event, you would use the passato prossimo ha bevuto.
Why is it nel bosco instead of just in bosco?
In Italian, you usually need the definite article (the) with specific places like the woods. When you combine the preposition in with the masculine article il (for il bosco), they merge into the combined word nel.
If the witch drank plural "magical waters", how would l'acqua magica change?