Word
Gli eroi facevano un lungo viaggio al castello antico.
Meaning
The heroes made a long journey to the ancient castle.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Gli eroi facevano un lungo viaggio al castello antico.
un
a / an (masculine)
gli
the
il castello
the castle
il viaggio
the trip
Questions & Answers about Gli eroi facevano un lungo viaggio al castello antico.
Why is the verb facevano instead of something regular like "favano"?
Facevano is the imperfetto (imperfect) tense of fare (to do/make). Fare is irregular in this tense because it is built on its old Latin root, fac-. You use the stem face- and add the regular ending -vano, giving us facevano (they were making / they made).
Why use the imperfetto (facevano) here instead of the passato prossimo (hanno fatto)?
The imperfetto is often used for storytelling or setting a scene. It gives the feeling of an ongoing past action, similar to 'were making a long journey'. If this were a single, specific completed event with a clear end, you would use the passato prossimo (hanno fatto).
Why is the article Gli used for eroi?
Why is lungo placed before the noun, but antico is placed after?