Learn Italian: Il re beveva il vino e l'eroe beveva l'acqua. - The king drank the wine and the hero drank the water.

Bere is irregular, but its imperfetto (past continuous) forms are actually built from its old Latin root, bevere. To conjugate it, you just take the stem bev- and add the regular endings for -ere verbs: bevevo, bevevi, beveva, bevevamo, bevevate, bevevano.

Why use the imperfetto tense (beveva) here instead of the passato prossimo (ha bevuto)?

The imperfetto is used to describe ongoing or habitual actions in the past, often setting the scene in a story. Here, it translates more closely to 'was drinking' or 'used to drink'. If the king drank the wine in one single, completed event, you would use ha bevuto.

Why do both eroe and acqua use the same article (l')?

They actually have different genders, but both start with a vowel. Eroe (hero) is masculine, so its article is lo. Acqua (water) is feminine, so its article is la. In Italian, both lo and la drop their vowel and become l' when the next word starts with a vowel.

Could I leave out the articles and just say 'beveva vino e beveva acqua'?