Breakdown of La strega faceva cose strane.
strano
strange
la cosa
the thing
fare
to do / to make
la strega
the witch
Questions & Answers about La strega faceva cose strane.
Why is the verb faceva instead of 'fava' or 'fareva'?
The verb fare (to do/make) is irregular in the imperfetto tense. Instead of using the normal stem, it uses the stem fac- which comes from its old Latin root. You then add the regular endings to this stem, giving us faceva for he/she/it. The full pattern goes facevo, facevi, faceva, facevamo, facevate, facevano.
Could I use the passato prossimo here and say ha fatto?
You would use ha fatto if she did strange things once as a single completed event. The imperfetto (faceva) is used here because it describes a habit or a continuous situation in the past. It translates best as 'she used to do' or 'she was doing' strange things.
Why does strane end with an -e?
Why is it cose strane rather than strane cose?
In Italian, most descriptive adjectives are placed immediately after the noun they describe. So instead of saying 'strange things', the structure is literally 'things strange'.