Learn Italian: Quando è iniziata la guerra, mio cugino abitava qui. - When the war started, my cousin lived here.

Quando è iniziata la guerra, mio cugino abitava qui.

When the war started, my cousin lived here.

Breakdown of Quando è iniziata la guerra, mio cugino abitava qui.

Questions & Answers about Quando è iniziata la guerra, mio cugino abitava qui.

Why do we use è iniziata (passato prossimo) for the war starting, but abitava (imperfetto) for the cousin living here?

This sentence is a perfect example of how the two past tenses work together! The imperfetto (abitava) sets the background scene: he was already in the process of living there. The passato prossimo (è iniziata) is the sudden, completed event that happened during that ongoing background state.

Could we translate abitava as "was living"?

Yes, absolutely! In English, we often just say "lived," but translating the imperfetto here as "was living" can actually help you remember why it is used: it describes an continuous, ongoing action in the past.

Why is it è iniziata instead of ha iniziato, and why does it end in -a?

The verb iniziare (to start) uses the helper verb essere when the subject is the thing starting (in this case, the war). Because it uses essere, the ending of the past participle has to match the feminine singular subject, la guerra, making it iniziata.

Why is it mio cugino and not il mio cugino?

In Italian, you must drop the definite article (il, la, etc.) before a possessive word when you are talking about a singular, close family member. So, it is just mio cugino. If it were plural, you would bring the article back: i miei cugini.