Breakdown of Mentre seguivamo questo sentiero, ho visto un grande lampo.
un
a / an (masculine)
grande
big
questo
this (masculine)
vedere
to see
seguire
to follow
mentre
while
il lampo
lightning / flash of lightning
il sentiero
path
Questions & Answers about Mentre seguivamo questo sentiero, ho visto un grande lampo.
Why does this sentence mix the imperfetto (seguivamo) and the passato prossimo (ho visto)?
This is the classic way to talk about an interrupting event in Italian! The imperfetto (seguivamo) sets the background scene, which is an ongoing action in the past ('we were following'). The passato prossimo (ho visto) is the sudden, completed action ('I saw') that happened during that background event.
Why is mentre used here instead of quando?
Mentre means 'while' and specifically introduces an ongoing background action. It almost always pairs with the imperfetto tense. Quando means 'when' and usually introduces a sudden event. You could flip the structure of this sentence and use quando instead: Seguivamo questo sentiero, quando ho visto un grande lampo. (We were following this path, when I saw a big flash of lightning).
Why does grande come before the noun lampo?
Why isn't questo shortened with an apostrophe here?
The word questo (this) only drops its final letter and takes an apostrophe if the following word starts with a vowel, like in quest'anno (this year) or quest'amico (this friend). Because sentiero starts with a consonant, questo keeps its final 'o'.
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