Breakdown of Quando ha smesso di piovere, abbiamo visto un arcobaleno.
un
a / an (masculine)
di
of, from
quando
when
vedere
to see
Questions & Answers about Quando ha smesso di piovere, abbiamo visto un arcobaleno.
Why do we use the passato prossimo (ha smesso and abbiamo visto) instead of the imperfetto?
We use the passato prossimo because these are completed events that happened one after the other. Quando (when) often introduces a specific, finished action. If we wanted to describe an ongoing background action, we would use mentre (while) with the imperfetto, like mentre pioveva (while it was raining).
Why is there a di between ha smesso and piovere?
The verb smettere (to stop) requires the preposition di when it is followed by another verb. In Italian, to stop doing something is always smettere di followed by the infinitive.
The English translation says stopped raining. Why do we use the infinitive (piovere) instead of the gerund (piovendo)?
In Italian, whenever a verb comes directly after a preposition like di, it must be in the infinitive form. The gerund piovendo is mostly used with the verb stare to mean it is currently raining.
Why is the past participle of vedere (to see) visto? Shouldn't it end in -uto?
Vedere is one of the most common verbs with an irregular past participle. Instead of following the regular -ere rule to become veduto (which exists but is rarely used in modern Italian), it becomes visto.