Learn Italian: Mentre guardavamo tutte le scimmie, sono arrivati tutti gli elefanti. - While we were watching all the monkeys, all the elephants arrived.

Mentre guardavamo tutte le scimmie, sono arrivati tutti gli elefanti.

While we were watching all the monkeys, all the elephants arrived.

Breakdown of Mentre guardavamo tutte le scimmie, sono arrivati tutti gli elefanti.

essere

to be

guardare

to look at / to watch

Questions & Answers about Mentre guardavamo tutte le scimmie, sono arrivati tutti gli elefanti.

Why do we use tutte le scimmie and tutti gli elefanti instead of just tutte scimmie and tutti elefanti?

In Italian, you must always put the definite article (like le or gli) between the word for all (tutte or tutti) and the noun it describes. Even if English would just say all monkeys, Italian requires you to say all the monkeys.

How do I know whether to use tutte or tutti?

The word for all has to match the gender and number of the noun it describes. Scimmie (monkeys) is feminine plural, so it uses tutte (with the article le). Elefanti (elephants) is masculine plural, so it uses tutti (with the article gli).

Why does this sentence use guardavamo first, and then sono arrivati?

This sentence shows the difference between two past tenses. We use the imperfect tense (guardavamo, we were watching) to describe the continuous background action. We use the passato prossimo (sono arrivati, arrived) for the sudden, completed event that interrupted or happened during that time.

Why is the verb sono arrivati placed before the subject tutti gli elefanti?