Breakdown of L'impero occupa molti paesi.
molto
a lot of / much
il paese
the country
l'impero
the empire (m)
occupare
to occupy (a place, a territory; cf. occupato = busy)
Questions & Answers about L'impero occupa molti paesi.
How do we change this sentence to the passato remoto to say the empire occupied many countries?
You change the present tense verb occupa to occupò. For regular -are verbs in the third person singular, you drop the infinitive ending and add an -ò with a written accent mark. The sentence becomes L'impero occupò molti paesi.
How does the pronunciation differ between occupa and occupò?
The stressed syllable shifts completely. In the present tense occupa, the stress naturally falls on the first syllable (OC-cu-pa). In the passato remoto occupò, the written accent on the final letter tells you to stress that last vowel (oc-cu-PO). This strong final stress is a trademark of the third-person singular in the passato remoto.
Does paesi mean countries or towns here? I have seen it used for both.
Just as a quick refresher, why does impero take L' instead of Il?