Italian Grammar - Imperfetto - Italian verb tenses in the past

[@jeanetteturnbull6270]

Thank you so much for this great lesson!

[@italianlanguagehub]

Prego! ☺️ happy to help! Ciao!

[@RoseMary-xp4yx]

I love your video on passato prossimo, and i need more

[@italianlanguagehub]

Happy to read you liked it! New videos are out every week! 🤩 and lots are already on my channel ☺️

[@shercules]

One quick question, could you please explain what the rule is for using "stare" in the imperfetto followed by the gerundio when speaking in the past tense vs using just the imperfetto? ex. "Stavo camminando quando ha cominciato a piovere" instead of just "camminavo". I must be missing something, grazie tanto.

[@italianlanguagehub]

Ciao! This is an excellent question! In this case you can use the imperfetto or the gerundio interchangeably. In this case you have what is called an “imperfetto progressivo” (this is when you have an action with an unknown beginning and ending and you have another event that is overlapping this action as a single event itself ). This situation allows for both tenses to be accepted : in quel momento Paolo dormiva… // in quel momento Paolo stava dormendo…let me know if this helps! Ciao!

[@shercules]

Assolutamente mi aiuta molto, mi confondeva (or mi stavo confondendo ha ha). Grazie mille. Love your videos.

[@italianlanguagehub]

Thanks for the comment! Happy to help! 🥰

[@hikerinpam33]

Would it be correct to say... Ieri era molto caldo instead of faceva?

[@italianlanguagehub]

Ciao! You could say “era una giornata calda” but if you use an adjective right after you would say “faceva caldo” (I have prepared a video on this that will be out August 18th) 😊

[@hikerinpam33]

@@italianlanguagehub great.. Another question.. Since you grew up in the States you have a typical accent close to mine living in the suburbs of Philadelphia,but yet different from a NY or Boston accent and very different from a southern accent. About 90 percent of what you hear on tv is in our accent. With your Italian accent that I am trying to copy will i be understood in say Naples or southern Italy? Is there a noticeable difference between the regions?

[@italianlanguagehub]

@@hikerinpam33 Ciao! Sorry for the late reply! I have a standard Italian accent typical of the north but understandable everywhere in Italy! Each region has different accents but if you understand and speak like me you are good to go! What is quite tricky in Italy is when you encounter the dialects! Especially in Naples and in Sicily (southern Italy in general). Sometimes I myself have a hard time understanding the locals!