Italian Grammar: L'imperfetto vs. Passato Prossimo

[@ufuklar3533]

Professor, thanks to this lesson, I now know how to differentiate between them, not only in Italian, but in French and Spanish too! You're an angel!!!!

[@vickiantonakaki6976]

Grazie mille, Professore Dave. Le tue spiegazioni sono chiare e utili!

[@mainhi6729]

Your explanation was very well made it clear grazie mille professor

[@sethus458]

way to go professor keep up this world shall know pain and start to recognize you

[@JamesKing-bu6md]

VERY HELPFUL, grazie.

[@cfazio]

At 6:50 it should read: ...it never used to rain in July.

[@HumourSyndicate]

Ciao Can you please explain why... Giovanni voleva andare in Spagna, ma sua moglie ha voluto comprare una macchina nuova... Why is the first 'wanted' imperfetto and the other passato? Surely him wanting to go to Spain and her wanting a new car are both ongoing actions in the past and therefore the same tense? There's no fixed point when the wife has started to a want to buy a car. I mean, obviously I'm wrong here but I'd like to know why.

[@janeyre82]

Hi! Here the difference is given by the final result of the situation described. Both actions where ongoing in the past, but while the former just remained an unrealized wish, the latter eventually got to be accomplished: they now do have the new car because she wanted so. This subtle distinction can be properly highlited by using two verb tenses characterized by two different verb aspects: an "imperfective" tense (imperfetto) for the unaccomplished action and a "perfective" tense (passato prossimo) for the accomplished one. The first action could also be expressed by the past conditional. In that case, you'd have the following sentence: --> Giovanni SAREBBE VOLUTO andare in Spagna, ma sua moglie HA VOLUTO comprare una macchina nuova. But it wasn't the topic of this video 🙂

[@HumourSyndicate]

@@janeyre82 Thank you for the explanationx

[@mdparvej6870]

Thank you very much sir

[@stanrickseah1562]

Dear Prof Dave, I would like to ask, at 8:15 min. Qn 2, if i am asking a girl, can it be: Tu, dove sei andata in vacanza l'anno scorso? So the answer can be sei andato if I am asking a guy. For your clarification please. Thank you very much.

[@mohibullah3598]

Hi there , the translation of "pioveva a catinelle " looks like not right. In English could be "it rained heavily" In German " es hat stark geregnet "

[@aumkhanittha1040]

Thanks.i understand much better

[@amelchoudary2599]

thank you professore

[@lauratabor7545]

Grazie, at 2:55 you say "less vague" when you mean more vague".

[@ProfessorDaveExplains]

Left vague.

[@dontsplatmatt]

I'm having trouble understanding the difference between imperfect tense and imperfect tense with a gerund. For example, why is it not correct or necessary to say "Stavo dormendo quando tu mi hai telefonato."

[@giovannidifabrizio4360]

that's correct

[@PITU-f7f]

then it covers used to ????

[@hildasotelo8028]

Grazie mille. PearlandTexasUSA

[@ghayasulrehman1025]

JESUS THANK YOU!!!

[@ufuklar3533]

Grazie grazie graaaaziieee!

[@DBGabriele]

I found a small issue in this video: 7:00 "ieri è piovuto" instead of "ieri HA piovuto". Comunque, per il resto, complimenti! Si capisce che sei un persona che ha studiato per lungo tempo la nostra lingua.

[@giorgioagosto6512]

Actually it's correct é piovuto...

[@johnk3427]

@@giorgioagosto6512 - aus. essere, oppure avere quando si vuole indicare più lunga durata

[@petermercadante630]

Despite the comments here the Italian Academy clearly states that when talking about the weather BOTH forms are now correct so "ha piovuto" or "è piovuto" are interchangeable. If used in a figurative sense then essere should be used.

[@skrivbordslampan6923]

What a about imperfect?

[@ProfessorDaveExplains]

check my italian playlist it's got all the stuff you need!

[@karl139]

Come ci sono finito in questo video-

[@sonyam8]

Professor Dave does Italian?!?!

[@PhthonosTheon]

Ma sei di origini italiane? Hai un'ottima pronuncia.

[@ProfessorDaveExplains]

i miei genitori sono di Pisa! ma io sono americano.

[@udayalakshminaredla1003]

No words for u Dave but I didn't understand which language is this🤔

[@ProfessorDaveExplains]

Did you read the title of this clip?

[@udayalakshminaredla1003]

Thanks for your reply Dave😍

[@rrkraj]

1st view