Learn about how to use the imperfect tense to describe past repetitive or habitual activities
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Marco: Marco here. Newbie Series, season 1, lesson #32 - I Used to Do This in Italy. Is that true? |
| Cinzia: Yes, of course. |
| Marco: Okay come on, let’s go on with the lessons first. |
| Cinzia: Okay. What are we studying today then? |
| Marco: Today we are going to be studying about how to cook lasagna, ah no! |
| Cinzia: Really! |
| Marco: I mean we are going to be continuing our look at imperfetto. |
| Cinzia: Okay. So I think today we should see in particular the first conjugation verbs. |
| Marco: Exactly. Sorry guys, sorry girls. No Lasagna this time, only the dialogue. |
| Cinzia: Please let us know if you want to start studying, I don’t know, some lessons on recipes? |
| Marco: Yes Italian cooking. |
| Cinzia: Ricette. |
| Marco: In today’s dialogue, Cinzia will be both Martina and Laura. |
| Cinzia: Oh yes, today is my turn. |
| Marco: So here we go. |
| Cinzia: Okay. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Martina: Quando ero piccola mia nonna cucinava le lasagne ogni domenica. |
| Laura: Buone le lasagne della nonna! |
| Martina: Si, facevo sempre il bis! |
| Laura: Andavi dalla nonna apposta per mangiare! |
| Martina: Certo! Tu non lo facevi? |
| Laura: Sì, sì, anche io. |
| Marco: Let’s hear it slowly now. |
| Martina: Quando ero piccola mia nonna cucinava le lasagne ogni domenica. |
| Laura: Buone le lasagne della nonna! |
| Martina: Si, facevo sempre il bis! |
| Laura: Andavi dalla nonna apposta per mangiare! |
| Martina: Certo! Tu non lo facevi? |
| Laura: Sì, sì, anche io. |
| Marco: And now, with the translation. |
| Martina: Quando ero piccola mia nonna cucinava le lasagne ogni domenica. |
| Marco: When I was little, my grandmother used to cook lasagna every Sunday. |
| Laura: Buone le lasagne della nonna! |
| Marco: Grandmother's lasagna is so good! |
| Martina: Si, facevo sempre il bis! |
| Marco: Yes, I always used to take a second serving. |
| Laura: Andavi dalla nonna apposta per mangiare! |
| Marco: You went to your grandmother's on purpose to eat! |
| Martina: Certo! Tu non lo facevi? |
| Marco: Sure! Didn't you use to? |
| Laura: Sì, sì, anche io. |
| Marco: Yes, yes, me too. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Cinzia: Ahh, le lasagna della nonna, buone! |
| Marco: They are so good, aren’t they? |
| Cinzia: Yes so tasty and so rich of everything. |
| Marco: Yes I mean of sauce, of.. |
| Cinzia: Sausage, meat… |
| Marco: Sausage, you did Lasagna with sausages? |
| Cinzia: Also yeah. |
| Marco: Oh sausage meat for…Ah nice! |
| Cinzia: Yes spicy sausages. |
| Marco: Good. |
| Cinzia: Very little pieces of spicy sausages, meat. |
| Marco: And let’s stop here before everybody gets hungry. |
| Cinzia: But I was saying mozzarella. |
| Marco: Also mozzarella? |
| Cinzia: Yes, and eggs. |
| Marco: Well certainly. I am sure also your grandmother used to also make the pasta of the Lasagna by herself? |
| Cinzia: Well of course. Would you like a piatto of Lasagna, or would you like to take a look at today’s vocabulary? |
| Marco: I would choose un piatto di lasagne, “a serving of Lasagna”, but I guess we have to stick with the vocabulary. |
| Cinzia: Oh... okay. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Marco: Today’s first word is |
| Cinzia: piccolo [natural native speed] |
| Marco: small, young, little |
| Cinzia: piccolo [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: piccolo [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: buono [natural native speed] |
| Marco: good, tasty |
| Cinzia: buono [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: buono [natural native speed] |
| Marco: Next, we have an expression |
| Cinzia: fare il bis [natural native speed] |
| Marco: This is very, very useful. When somebody asks you voi fare bis? “Do you want a second serving?” |
| Cinzia: Yes I do. |
| Marco: Especially of… |
| Cinzia: Lasagna. |
| Marco: Well, a grandmother’s cooking, I think a bit of everything. |
| Cinzia: Yes, io faccio sempre bis, actually. |
| Marco: I always have a second serving. |
| Cinzia: So, fare il bis [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: fare il bis [natural native speed] |
| Marco: And now, we have another expression |
| Cinzia: apposta per [natural native speed] |
| Marco: expressly for, on purpose to |
| Cinzia: apposta per [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: apposta per [natural native speed] |
| Marco: And the next word is |
| Cinzia: fare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to do, to make, to build |
| Cinzia: fare [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Cinzia: fare [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Cinzia: And now let’s have a look at the usage for some of the words and expressions. The first word we will look at is piccolo. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is, |
| Cinzia: Da piccolo mangiavo molto. |
| Marco: When I was little, I used to eat a lot. |
| Cinzia: Did you? |
| Marco: No, eating wasn’t fun. |
| Cinzia: Yeah. |
| Marco: Playing was fun. |
| Cinzia: Now it’s fun. |
| Marco: Now it’s fun going out with friends, eating. |
| Cinzia: Yes. |
| Marco: That’s fun. |
| Cinzia: The second word we will look at is buono. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is |
| Cinzia: Il risotto è molto buono. |
| Marco: Risotto is very good. |
| Cinzia: So today we are talking about food together with the imperfetto. |
| Marco: Yes. What’s bad with that? Is it a bad… |
| Cinzia: We’ve been talking about Lasagna, risotto, and… |
| Marco: Well I think we could continue forever talking about Italian food. |
| Cinzia: Yes and next, we have an expression fare il bis. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is, |
| Cinzia: Buoni questi spaghetti, facciamo il bis? |
| Marco: These Spaghetti are very good, shall we have a second serving? |
| Cinzia: See, this time we have Spaghetti. |
| Marco: Yes. |
| Cinzia: Spaghetti with what? |
| Marco: Spaghetti al ragù. |
| Cinzia: Buoni! |
| Marco: But in English ragù would be bolognese sauce because in Italian, it would actually be ragù alla bolognese. We have many types of ragù. |
| Cinzia: Yes but Neapolitan ragù is only one. |
| Marco: Yes and next word is? |
| Cinzia: An expression. |
| Marco: Okay sorry. Next expression is, |
| Cinzia: apposta per |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is, |
| Cinzia: Sono venuta apposta per il concerto. |
| Marco: I came expressly for the concert. |
| Cinzia: Next, we have a verb which is fare |
| Marco: And the last sample sentence is, |
| Cinzia: Cosa facevi quando eri in Italia? |
| Marco: What did you used to do when you were in Italy. |
| Cinzia: And now let’s take a look at today’s grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Marco: As we said in the opening of today’s lesson, in today’s grammar, we are going to be taking a look at the imperfetto of the verbs, of the first conjugation. Those are the verbs that end in -are in their infinitive form. |
| Cinzia: But Marco, you forgot to say something very, very important. |
| Marco: Lasagna are finished? |
| Cinzia: No, the value regarding the imperfetto of today’s dialogue. |
| Marco: Oh yes because in today’s dialogue as everybody has clearly understood, we have used a different value. |
| Cinzia: Yes. It was to describe a repetition, a recurrence of an action. So we were talking about past habits. |
| Marco: Oh yes and how do we translate usually past habits in English? |
| Cinzia: With the auxiliary verb “used to”. |
| Marco: Followed by the thing you used to do. |
| Cinzia: Yes exactly. So shall we take a look at the conjugation’s verbs? |
| Marco: Certainly, certainly. Today’s first verb is? |
| Cinzia: And I had no doubt about that… cucinare |
| Marco: "to cook". |
| Cinzia: Io cucin-avo |
| Marco: "I cooked" |
| Cinzia: Tu cucin-avi |
| Marco: "You cooked" |
| Cinzia: Lui/lei cucin-ava |
| Marco: "He/she/it cooked" |
| Cinzia: Noi cucin-avamo |
| Marco: "We cooked" |
| Cinzia: Voi cucin-avate |
| Marco: "You cooked" |
| Cinzia: Loro cucin-avano |
| Marco: "They cooked" |
| Cinzia: As you can see, the imperfetto of the first conjugation verbs is very straightforward. In fact by dropping the stem for the infinitive and adding the following endings to the verb’s root. |
| Marco: And the following endings are? |
| Cinzia: -avo, -avi, , -ava, -avamo, -avate, -avano. |
| Marco: That’s all? |
| Cinzia: Yes it’s very easy. I told you. Shall we take a look at another verb? |
| Marco: Yes let’s take a look at the verb andare |
| Cinzia: "to go". |
| Cinzia: Io and-avo |
| Marco: "I went" |
| Cinzia: Tu and-avi |
| Marco: "You went" |
| Cinzia: Lui/lei and-ava |
| Marco: "He/she/it went" |
| Cinzia: Noi and-avamo |
| Marco: "We went" |
| Cinzia: Voi and-avate |
| Marco: "You went" |
| Cinzia: Loro and-avano |
| Marco: "They went" |
| Cinzia: And now as mentioned in the previous lesson, we should take a look at an irregular verb which is fare. |
| Marco: “To do, to make”. And as everybody has clearly seen, fare ends in -are, that is, |
| Cinzia: First conjugation. |
| Marco: Exactly but it’s a bit irregular, isn’t it? |
| Cinzia: Yes. It’s irregular actually even in the present. |
| Marco: And why is it irregular also in the imperfetto tense? |
| Cinzia: Because the root comes from the Latin infinitive form of the verb facěre. |
| Marco: So let’s take a look at this conjugation. |
| Cinzia:Io fac-evo |
| Marco: "I did"/"I made" |
| Cinzia:Tu fac-evi |
| Marco: "You did"/"You made" |
| Cinzia:Lui/lei fac-eva |
| Marco: "He/she/it did"/"He/she/it made" |
| Cinzia:Noi fac-evamo |
| Marco: "We did"/"We made" |
| Cinzia:Voi fac-evate |
| Marco: "You did"/"You made" |
| Cinzia:Loro fac-evano |
| Marco: "They did"/"They made" |
| Cinzia: Please just note that in this case, the verb's root is followed by the vowel -e instead of -a. |
Outro |
| Marco: That’s simple |
| Cinzia: Yes, and that’s all for today’s lesson |
| Marco: Off to go to eat lasagna! Oh, I mean, bye bye everybody. |
| Cinzia: Ciao! Grazie a tutti |
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