Learn about the different usages of imperfetto and passato prossimo tenses
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Marco: Buongiorno, mi chiamo Marco. Lower intermediate series, season 1, Lesson 8. Did You Just Answer The Phone in Italian? |
| Cinzia: Buongiorno a tutti. My name is Cinzia and I am joined here by Marco, come stai Marco? |
| Marco: Sto molto bene, grazie. Hello everyone and welcome to the 8th lesson of the Lower Intermediate series. |
| Cinzia: Here we take a broad approach to the language, emphasizing listening comprehension. |
| Marco: Speech, grammar |
| Cinzia: Vocabulary and usage. |
| Marco: So join us for this lesson of italianpod101.com |
| Cinzia: And before we jump in, don’t forget to check out the verb conjugation charts available in the learning center at italianpod101.com. What are we talking about today Marco? |
| Marco: Something about the differences and the usage of imperfetto and passato prossimo? |
| Cinzia: Oh okay. |
| Marco: Is that right? |
| Cinzia: Yes, yes imperfetto and passato prossimo are often used together in Italian. |
| Marco: But since this is a rather difficult topic, we are going to see today but also in other lessons as well. |
| Cinzia: Of course. |
| Marco: And please check the newbie series for the complete explanation of the conjugation. |
| Cinzia: Okay so let’s start. |
| Marco: I would be Manuel while Cinzia will be |
| Cinzia: Giulia. |
| Marco: And well, Manuel and Julia are both friends. So they will be talking in informal Italian. Here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Manuel: Ieri mentre eri a pranzo ti ha chiamato Marcella. |
| Giulia: Ah si? Ti ha detto perchè chiamava? |
| Manuel: Voleva solo farti un saluto. |
| Giulia: Grazie, ora la richiamo. |
| Marco: Let’s hear it slowly now. |
| Manuel: Ieri mentre eri a pranzo ti ha chiamato Marcella. |
| Giulia: Ah si? Ti ha detto perchè chiamava? |
| Manuel: Voleva solo farti un saluto. |
| Giulia: Grazie, ora la richiamo. |
| Marco: And now, with the translation. |
| Manuel: Ieri mentre eri a pranzo ti ha chiamato Marcella. |
| Manuel: Marcella called you yesterday while you were out to lunch. |
| Giulia: Ah si? Ti ha detto perchè chiamava? |
| Giulia: Really? Did she say what she was calling for? |
| Manuel: Voleva solo farti un saluto. |
| Manuel: She just wanted to say hi. |
| Giulia: Grazie, ora la richiamo. |
| Giulia: Thank you; I'll call her back right now. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Marco: Italians really like talking on the telephone. Don’t they? |
| Cinzia: Oh yes especially friends in spare time, they call each other. |
| Marco: Spare time. I have seen Italians calling each other during lessons. I mean school lessons, during work. |
| Cinzia: Really? |
| Marco: Any time is good. Just say hi, did you call me? Why were you looking for me? We are very curious and inquisitive I think. If a friend of yours calls you but you are not there to take the call. |
| Cinzia: I call him back. |
| Marco: As soon as possible, don’t you? |
| Cinzia: Of course because I want to know what he was looking for. |
| Marco: Yeah you are curious. |
| Cinzia: But it can be something important or I don’t know. If someone calls you, it means that he or she wants to talk to you. |
| Marco: Yes and we Italians love to talk to each other. |
| Cinzia: Yes actually we love chatting. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Marco: So now let’s take a look at today’s vocabulary. |
| Cinzia: The first word is ieri. |
| Marco: Yesterday. |
| Cinzia: Ieri. Ieri. |
| Marco: Next word is |
| Cinzia: Mentre. |
| Marco: While, whilst. |
| Cinzia: Mentre. Mentre. |
| Marco: The next word is |
| Cinzia: Pranzo. |
| Marco: Lunch |
| Cinzia: Pranzo. Pranzo. |
| Marco: The next word is |
| Cinzia: Chiamare. |
| Marco: To call |
| Cinzia: Chiamare. Chiamare. |
| Marco: And the next word |
| Cinzia: Dire. |
| Marco: To say |
| Cinzia: Dire. Dire. |
| Marco: Next word |
| Cinzia: Volere. |
| Marco: To want |
| Cinzia: Volere. Volere. |
| Marco: Next we have an expression |
| Cinzia: Fare un saluto. |
| Marco: To drop in, to say hi. |
| Cinzia: Fare un saluto. Fare un saluto. |
| Marco: And last word |
| Cinzia: Richiamare. |
| Marco: To call someone back. |
| Cinzia: Richiamare. Richiamare. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Cinzia: And now let’s take a look at the usage for some of the words and expressions. |
| Marco: The first word we will look at is |
| Cinzia: Ieri. |
| Marco: And the example sentence is |
| Cinzia: Ieri sono rimasto a casa. |
| Marco: Yesterday I stayed at home. |
| Cinzia: The next word we will look at is mentre. |
| Marco: And the example sentence is |
| Cinzia: Mentre tornavo ho incontrato Matteo. |
| Marco: I met Matteo while I was going back. |
| Cinzia: The next word is pranzo. |
| Marco: And the example sentence is |
| Cinzia: Ti invito a pranzo. |
| Marco: I invite you for lunch. |
| Cinzia: So pranzo can be noun but it can also be a verb. |
| Marco: Yes the first person singular of the verb pranzare. |
| Cinzia: Yes to have lunch and be careful because we have the verbs pranzare, to have lunch and cenare, to have dinner but we have something different for breakfast. We have fare colazione. |
| Marco: Literally to do breakfast. |
| Cinzia: Yes and the verb colazionare doesn’t exist. |
| Marco: Really doesn’t. Be careful about that. |
| Cinzia: Yes. So this is an exception. Remember it. |
| Marco: So Cinzia, what is the next word? |
| Cinzia: Volere. |
| Marco: And the sample sentence is? |
| Cinzia: Voleva solo salutarti. |
| Marco: She just wanted to say hi. |
| Cinzia: Next we have an expression. |
| Marco: And what is it? |
| Cinzia: Fare un saluto. |
| Marco: And the example sentence is |
| Cinzia: Passo a salutarti uno di questi giorni. |
| Marco: I will drop in one of these days. |
| Cinzia: And the last word we will look at is richiamare. |
| Marco: And the last example sentence is |
| Cinzia: Ti posso richiamare fra 5 minuti? |
| Marco: Can I call you back in 5 minutes? This is also very used in Italian. |
| Cinzia: Maybe you are on the phone. You are rushing as always and you say Ah, ti posso richiamare fra 5 minuti? |
| Marco: Yes or maybe you have the house phone ringing while you are talking on the internet and your cell phone is also ringing and the postman came too. |
| Cinzia: And what else? |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Cinzia: And now let’s take a look at today’s grammar which is actually very interesting. |
| Marco: Yes it is. |
| Cinzia: So first of all, let’s take a look at the usage of the imperfetto. |
| Marco: When do we use the imperfetto? |
| Cinzia: We have several different cases. The first regards expressing an action still occurring in the past and not completed yet. |
| Marco: For example, alle 8 di sera guardavo ancora la televisione. |
| Cinzia: At 8 in the evening, I was still watching the TV. |
| Marco: In the second case instead, we can also use the imperfetto tense to express two actions occurring at the same time in the past. For example, |
| Cinzia: Mentre lavoravo ascoltavo la musica. |
| Marco: I was listening to the music while I was working. |
| Cinzia: And another case regarding expressing habitual actions which used to occur in the past. |
| Marco: For example, da bambino andavo in vacanza al mare. |
| Cinzia: When I was little, I used to go on holiday to the beach. Marco, when do we use the passato prossimo instead? |
| Marco: Well we use it to express an action occurred and completed in the past. |
| Cinzia: So this is the first difference. In the imperfetto, the action is not completed yet. |
| Marco: No. |
| Cinzia: While in the past, in the passato prossimo the action is completed. |
| Marco: Exactly. For example, ho guardato la televisione fino alle 8 di sera. |
| Cinzia: I watch TV till 8 in the evening. |
| Marco: Because we state that we watched TV until a certain time, it is certainly finished in the past. |
| Cinzia: Yes and the second case regards expressing two actions occurred one after another in the past. For example, prima ho studiato e poi sono uscito con gli amici. |
| Marco: First I studied. Then I went out with friends. |
| Cinzia: So two actions finished, completed. Can we use them together then? |
| Marco: Sure we can. For example, we can use the imperfetto and passato prossimo together when expressing two past actions in which |
| Cinzia: One is completed and one is still occurring. |
| Marco: For example |
| Cinzia: Mentre studiavo è arrivato un mio amico. |
| Marco: A friend of mine came while I was studying. |
| Cinzia: Exactly the same case we saw in the dialogue. Mentre eri a pranzo ti ha chiamato Marcella. |
| Marco: While you are out to lunch, Marcella called you. |
| Cinzia: Yes the imperfetto indicativo tense is frequently used in Italian, actually more frequently used in Italian than in English. |
| Marco: Oh yes certainly. |
| Cinzia: Sometimes it can correspond to the English use too or to the English simple past tense. |
| Marco: While the passato prossimo can correspond both to the English simple past or a present perfect. |
Outro |
| Cinzia: What else easier than this? |
| Marco: Eating an Italian ice cream. Buon appetito a tutti. |
| Cinzia: Oh okay, okay he wants to go. Okay listeners, thank you and bye, bye. |
| Marco: Ciao. |
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