8 La ottava lezione, il 2 dicembre 2009
- Warmup: La palla verde dei verbi. Coniugazione nel presente: Andare, Dare, Fare, Stare, Uscire, Venire, Essere, Avere, Volere, Potere, Dovere, Preferire.
- Pass the P.imsleur! units 29 and 30.
-L'imperfetto!!
But when do Italians use l'imperfetto instead of the passato prossimo? Let's look at examples (in English) and then WE will get to make the rules:
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Imperfetto: I went to the store every day in Spain. I used to buy candy once a week when I was little. Every day I would go to their house. Yesterday at 3pm I was sleeping. It was raining. I was happy. It was 5 o'clock. I was thinking of you. He was fifteen years old. I was tired. |
Passato Prossimo: I went to the store. . I went to their house a week ago. I slept from 10 pm to 6 am. It started raining. . . I thought about you. |
Well, based on the examples so far, Italians use the l'imperfetto when the action in the past is:
1. a repeated action in the past
2. an action in progress in the past
3. one of these special categories: Weather, Emotion, Time, Mental state, Age, Physical condition. (and notice that all of these special categories carry a feeling of "description" rather than "action".) (mental state: hoped, believed, thought...) (age: "When I was three years old...) (physical condition: was tired, was hurt, felt sick, was warm, was cozy, was nice...)
In English, we're stuck with a variety of idiomatic expressions when we want to express the feeling of "ongoingness" or "repetititiveness" or "description" of an action in the past. But in Italian, it's brilliantly simple: L'imperfetto!!
Idiomatic English phrases, like "used to buy" or "would go" get replaced with one single verb: "compravo" and "andavo".
- Conjugating l'imperfetto:
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ANDARE andavo
|
andavamo |
SCRIVERE scrivevo |
scrivevamo |
DORMIRE dormivo |
dormivamo |
Notice how the emphasis moves for the noi and voi forms.
There are only a few irregular verbs in the imperfetto:
essere:
|
ero |
eravamo |
fare:
|
facevo |
facevamo |
bere:
|
bevevo |
bevevamo |
dire:
|
dicevo |
dicevamo |
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I went to the store every day in Spain. I used to buy candy once a week when I was little. Every day I would go to their house. Yesterday at 3pm I was sleeping. It was raining. I was happy. It was 5 o'clock. I was thinking of you. He was fifteen years old. I was tired. |
Andavo al negozio ogni giorno in Spagna. Compravo caramelle una volta alla settimana quando ero piccolo/a. Ogni giorno andavo a casa loro . Ieri alle tre dormivo. Pioveva. Ero felice. Erano le cinque. Pensavo a te. Aveva quindici anni. Ero stanca/o. |
- "Il nostro viaggio in Italia!" You counted off: "Uno" Due" Uno" Due" and we proceded to invent the story of our viaggio in Italia, alternating a sentence in l'imperfetto with a sentence of passato prossimo.
Pioveva.
- "Tu scendi dalle stelle" We're all learning to sing this Italian Christmas song, so that we can carol the neighbors in two weeks. (click here for the lyrics). We're just learning the first verse and chorus.
Pavarotti
- Vocabolario: Film, TV, il giornale. From pages 193-194 in your text.
(click here for a media vocabulary handout)
- Parole da ricordare:
raggiungere - to reach
figliastro - stepson
figliastra - stepdaughter
matrigna - stepmother
patrigno - stepfather
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- Handouts. (click on the link if you need the handout)
16. lyrics to "Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle".
17. a paragraph using l'imperfetto
18. media vocabulary
1. Read about l'imperfetto. Pages 196, 197, 198. and also read the above intro to imperfetto which we did in class this week.
2. Esercizi: Page 198 and 199. Parts A, B, C, and D. (click here for answers)
Part B. "Transformations". Substitute the subject of the sentence with the subjects in parentheses, and change the verb accordingly. These sentences are all in l'imperfetto.
Part C. Complete the story of Margherita with "essere" or "avere" in l'imperfetto.
3. And then, we're going to do our own version of Part D. in class next week: Bring a picture of yourself when you were young and be ready to talk about yourself without notes. Be ready to talk about what you used to do when you were young. But more important than that, be ready to ask each other questions about what you used to do.
4. allora v. poi. Read the sidebar: Si dice così. on page 197. Then write three sentences using "allora" and three sentences using "poi" to hand in next week.
5. Time expressions. from page 198. I want you to write original sentences (to hand in next week) using each of the following, in the imperfetto:
di solito - usually
sempre - always
Una volta... - Some time ago... (or) At one time...
il lunedì, il martedì... - every Monday, (on Mondays), every Tuesday (on Tuesdays)...
6. (optional) Write a short movie review! Write it in both English and Italian, and send it to Nadine. There is lots of good media vocabulary on pages 193 and 194.
7. (optional) Media vocabulary: anybody who wants to practice the media vocabulary can do the esercizi on pages 194 and 195 and send them to Nadine.
8. Listen to audio: units 1 and 2 of level 2.
9. Click here to hear Nadine read La Lettera.