Past Progressive Tense Flashcards
What tense is used to describe actions that were in progress in the past?
Past progressive tense, using the imperfetto of stare plus the gerundio.
What is the conjugation of stare in the imperfetto tense?
Stare
stavo
stavi
stava
stavamo
stavate
stavano
Examples of the past progressive tense in English?
He was shooting the scene, I was looking for my keys, I was sleeping.
The forma progressive is more limited in use in Italian, what do they use to describe ongoing actions?
In Italian it is more common to use the simple present tense or imperfetto to talk about ongoing actions.
Examples of present tense versus the present progressive tense
It poeta scrive una poesia d’amore. The poet writes/is writing/does write a love poem. COMPARED TO: Il poeta sta scrivendo uno poesia d’amore. The poet is writing (at this very moment) a love poem.
Examples of the the imperfect tense versus the past progressive tense.
La mamma leggeva il racconto al figlio. The mother was reading/used to read the story to her son. COMPARED TO: La mamma stava leggendo il racconto al figlio. The mother was reading (at that very moment) the story to her son.
How do you handle object and reflexive pronouns?
Object and reflexive pronouns either precede the conjugated form of stare or are attached to the end of the gerundio.
Examples of handling the objective and reflexive pronouns?
Perché la Gioconda mi sta sorridendo/sta sorridendomi?
How does Italian handle an English word ending in “ing” as the subject of a sentence?
In cases where an English word ending in “ing” is used as the subject of the sentence, the infinitive, rather than the gerundio is typically used in Italian.
