Emily Brown
Problem understanding when to use the imperfect or imperfect? Hi, I’d be very grateful if someone could help with these two sentences (from a text book) regarding PERFECT and IMPERFECT; 1. The President of the United States was received by the Pope today Il Presidente degli Stati Uniti È STATO ricevuto oggi dal Papa (PERFECT) 2. The President was accompanied by his wife Il Presidente ERA accompagnato dalla moglie (IMPERFECT) My understanding is you use the PEREFECT when an event is finished, happened once and is finished. On the other hand, the IMPERFECT is used for events that happened more than once or perhaps with unclear start and finish times. Using these as a model, I cannot see why (2) uses the imperfect as surely both sentences refer to an event that happened once and is finished? Surely the fact that his wife accompanied him was a one-off event that is now finished and should surely use the Perfect? Obviously missing something here so if anyone could possibly help I’d would be extremely grateful. Thanks Emily
Sep 14, 2014 3:16 PM
Answers · 3
You can use 'imperfetto' (imperfect) also as a past continuous tense. About the sentences you have reported, you could say: "Il Presidente ERA accompagnato dalla moglie" as well you could say: "Il Presidente È STATO accompagnato dalla moglie" But there is a different shade between the two sentences: the first means that his wife accompanied the President to the reception and she remained with him during the whole reception (continuous tense); the second means that his wife accompanied the President till the reception, nothing is said over that, so we can guess (and we guess! otherwise you had used the first one) she came back when the reception started. I hope it can be useful.
September 14, 2014
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