Passato Prossimo vs Imperfetto: How to Choose in Italian

Italian has two everyday past tenses, and English speakers have to pick one in almost every sentence about the past. The short version: the passato prossimo reports events that happened and finished, and moves the story forward. The imperfetto describes the background, what was going on and what used to happen, without caring when it ended. Ieri ho mangiato una pizza is one finished meal; da bambino mangiavo la pizza ogni domenica is a habit.

The quick table

	Passato prossimo	Imperfetto
What it does	Reports a completed event	Describes the background or a habit
English often says	I ate, she arrived	I was eating, I used to eat
Example	Ieri ho mangiato una pizza. (Yesterday I ate a pizza.)	Da bambino mangiavo la pizza ogni domenica. (As a child I used to eat pizza every Sunday.)
Together	È arrivato Marco... (Marco arrived...)	...mentre mangiavo. (...while I was eating.)
Typical content	Single events, sequences, closed periods	Habits, actions in progress, descriptions, time, age, weather
How it's formed	avere or essere + past participle: ho mangiato, sono andato	One set of endings: mangiavo, andavo, facevo

Use the passato prossimo for

A finished event at a specific time. Ieri ho chiamato mia madre. (I called my mother yesterday.)

A series of events, one after another. Mi sono alzato, mi sono fatto la doccia e sono uscito. (I got up, had a shower and went out.) Each verb moves the story on.

Something that started or ended. Il film è iniziato alle nove. (The film started at nine.)

A closed period of time. Ho abitato a Roma per tre anni. (I lived in Rome for three years.) The length doesn't matter: if the period is over and you're treating it as one block, use the passato prossimo.

Repetitions you count. Siamo andati in Sicilia tre volte. (We went to Sicily three times.) A number of times turns a repeated action into one closed fact.

A verdict on something that's over. Com'è stata la vacanza? È stata bellissima. (How was the holiday? It was wonderful.)

Use the imperfetto for

Habits and repeated actions in the past. D'estate andavamo sempre al mare. (In summer we always went to the seaside.) If English could say "used to" or "would", it's the imperfetto.

Actions in progress. Leggevo un libro. (I was reading a book.) Italian also has stavo + gerund for the same idea: Stavo leggendo un libro.

Description and background. La casa era grande e aveva un giardino. (The house was big and had a garden.)

Time, age and weather. Erano le tre. Avevo dieci anni. Faceva freddo. (It was three o'clock. I was ten. It was cold.)

Feelings and states of mind. Ero stanco e non volevo uscire. (I was tired and didn't want to go out.)

Two things going on at the same time. Mentre cucinavo, ascoltavo la radio. (While I was cooking, I was listening to the radio.)

When both appear in one sentence

The most common pattern in storytelling: an action in progress (imperfetto) gets interrupted by an event (passato prossimo).

• Dormivo quando sei arrivato. (I was sleeping when you arrived.)
• Camminavamo nel parco e all'improvviso ha cominciato a piovere. (We were walking in the park and suddenly it started to rain.)
• Stavo per uscire quando ha squillato il telefono. (I was about to go out when the phone rang.)

Think of a film: the imperfetto is the scenery and the background music, the passato prossimo is what the characters actually do.

Trigger words

These words lean one way, though meaning always wins over the word list.

• Passato prossimo: ieri, stamattina, l'anno scorso, all'improvviso, una volta, tre volte, nel 2010
• Imperfetto: sempre, ogni giorno, spesso, di solito, da bambino, mentre

Verbs that change meaning

A few verbs say something different in each tense. These are worth learning as pairs:

Verb	Passato prossimo	Imperfetto
conoscere	Ho conosciuto Paolo a una festa. I met Paolo at a party.	Conoscevo già Paolo. I already knew Paolo.
sapere	Ho saputo della festa ieri. I found out about the party yesterday.	Sapevo della festa. I knew about the party.
dovere	Ho dovuto prendere un taxi. I had to take a taxi (and did).	Dovevo partire alle otto, ma ho perso il treno. I was supposed to leave at eight, but I missed the train.
potere	Finalmente ho potuto riposare. At last I was able to rest.	Potevi dirmelo! You could have told me!
volere	Ho voluto provare. I decided to try.	Volevo provare. I wanted to try.
avere	Ho avuto paura. I got scared.	Avevo paura. I was scared.

Common mistakes for English speakers

Making every "was" an imperfetto. English "was" covers both tenses. Description takes the imperfetto (la stanza era piccola, the room was small), but a judgement on something finished takes the passato prossimo: Il concerto è stato fantastico. (The concert was fantastic.)

Using the passato prossimo for "used to". Ogni estate andavamo in Puglia (every summer we used to go to Puglia), not siamo andati, unless you count the trips.

Using the imperfetto for a closed period. Ho studiato tedesco per due anni (I studied German for two years), not studiavo... per due anni. A length of time with per almost always points to the passato prossimo.

Picking the wrong helper verb. Verbs of movement and change of state take essere: sono andato, è partita, siamo nati. Ho andato is a classic beginner slip. With essere, the participle agrees with the subject: Maria è arrivata, i ragazzi sono usciti.

Translating "I have been doing" with a past tense. An action that started in the past and is still going on uses the present with da: Studio l'italiano da due anni. (I've been studying Italian for two years.)

Questions

Is the passato prossimo the same as the English present perfect? It looks like it (ho mangiato, I have eaten), but in use it's mostly a simple past. Ieri ho visto Marco means "I saw Marco yesterday", a sentence English could never put in the present perfect.

What about the passato remoto? It's the literary past, the tense of novels and history: Dante nacque a Firenze nel 1265. (Dante was born in Florence in 1265.) In speech it survives mostly in parts of southern Italy. The choice between the passato remoto and the imperfetto follows the same logic as in this post: events against background.

Is the imperfetto with stavo + gerund different? Leggevo and stavo leggendo both mean "I was reading". The stavo form puts more weight on the moment itself: Stavo leggendo quando è arrivato Marco. (I was in the middle of reading when Marco arrived.)

Which tense for the time and the weather? Almost always the imperfetto: Erano le otto e pioveva. (It was eight o'clock and it was raining.)

Keep going

Both tenses have their own lessons with conjugation tables and a quiz: the passato prossimo and the imperfetto. For the essere or avere question, see essere vs avere.

The choice gets easier the more stories you read, because you start to feel the difference between the scenery and the action. Our Learn Italian app takes you from vocabulary and grammar through graded reading to full classics with a translation under every line. It's free to download, though some books and extra content need diamonds you earn while learning, or Premium.