DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PERFEFCT TENSES AND IMPERFECT TENSES

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There are serveral different kind of past tenses in italian: imperfect, past perfect, simple past...

On the ground of their nature the past tenses are divided in:

• perfect  (indicate a concluded and episodical action, that happens only once)
• imperfect  (indicate a continuative action, that recurs, or that happens as an habitud)

The perfect tenses are usually used to a punctual and exact description of the past and express actions that happen in a given time, or that have a difinite beginning, or end, or length.

Example:
" Una settimana fa Marco ha comprato un regalo per le figlie, č andato alla posta e lo ha spedito a casa. "

The imperfect tenses are instead used to a generic description of the past and express action that happen in an indefinite time.

Example:
" L'Italia in passato era un paese molto pių agricolo e meno moderno di adesso, anche se i ritmi di vita erano pių rilassati. "

These are the possible combination beteween past tenses:

• series of actions in sequence  (an action follows another one, it begins exactly when the other one ends)

  Example:
  "Stamani mi sono svegliato, mi sono alzato, mi sono lavato e poi sono andato in ufficio."
  All the sentences are expressed with the present perfect.

• clashing actions  (an action breaks off the developing one)

  Example:
  "Mentre leggevo il libro qualcuno ha telefonato."
  Breaking action is expressed with the present perfect, the inteerrupted action is expressed with the imperfect.

• simultaneous actions  (actions happen at the same time and have same length)

  Example:
  "Marco leggeva il libro, ascoltava lo stereo e pensava a sua moglie."
  All the sentences are expressed with imperfect.

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