Italian All-in-One For Dummies (165 page)

You can compare the tenses and the inner workings of the imperfect subjunctive in
Table 6-6
.

Table 6-6 Using the Correct Subjunctive Dependent Clause

Getting a grip on irregular imperfect subjunctives

Okay, so not every part of the imperfect subjunctive is as simple and beautiful as it seems, judging from the earlier sections of this chapter! You have to deal with some irregular verbs in the imperfect subjunctive. What this means is that you need to change the stems of the verbs before you add the imperfect subjunctive endings. The good news is that you have only a few irregular verbs to worry about. The following are some of the most frequently used irregular verbs, along with their irregular stems:

bere
(
to drink
)
→
bevessi, bevessi, bevesse, bevessimo, beveste, bevessero

dare
(
to give
)
→
dessi, dessi, desse, dessimo, deste, dessero

dire
(
to say; to tell
)
→
dicessi, dicessi, dicesse, dicessimo, diceste, dicessero

essere
(
to be
)
→
fossi, fossi, fosse
,
fossimo, foste, fossero

fare
(
to do; to make
)
→
facessi, facessi, facesse, facessimo, faceste, facessero

stare
(
to be; to stay
)
→
stessi, stessi, stesse, stessimo, steste, stessero

tradurre
(
to translate
)
→
traducessi, traducessi, traducesse, traducessimo, traduceste, traducessero

proporre
(
to propose
)
→
proponessi, proponessi, proponesse, proponessimo, proponeste, proponessero

Many of these forms share the same irregular stem with the imperfect indicative tense.

The following tables contain the conjugations of
bere
and
tradurre.
You can flip to
Appendix A
to see how the others conjugate — in the imperfect subjunctive and all the other tenses.