Italian All-in-One For Dummies (173 page)

With reflexive verbs, you often use the imperfect to describe habits and customs. Here are a couple examples:

Il gatto si lamentava quando aveva fame.
(
The cat complained when it was hungry.
)

Lui si metteva una cravatta diversa ogni giorno.
(
He used to put on a different tie every day.
)

Certain verbal clues tell you to use the imperfect. Keep in mind that you're not under time constraints with the imperfect. You're not talking about something that happened just once, between, say, 2:00 and 2:30 in the afternoon, when you received a phone call from your insurance agent. You're talking about things that were habitual and ongoing. The key phrase in English that triggers the imperfect is
used to,
as in
I used to go to the museum every Thursday afternoon. We used to eat fish all the time. She used to shop early in the day.
(For details, see the later section “
Picking the Present Perfect or the Imperfect for Reflexive Verbs
.”)

The following tables show you just how regular reflexive verbs are conjugated in the imperfect tense; just follow the guidelines on forming the imperfect in
Chapter 1
of Book V, and then add the correct reflexive pronoun.

Checking Out Reciprocal Verbs in the Imperfect

The imperfect of reciprocal verbs follows the same rules as the imperfect of reflexive verbs.

As mentioned in the earlier section “
Using Reciprocal Verbs in the Present Perfect
,” you can make many verbs reciprocal in other tenses as well, the imperfect tense included. Consider these examples:

Si parlavano ogni giorno.
(
They talked to each other every day.
)

Vi vedevate spesso.
(
You saw each other often.
)

Ci visitavamo ogni estate.
(
We visited each other every summer.
)

In the imperfect, reciprocal verbs are not just descriptive; they have an almost gossipy quality.

Si amavano tanto.
(
They loved each other so much.
)

Si vedevano ogni giorno.
(
They saw each other every day.
)

Picking the Present Perfect or the Imperfect for Reflexive Verbs

The easiest way to remember whether to use the present perfect or the imperfect is to keep in mind clues dealing with time and emotional or physical states. Present perfect clues that tell you that you're talking about a completed past action include

ieri
(
yesterday
)

ieri sera
(
yesterday evening; last night
)

la settimana scorsa
(
last week
)

lunedì, martedì, . . .
(
Monday, Tuesday,
. . .)

Here are some example sentences that use present perfect reflexive verbs:

Ieri ci siamo divertiti moltissimo.
(
Yesterday, we had a great time.
)

La settimana scorsa vi siete sposati, vero?
(
Last week, you got married, right?
)

Lunedì mi sono trasferita.
(
Monday, I moved.
)

Clues that you should use the imperfect, on the other hand, indicate emotional or physical states of being, or habitual or ongoing actions or events, and are often accompanied by these words or phrases: