Listen and repeat.

We saw how to talk about an action or an event that began in the past and still continues in the moment we speak. Now we’ll see how to talk about an action or an event that went on for a while in the past, but it’s over now.

Once again, we have three possible ways and all of them require the imperfetto tense:

• Volevo questo cellulare da quando è uscito: I had been wanting this cell phone since it came out

We use the construction: imperfetto tense + da + a specific time reference or a duration.

In this example, a new cell phone came out at some point and from that moment on I had the desire to own it. Since I use the imperfetto tense (and not the present tense), it’s clear that I don’t desire it anymore, because I’ve recently bought it and now I have it.

• Erano giorni che non bevevo caffè: I hadn’t drunk coffee for days

We use the construction: era / erano + duration + che + imperfetto tense.

In this example I drank coffee days ago (we use erano in this case because the word giorni is plural: erano giorni che…) and then from that moment on I didn’t drink coffee up until a moment ago when I finally had some again, so now the condition of “not drinking coffee” is over.

• Era da un mese che speravo di conoscerla: I had been hoping to meet her for a month

We use the construction: era da + duration + che + imperfetto tense.

In this example, a month ago someone told me about a girl and from that moment on I spent the following weeks hoping to meet her up until just recently when I finally met her.