Translate in italian. traduci nella italiana!?

Question

1) I eat.

2) I am eating

3) I ate.

4) I have eaten

5) I had eaten

6) I was eating.

7) I will eat.

8) I will be eating.

Thankyou

Grazie

Answer 1

Unfortunately, there isn't a 1-to-1 correspondence between the English and Italian verb tenses.  I will try to explain them as best as I can.

1)  Mangio.

2)  Mangio (general sense) -- Sto mangiando (stresses that the action is progressing at the present time)

3)  Ho mangiato* / Mangiavo*  (Passato Remoto: Mangiai)

4)  Ho mangiato*

5)  Avevo mangiato**

6)  Mangiavo (general sense) -- Stavo mangiando (stresses that the action was progressing at a time in the past)

7)  Mangerò

8)  Starò mangiando.

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*In Italian, there are two tenses that correspond to the general sense of the past tense in English:  the imperfetto and the passato prossimo

-Passato Prossimo:  A completed action in the recent past.

~Impefetto:  An action that was habitual in the past (I used to eat...), age, weather, time, etc.

Example with Passato Prossimo:

-I ate at my grandmother's house yesterday.

-Ieri ho mangiato da mia nonna.

Example with Imperfetto:

~I ate at my grandmother's house every Sunday (when I was little).

~(Da piccolo) Mangiavo da mia nonna la domenica.

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Although it may sound odd in English, Italians use the compound tenses where English would use a simple tense:

Ieri ho mangiato la pizza -- Literally: I have eaten pizza yesterday. -- Translation: I ate pizza yesterday.

There is a third past tense called the "passato remoto" that is used to describe events that occurred a long time ago.  It is used in literature, fairy tales, historical works, and history lessons.  For example, if one were to talk about Leonardo da Vinci, they would replace the passato prossimo verbs with their passato remoto equivalents.  As far as everyday speech, this form is usually not heard except for some places in southern Italy.

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**If you are going to say "If I had eaten" as part of a hypothetical/conditional sentence, it is different and would go:

(If) I had eaten... -- (Se) avessi mangiato...

Hope that clears things up.

Answer 2

1) I eat.

mangio.

2) I am eating

sto mangiando.

3) I ate.

ho mangiato, unless it was something that happened consistently in the past. in that case use mangiavo.

eg i ate chicken every tuesday= ogni martedi`, mangiavo pollo.

4) I have eaten

there isn't a distinct tense for this. in most cases, just use ho mangiato.

5) I had eaten

same as above, generally just use ho mangiato.

6) I was eating.

stavo mangiando. mangiavo can also be used in an informal context.

7) I will eat.

mangero`

8) I will be eating.

staro` mangiando.