Which is better for learning Italian the Italian passato prossimo or the imperfetto?

Answer by  finette (157)

Neither is better; they are different tenses used for different situations. The passato prossimo is the same as the English present perfect tense and is used to describe something that just happened. The imperfetto is called imperfect tense in English and is used to describe ongoing actions from the distant past ("I used to eat apples every morning... ").

Answer by  ferfer72 (2623)

You need to learn all the tenses when you're learning Italian. The imperfetto allows you to talk about the past (past tense). The passato prossimo is like the present perfect tense.