spostavo

Spostavo is the first-person singular imperfect indicative form of the Italian verb spostare, meaning to move or relocate something. As a form, spostavo is not the lemma; the base dictionary entry is spostare. The imperfect expresses a past action that was ongoing, habitual, or used to occur, and it is commonly used to set scenes in narratives.

Conjugation and usage: Spostare is a regular first-conjugation verb ending in -are. In the imperfect, the endings are -avo, -avi, -ava, -avamo, -avate, -avano. Therefore, io spostavo; tu spostavi; lui/lei spostava; noi spostavamo; voi spostavate; loro spostavano. The form spostavo can be used with an explicit subject (Io spostavo) or with the subject inferred from context.

Past participle and compound tenses: The past participle of spostare is spostato. In compound tenses such as the passato prossimo, spostare uses the auxiliary avere: Ho spostato la sedia. The participle agrees in gender and number when used with an auxiliary like essere, which is not typical for this verb since it is transitive and commonly takes avere.

Examples: Io spostavo spesso i mobili per cambiare l’arredamento. Da giovane, spostavo la sedia quando studiavo. In una descrizione narrativa, lo scrittore potrebbe dire che l’azione si svolgeva nel passato: io spostavo continuamente gli oggetti sul tavolo per fare spazio.

See also: spostare, Italian verbs, imperfect indicative. Spostavo illustrates how Italian forms convey aspect and time within a straightforward verb-conjugation framework.