tornavamo

Tornavamo is the imperfect indicative form of the Italian verb tornare for the first-person plural subject noi. It expresses actions in the past that were ongoing or habitual, roughly translating as “we were returning” or “we used to return” depending on context. It is not a noun or a standalone term; its meaning arises from the surrounding sentence.

Morphology: The form is built from the stem torn- plus the standard imperfect ending for -are verbs, -avamo. The combination yields tornavamo, with typical Italian phonology preserving the expected consonant sequence. The spelling clearly marks the imperfect, distinguishing it from other tenses.

Usage: The imperfect is used for ongoing or repeated past actions, to set scenes, describe states, or indicate habitual behavior. Example: “Quando eravamo bambini, noi tornavamo spesso a casa tardi,” meaning “When we were children, we often used to return home late.” In narrative writing, tornavamo helps convey continuity and background context rather than a completed past event.

Relation to other tenses: In modern Italian, speakers also use compound forms such as siamo tornati (present perfect) for past events with a completed sense. Tornavamo remains common in everyday speech when describing habitual past actions or setting a scene, and it appears frequently in literature to evoke a certain rhythm or mood.

See also: Italian verb conjugation, imperfect tense, tornare (to return).