Is “ebbe” the most common usage for “he/she had” ? It sounds like essi/esso which I’ve told is an outdated way of speaking.

Question

lorenzo05 · Answer

“Ebbe” is the “passato remoto” of the verb to have. The “passato remoto” is rarely used in everyday life actually, you may use instead “lui/lei aveva”.

That’s right, “Essi/esso” are almost never used. “Loro” is most common.

lorenzo05 · Answer

@Jck_ passato remoto is used also while speaking, but since is used to express an action that is finished long time ago isn’t very common.

G91 · Answer

“(he/she) had” can be translated as: 
“ha avuto” (very common, based on “passato prossimo”, that was born to describe recent past events but it’s used in North-Central Italian regions also to refer to something happened years ago),
“ebbe” (not common in the Centre-North, based on “passato remoto” that is supposed to describe something happened a long time ago, but it’s frequently used in the South of Italy also to refer to recent past), 
“aveva” (common but based on imperfetto, so usable just when this tense is required: only to talk about past events that happened over a period of time or about past actions lasted until something else happened).

G91 · Answer

@Jck_ 
about the imperfect tense you can find more info here: 
https://grammar.collinsdictionary.com/it/grammatica-di-apprendimento-italiano/the-imperfect-tense
The explanation is not complete but everything seems right and useful.
Please note that even though all the examples (reported in that website) about how people felt in the past are all translated with the imperfect tense, there are also other possible translations depending on the context.
E.g. “it was hot” is translated as “era caldo”, “faceva caldo” (meaning “at that time it was hot and that condition was happening at the same time of something else - explicit or implicit).
However, sometimes, depending on the context, “it was hot” can be also translated as “fece caldo” (passato remoto); this is correct when we are talking about something happened years ago and completed/finished at that time; e.g. if you are reading a tale from Greek Mythology you could read something like “quella notte fece caldo ed Efesto non riuscì a dormire bene” = “that night was hot and Hephaestus couldn’t sleep well” = “that night was so hot that Hephaestus couldn’t sleep well” -> in this case (based on passato remoto) the fact (that it was hot and the God didn’t sleep well) is completed in the past, it’s not related to something else happened (simultaneously or consequently).
However you could also translate  “that night was hot and Hephaestus couldn’t sleep well” as “quella notte faceva caldo ed Efesto non riusciva a dormire bene” but this means that something else was supposed to follow (e.g. “quella notte faceva caldo ed Efesto non riusciva a dormire bene. Quindi si alzò e andò a spegnere il fuoco della sua fucina”).
In addition, “it was hot” can also mean “ha fatto caldo” (just a punctual fact occurred in the recent past; “ieri ha fatto molto caldo” = “yesterday was really hot”).
It’s not that easy.
Imperfect tense means that the action occurred in the past wasn’t (perfectly) completed.
If I read “era caldo” my mind automatically will ask “OK, so what? Then what happened? What happened because it was hot?”.
If I read “fece caldo” my mind just accept the information without asking anything else: it’s just a fact happened in the past, who cares. I don’t expect to receive any additional information.
Also the sentence “it was very cold” could be translated as “faceva molto freddo” (if there’s something else to be told/heard), “ha fatto molto freddo” (if there’s nothing else to tell), “fece molto freddo” (if there’s nothing else to tell and you are referring to something happened years ago).
But “what was I saying?” is a sentence that can be only translated as “cosa dicevo?” or “cosa stavo dicendo?” (neither as “cosa ho detto?” nor as “cosa dissi?” that in English are “what did I say?”, e.g. “what did I say last time?” = “cosa ti ho detto l'ultima volta?” and NOT “cosa ti stavo dicendo l’ultima volta?”).
Hope this will help.

G91 · Answer

@Jck_ “faceva caldo” is quite natural but the nature of the imperfect tense always triggers the expectation of additional information, unless it is the answer of a specific question that reduces a lot this expectation. E.g.
Alice: “what was the weather like during your last summer holidays?”
Bob: “It was hot” -> this can be translated both as “faceva caldo” (that could slightly lead Alice to ask: “and/but then? So what?” but it’s also acceptable as an answer requiring no additional information) and “ha fatto caldo” (punctual fact that doesn’t trigger any expectation).
But if you abruptly (without any context) say just “ieri faceva caldo” you will trigger for sure the expectation of additional info; on the contrary, if you say abruptly “ieri ha fatto caldo” you won’t trigger anything because it’s just an information, a fact that doesn’t require anything else.
When you say “it was hot”, if you refer to the weather, both “faceva caldo” (triggering an expectation) and “ha fatto caldo” (triggering nothing) are a bit more natural than “era caldo” that is used more for foods, objects, etc. 
If you want just describe a fact (and keep the listener relaxed) I suggest to say “ha fatto caldo”.
“È stato caldo” is grammatically correct but unnatural (if I heard it, I don’t know why, as a native I would associate it to the temperature, but I would never use it, it sounds weird).
To sum up:
“fare caldo” refers only to the temperature (e.g. “oggi fa caldo”, “nella sauna fa un caldo insopportabile”, but NOT “il caffè fa caldo”);
“essere caldo” is more general (e.g. “oggi è molto caldo”, “nella sauna c’è un caldo insopportabile”, “il caffè è caldo”);
“avere/sentire caldo” means “to be/feel hot” and it refers only to what a living being (human, animal) feels when it’s hot (e.g. “anche se in TV dicono che fa caldo io non ho affatto caldo. Voi sentite caldo?”, “io ho/sento caldo” is natural, but “io faccio caldo” and/or “il caffè sente/fa caldo” don’t make any sense).

Is “ebbe” the most common usage for “he/she had” ? It sounds like essi/esso which I’ve told is an outdated way of speaking. See a translation

“Ebbe” is the “passato remoto” of the verb to have. The “passato remoto” is rarely used in everyday life actually, you may use instead “lui/lei aveva”.That’s right, “Essi/esso” are almost never used. “Loro” is most common.

@Jck_ passato remoto is used also while speaking, but since is used to express an action that is finished long time ago isn’t very common.

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Is “ebbe” the most common usage for “he/she had” ? It sounds like essi/esso which I’ve told is an outdated way of speaking.

“Ebbe” is the “passato remoto” of the verb to have. The “passato remoto” is rarely used in everyday life actually, you may use instead “lui/lei aveva”.

That’s right, “Essi/esso” are almost never used. “Loro” is most common.