What are "passato prossimo" and "imperfetto" and what is the difference?

Passato prossimo and imperfetto are two ways of expressing past actions in Italian. The former is made by the present tense of "essere" and "avere" plus the past participle; the latter is declined using the endings -avo, -evo and -ivo (and "ero, eri, era" for the verb to be). In terms of the differences between the two, one way of summarising them is that the "passato prossimo" is specific, while "imperfetto" is vague. In other terms, when you're expressing a past action that happened in a specific moment of time, you use the "passato prossimo". Example: yesterday I saw a movie" is "ieri ho visto un film". On the other hand, you use the imperfetto to express a past habit or an action whose exact time collocation is left vague. Example: my mom was a brave woman is "mia madre era una donna coraggiosa".