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I want to say "I spent the whole day yesterday learning Italian"

ieri sto passai tutto il giorno imparare l'italiano

This is my first attempt in forming a complete sentence, probably fill with silly mistakes. Thanks!

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    Welcome to ItalianSE!!!
    – abarisone
    Jul 11, 2019 at 4:41

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The correct sentence would be:

Ieri ho passato tutto il giorno a imparare l’italiano.

using the passato prossimo verbal form.

As correctly reported by @egreg, in some varieties of Italian (Sicilian, for instance) the passato remoto would be used, because ieri is a completed span of time.

So the sentence in this case would be:

Ieri passai tutto il giorno a imparare l’italiano.

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    You can also simply say "a imparare" (see italian.stackexchange.com/questions/1270/…), which maybe is easier for a beginner.
    – Charo ♦
    Jul 11, 2019 at 7:15
  • Yes, “a imparare” is better than “ad imparare”: that “d” is generally only used when there are two equal vowels one after another (“ad andare”).
    – DaG
    Jul 11, 2019 at 8:38
  • @DaG. You're right. Answer modified.
    – abarisone
    Jul 11, 2019 at 8:41
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    In some varieties of Italian (Sicilian, for instance) the passato remoto would be used, because ieri is a completed span of time.
    – egreg ♦
    Jul 11, 2019 at 9:16

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