Imperfect


The imperfect is a verb form that combines past tense and imperfective aspect. It can have meanings similar to the English "was doing " or "used to do ". It contrasts with preterite forms, which refer to a single completed event in the past.
Traditionally, the imperfect of languages such as Latin and French is referred to as one of the tenses, although it actually encodes aspectual information in addition to tense. It may be more precisely called past imperfective.
English has no general imperfective and expresses it in different ways. The term "imperfect" in English refers to forms much more commonly called past progressive or past continuous. These are combinations of past tense with specifically continuous or progressive aspect. In German, Imperfekt formerly referred to the simply conjugated past tense, but the term Präteritum is now preferred, since the form does not carry any implication of imperfective aspect.
"Imperfect" comes from the Latin imperfectus "unfinished", because the imperfect expresses an ongoing, uncompleted action. The equivalent Ancient Greek term was "prolonged".

Indo-European languages

Germanic languages

English

Imperfect meanings in English are expressed in different ways depending on whether the event is continuous or habitual.
For a continuous action, the past progressive form is used, as in "I was eating"; "They were running fast." However certain verbs that express state rather than action do not mark the progressive aspect ; in these cases the simple past tense is used instead: "He was hungry"; "We knew what to do next."
Habitual action in the past can be marked by used to, as in "I used to eat a lot", or by the auxiliary verb would, as in "Back then, I would eat early and would walk to school." However, in many cases the habitual nature of the action does not need to be explicitly marked on the verb, and the simple past is used: "We always ate dinner at six o'clock."

Italic languages

Latin

Conjugation of the imperfect indicative:
parāredocērelegerecaperescīreesse
egoparābamdocēbamlegēbamcapiēbamsciēbameram
tūparābāsdocēbāslegēbāscapiēbāssciēbāserās
isparābatdocēbatlegēbatcapiēbatsciēbaterat
nōsparābāmusdocēbāmuslegēbāmuscapiēbāmussciēbāmuserāmus
vōsparābātisdocēbātislegēbātiscapiēbātissciēbātiserātis
eīparābantdocēbantlegēbantcapiēbantsciēbanterant

Notes:
In Romance languages, the imperfect is generally a past tense. Its uses include representing:
  • Repetition and continuity: an action that was happening, used to happen, or happened regularly in the past, as it was ongoing
  • A description of people, things, or conditions of the past
  • A time in the past
  • A relation between past happenings: a situation that was in progress in the past or a condition originated in a previous time, when another isolated and important event occurred.
  • A physical or mental state or condition in progress in the past. Often used with verbs of being, emotion, capability, or conscience.
A common mistake of beginners learning a Romance language is putting too much emphasis on whether the time the action occurred is known. This generally does not affect how the imperfect is used. For example, the sentence "Someone ate all of my cookies." is not a good candidate for the imperfect. Fundamentally, it is no different from the sentence "We ate all the cookies." Note this fails the repeatability requirement of the imperfect, as it is only known to have happened once. On the other hand, the sentence "I used to have fun in the 1960s." is a good candidate for the imperfect, even though its period is known. In short, knowing when an action occurred is not nearly as important as how long it occurred.

French

To form the imperfect for French regular verbs, take the first person plural present tense, the "nous" form, subtract the -ons suffix, and add the appropriate ending. Verbs that terminate in a stem of -cer and -ger undergo minor orthographic changes to preserve the phonetic sound or allophone. Verbs whose root terminates in the letter "i" maintain the letter despite the consecutiveness in the "nous" and "vous" forms.
It is used to express the ideas of habitual actions or states of being; physical and emotional descriptions: time, weather, age, feelings; actions or states of an unspecified duration; background information in conjunction with the passé composé; wishes or suggestions; conditions in "si" clauses; the expressions "être en train de" and "venir de" in the past.
parlerchoisirvendreêtrecommencermangerétudier
je-aisparlaischoisissaisvendaisétaiscommençaismangeaisétudiais
tu-aisparlaischoisissaisvendaisétaiscommençaismangeaisétudiais
il-aitparlaitchoisissaitvendaitétaitcommençaitmangeaitétudiait
nous-ionsparlionschoisissionsvendionsétionscommencionsmangionsétudiions
vous-iezparliezchoisissiezvendiezétiezcommenciezmangiezétudiiez
ils-aientparlaientchoisissaientvendaientétaientcommençaientmangeaientétudiaient

Italian

Conjugation of the imperfect indicative:
avereessereparlarecrederefiniredireopporre
ioavevoeroparlavocredevofinivodicevoopponevo
tuavevieriparlavicredevifinividiceviopponevi
luiavevaeraparlavacredevafinivadicevaopponeva
noiavevamoeravamoparlavamocredevamofinivamodicevamoopponevamo
voiavevateeravateparlavatecredevatefinivatedicevateopponevate
loroavevanoeranoparlavanocredevanofinivanodicevanoopponevano

Notes:
  • Dropping the -re suffix and adding -vo, -vi, -va, -vamo, -vate, and -vano form verbs.
  • Although dire and opporre may seem irregular, they are a part of a verb family that has stronger roots to Latin equivalents. Other verbs include fare/''faccio/facevo, bere/bevo/bevevo, trarre/traggo/traevo, durre/duco/ducevo and all their composite forms..
  • There is another imperfect in Italian formed by combining the imperfect of the verb stare'' with the gerund. For example, "parlavo" could be said as "stavo parlando". The difference is similar to the difference between "I eat" and "I am eating" in English. However, English does not make this distinction in the imperfect.

    Romanian

Conjugation of the imperfect indicative:
cântacredeplăcea dormifi
eucântamcredeamplăceamdormeameram
tucântaicredeaiplăceaidormeaierai
el/eacântacredeaplăceadormeaera
noicântamcredeamplăceamdormeameram
voicântațicredeațiplăceațidormeațierați
eicântaucredeauplăceaudormeauerau

Notes:
  • The imperfect is formed from the short infinitive form of the verbs combined with the -am, -ai, -a, -am, -ați, and -au endings.
  • Short infinitives ending in „-a”.
  • Short infinitives ending in "-i" take the pattern of those ending in "-e", while short infinitives ending in "-î" take the pattern of those ending in "-a".
  • There is only one irregular verb in the imperfect: a fi, that is created from the radical era-, instead of fi-.

    Spanish

In Spanish, the imperfect can be called the imperfecto or the copretérito. Conjugation of the imperfect indicative:
hablarcomerinsistirirserver
yohablabacomíainsistíaibaeraveía
túhablabascomíasinsistíasibaserasveías
élhablabacomíainsistíaibaeraveía
nosotroshablábamoscomíamosinsistíamosíbamoséramosveíamos
vosotroshablabaiscomíaisinsistíaisibaiseraisveíais
elloshablabancomíaninsistíanibaneranveían

  • There are only three irregular verbs in the imperfect: ir, ser, and ver. Historically, ir — unlike other Spanish "-ir verbs" — failed to drop the -b- of the Latin imperfect. The imperfect of ser is likewise a continuation of the Latin imperfect, with the same stem appearing in tú eres. The imperfect of ver was historically considered regular in Old Spanish, where the infinitive veer provided the stem ve-, but that is no longer the case in standard Spanish. In formal language, pronouns "tú" and "vosotros" are replaced by "usted" and "ustedes", with the verb conjugated in third person. American Spanish always replaces "vosotros" with "ustedes", switching the verb accordingly. The countries that show the kind of voseo in which "tú" is replaced by "vos" use the same forms as for "tú" in this tense.
  • The first person singular and third person singular forms are the same for all verbs; thus, in cases of ambiguity where context is insufficient, a pronoun or subject noun is included for the sake of clarification.