UNIT SIXTEEN
The imperfect tense
1 The imperfect is, together with the present perfect, one of the most used
past tenses in Italian. It is called ‘imperfect’ because, generally speaking,
there is no reference to the beginning or end of the action it expresses:
either the length of time the action lasted is not relevant, or the action is
seen as the background to another action, or two actions took place at the
same time and lasted the same length of time. Here are some typical
examples:
As you can see from the examples, the Italian imperfect corresponds to sev-
eral different English forms. We will look at the different meanings and uses
of this tense, but first we will look at its forms.
The forms of the imperfect
2 The forms of the imperfect are very regular. Here are the endings for the
three conjugations (-are, -ere, -ire):
Mio nonno lavorava in India.Mia nonna era infermiera.
Mentre io entravo, Elena usciva.Quando ho cominciato la scuola
avevo cinque anni.
Elena è arrivata mentre io uscivo.
Claudia parlava con un’amica
quando è arrivato l’autobus.
Quando ero al mare nuotavo tutti i
giorni.My grandfather used to work in
India.
My grandmother was a nurse.
As I was going in, Elena was coming
out.
When I started school I was five.Elena arrived as I was going out.
Claudia was talking to a friend when
the bus arrived.
When I was at the seaside I went/used
to go swimming every day.