The imperfect The imperfect

Italian II: Signora Harrington

The imperfect is much more frequently used in Italian than in English. It expresses the English "used to" and is used for the following actions or conditions: to describe actions or conditions that lasted an indefinite

time in the past. (duration cannot be specified) express an habitual action in the past (Every night I read a

book) Describe time (it was 7:00 o’clock) Physical or mental states (Angela was worried) Age in the past (In 1976 I was 15) Weather in the past. (It was raining) Environment (outside it was cold) An action in progress while another action was taking place

(While I was eating she called me)

Some adverbial expressions that are commonly used with the imperfect tense include: a volte (at times) continuamente (continuously) giorno dopo giorno (day in and day out) Ogni tanto (once in a while) sempre (always) spesso spesso (again and again) tutti i giorni (every day)

Giocavo a calcio ogni pomeriggio. (I played

soccer every afternoon.) habitual

Sempre credevano tutto. (They always

believed everything.) habitual

Volevamo andare in Italia. (We wanted to

go to Italy.) unknown duration of an action

Il cielo era sempre blu. (The sky was

always blue.) Environment

Here are a few examples of the imperfetto:

The ending s for the imperfect, as you know, are identical in all three conjugations

Vo Vamo

Vi Vate

Va Vano

Parlare Vedere Dormire

parlavo vedevo dormivo

parlavi vedevi dormivi

parlava vedeva dormiva

parlavamo vedevamo dormivamo

parlavate vedevate dormivate

parlavano vedevano dormivano

Essere Fare Bere Dire

Ero Facevo Bevevo Dicevo

Eri Facevi Bevevi Dicevi

Era Faceva Beveva Diceva

Eravamo Facevamo Bevevamo

Dicevamo

Eravate Facevate Bevevate Dicevate

Erano Facevano Bevevano dicevano

Complete Italian Grammar Book pg. 143 12.1 1-30 Construct 15 sentences using the imperfect