Professor Dave here, let’s check out the imperfect tense.
If the word “perfect”, when used in the context of the past tense, suggested completion
of some action, then the word “imperfect” suggests that an action is not completed.
We need to be careful about how we interpret this word.
The action may very well have been finished a long time ago.
It is simply the way that the action is presented or described that makes a difference.
The action could be progressive or ongoing, but in the past, or maybe it could imply habitual
or recurring action.
This is enough to justify the implication of the action being incomplete.
Just to make sure we understand this, lets look at the following sentences in English.
Last summer I went to Pisa.
This is the past tense.
The action happened, and it’s done.
When I was young I used to go to Pisa every summer.
This suggests repetitive action.
While I was going to Pisa, my car broke down.
This one has one progressive action, and one finished action.
The first action is ongoing, and therefore imperfect, while the second one is sudden
and finished, and therefore will be passato prossimo.
Let’s look at the forms of the imperfect first, and then we’ll discuss some details
about the use of this tense.
The imperfect is actually very easy to conjugate.
The endings are the same for all three regular groups of verbs, and they are very easy to identify.
Let’s take one verb from each conjugation.
Starting with the infinitives, we will drop the RE ending, leaving the thematic vowel,
the A, E, or I, depending on the conjugation.
Then, we will add the endings.
Let’s try a few sentences so that we can understand the way that this tense is used.
As always, there are a few irregulars, so let’s make sure to mention those as well.
These look like this because they are formed from the old infinitive “bevere”.
Just a couple examples with some of these.
None of these sentences show an action that finishes suddenly, but rather refers to action
that is progressive, meaning ongoing, but we will discuss this later.
For now, that’s it for the imperfect tense, so let’s check comprehension.