The Imperfect Tense - An
Explanation
Back
to Imperfect Tense Index FIRST EXERCISE
This
is the easiest tense in Italian and is easily recognised by the presence of the
letter v in all parts. This letter does not appear as a regular part
of any other tense.
To
form the imperfect we take the infinitive,
remove the re, then
add the following endings:
io………vo
tu………vi
lui/lei….va
noi…..vamo
voi……vate
loro….vano
There
are not many exceptions to the rule. The key ones are the verb ESSERE which becomes:
ero
eri
era
eravamo
eravate
erano
and FARE which becomes:
facevo
facevi
faceva
facevamo
facevate
facevano
USES
OF THE IMPERFECT TENSE
The Imperfect
tense is used in the following cases:
v Description in
the past: La casa
era molto grande.
v
Describing the weather at a time in the past: Faceva
v
Giving an opinion in the past, era + adjective: Era magnifico.
v
Talking about something that used to happen regularly in the
past:
Ogni
anno andavamo in Italia per natale e facevamo lo sci.
v
Talking
about how things used to be over a period of time in the past: A quell’epoca, mio
padre lavorava a Londra e mia madre era casalinga.
v
Saying what was happening, when something else happened; (one
action (in the perfect tense)
cuts across another on-going one (in the imperfect) Leggevo il giornale
quando mio padre è entrato nel salotto. Mia madre lavorava nel giardino,
quando il telefono ha suonato