Imperfect tense

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The imperfect tense, in the classical grammar of several Indo-European languages, denotes a past tense with an imperfective aspect. In English, it is referred to as the past continuous tense.

The term originated with the Latin language because "imperfect" refers to an uncompleted or abandoned action.

Imperfect in Indo-European languages

English

In English, the imperfect or past continuous tense is manifested in the verb phrases:

"I was eating..."
"I used to eat..."
"I would eat..."

"eating" and "eat" are present verb tenses, but the action is made to happen in the past. Contrast to "I ate...", which uses the past tense of the verb.

Note that "Back then, I would eat early, and would walk to school..." signifies not the conditional, but rather, past actions of imperfect tense in English, but one must use care when translating to other languages.

In modern linguistics, and especially in TEFL contexts, it is more usual to refer to this as the "past continuous" or the "past progressive" tense.

Latin

Conjugation of the imperfect indicative:

	parāre	docēre	legere	capere	scīre	esse
ego	parābam	docēbam	legēbam	capiēbam	sciēbam	eram
tū	parābās	docēbas	legēbās	capiēbās	sciēbās	erās
is	parābat	docēbat	legēbat	capiēbat	sciēbat	erat
nōs	parābāmus	docēbāmus	legēbāmus	capiēbāmus	sciēbāmus	erāmus
vōs	parābātis	docēbātis	legēbātis	capiēbātis	sciēbātis	erātis
eī	parābant	docēbant	legēbant	capiēbant	sciēbant	erant

Notes:

The imperfect tense is signified by the signs ba and bā.
The imperfect tense forms of esse are used as auxiliary verbs in the pluperfect tense of the passive voice along with perfect passive participles.

Romance languages

In Romance languages, the imperfect is generally a past tense. Its uses include representing:

An action that was happening, used to happen, or happened regularly in the past and on going
People, things, or conditions of the past
A time in the past
A situation that was in progress in the past when another isolated and important event occurred (the former using the imperfect, while the latter uses the preterite).
A physical or mental state or condition in progress in the past. Often used with verbs of being, emotion, capability, or conscience. The following verbs are often used in the imperfect in several Romance languages:

English equivalent	French	Spanish	Italian	Portuguese
to love	aimer	amar	amare	amar
to desire	désirer	desear	desiderare	desejar
to want	vouloir	querer	volere	querer
to prefer	préférer	preferir	preferire	preferir
to hope	éspérer	esperar	sperare	esperar
to feel	sentir	sentir	sentire	sentir
to regret/lament	regretter	lamentar	rimpiangere	lamentar
to be	être	ser/estar	essere	ser/estar
to be able to	pouvoir	poder	potere	poder
to know (a person)	connaître	conocer	conoscere	conhecer
to know (a thing)	savoir	saber	sapere	saber
to believe	croire	creer	credere	acreditar
to think	penser	pensar	pensare	pensar
to imagine	imaginer	imaginar	immaginare	imaginar
to stand/stay	rester	quedar	stare	ficar

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 tense is used. For example the sentence "Someone ate all my cookies." (when translated) is not a good candidate for the imperfect. Fundamentally, it is no different to the sentence "We ate all the cookies." On the other hand, "I used to have fun in the 1960s." is a good candidate for the imperfect, even though its time frame is known. In short, knowing when an action occurred is not nearly as important as how long it occurred (or was and still is occurring).

French

In order to form the imperfect tense for French regular verbs, take the present tense "nous " (we) form, subtract the -ons ending, and add the following:

je	-ais
tu	-ais
il	-ait
nous	-ions
vous	-iez
ils	-aient

Examples:

	parler	choisir	vendre	être	commencer	manger	étudier
je	parlais	choisissais	vendais	étais	commençais	mangeais	étudiais
tu	parlais	choisissais	vendais	étais	commençais	mangeais	étudiais
il	parlait	choisissait	vendait	était	commençait	mangeait	étudiait
nous	parlions	choisissions	vendions	étions	commencions	mangions	étudiions
vous	parliez	choisissiez	vendiez	étiez	commenciez	mangiez	étudiiez
ils	parlaient	choisissaient	vendaient	étaient	commençaient	mangaient	étudiaient

Notes:

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.

Italian

Conjugation of the imperfect indicative:

	avere	essere	parlare	credere	finire	dire	opporre
io	avevo	ero	parlavo	credevo	finivo	dicevo	opponevo
tu	avevi	eri	parlavi	credevi	finivi	dicevi	opponevi
lui	aveva	era	parlava	credeva	finiva	diceva	opponeva
noi	avevamo	eravamo	parlavamo	credevamo	finivamo	dicevamo	opponevamo
voi	avevate	eravate	parlavate	credevate	finivate	dicevate	opponevate
loro	avevano	erano	parlavano	credevano	finivano	dicevano	opponevano

Notes:

Verbs are formed by dropping the -re suffix and adding -vo, -vi, -va, -vamo, -vate, and -vano.
There is only one irregular verb in the imperfect tense: essere.
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, bere, and ridurre.
There is another imperfect tense in Italian formed by combining the imperfect of the verb stare (stavo, stavi, stava, stavamo, stavate, stavano) 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 tense.

Spanish

Conjugation of the imperfect indicative:

	hablar	comer	insistir	ir	ser	ver
yo	hablaba	comía	insistía	iba	era	veía
tú	hablabas	comías	insistías	ibas	eras	veías
él	hablaba	comía	insistía	iba	era	veía
nosotros	hablábamos	comíamos	insistíamos	íbamos	éramos	veíamos
vosotros	hablabais	comíais	insistíais	ibais	erais	veíais
ellos	hablaban	comían	insistían	iban	eran	veían

There are only three irregular verbs in the imperfect tense: ir, ser, and ver. Ir is irregular because it follows its own unique structure, leaving the normal conjugation pattern to become "iba." Ser is irregular because the "er" ending of the verb becomes the stem when it becomes "era." Ver, which becomes veía, is irregular because it keeps the "e" from the "er" ending of the infinitive that is usually cut off when the verb is conjugated. The "a" endings are a normal part of the imperfect tense even for "er" and "ir" verbs.

The yo and el/ella/usted forms are the same for verbs ending in ar, er, and ir; thus, in the cases of subjective ambiguity where context be insufficient, a pronoun or subjective noun is included for the sake of clarification.

Persian

Like all other past tenses, imperfect is conjugated regularly for all verbs. Formation: [preverb] + mi- + past stem + past ending

Conjugation of the imperfect indicative
	raftan (to go)	kâr kardan (to work)
1st sg.	miraftam	kâr mikardam
2nd sg.	mirafti	kâr mikardi
3rd sg.	miraft	kâr mikard
1st pl.	miraftim	kâr mikardim
2nd pl.	miraftid	kâr mikardid
3rd pl.	miraftand	kâr mikardand

Persian has separate tenses for past continuous and imperfect.
In Persian the prefix mi gives imperfective aspect to the tense. For example, the mentioned imperfect tense has been built by prefixing mi to simple past. Therefore, it's possible to coin new imperfective tenses.

Imperfect in Afro-Asiatic languages

Hebrew

Biblical Hebrew had only two aspects (not tenses). The perfect aspect was used for completed actions, and generally implies past time. The imperfect aspect was used for uncompleted actions, and thus could imply present or future time. Modern Hebrew uses the participle for the present time and reserves the imperfect for future time. The Hebrew imperfect is noteworthy for having not only suffixes but also a syllable added at the beginning of the stem, and thus is often called the prefix conjugation.

Literary and Classical Arabic

Like Hebrew, Classical Arabic and thus Literary Arabic has two aspects, denoting completed and uncompleted actions respectively. The perfect is marked with a suffix conjugation, the imperfect with a prefix conjugation. In addition, a number of particles and auxiliary verbs help enrich the verb system. It could be said, however, that the Arabic verb system is less precise, or in any case less complex, than that of e.g. Indo-European languages.

Imperfect in Dravidian languages

Malayalam

In Malayalam (verbs are never conjugated for grammatical person, which is indicated by a pronoun), there are two indicative imperfect tenses, corresponding exactly with English:

1 -ഉകയായിരുന്നു (ukayāyirunnu) endings (... was...), for example:

ഓടുകയായിരുന്നു (ōṭukayāyirunnu) ... was running

2 -ഉമായിരുന്നു (umāyirunnu) endings (... used to ...), for example:

ഓടുമായിരുന്നു (ōṭumāyirunnu) ... used to run

To form the "was doing" imperfect tense, take the infinitive ending in ഉക (uka), for example ഓടുക (ōṭuka) - to run - and add the ending - യായിരുന്നു (yāyirunnu).
To form the "used to do" imperfect tense, take off the ക (ka) from the end of the "uka" form and add മായിരുന്നു (māyirunnu) in its stead.

To make a verb in the imperfect negative, add അല്ല് (all) after the ഉകയ (ukaya) part of the ending for the "was doing" imperfect tense. For example, ഓടുകയല്ലായിരുന്നു (ōṭukayallāyirunnu) (...was not running). To do the same for the "used to do" imperfect, take off the ഉമ (uma) from the ending and add അത്തില്ല (attilla) instead. For example, ഓടത്തില്ലായിരുന്നു (ōṭattillāyirunnu) (...didn't use to run)

References

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Last updated on Saturday February 23, 2008 at 11:33:53 PST (GMT -0800)
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