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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 Hebrew language because "imperfect" refers to an uncompleted or abandoned action.

Contents

Imperfect in Indo-European languages

English

Latin

Romance languages

French

Italian

Spanish

Persian

Imperfect in Afro-Asiatic languages

Hebrew

Literary and Classical Arabic

Imperfect in Dravidian languages

Malayalam

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..."
"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.
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	crer
''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 than 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	mangeaient	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 incompleted 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'')