The Imperfect Tense - An
Explanation
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:
1.
Description in
the past: La
casa era molto grande.
2. Describing
the weather at a time in the past: Faceva
3.
Giving an opinion in the past, era + adjective: Era magnifico.
4.
Talking about something that used to happen regularly in the
past:
Ogni anno andavamo in Italia per natale e
facevamo lo sci.
5. 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.
6.
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